GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Hockley Station: gwrhd2619

The 25 ton Goliath travelling gantry crane spanned two sidings and adjacent cart roadways in the Round yard on the up side of the main lines at Hockley in 1928. The cabin on the top appears to contain a vertical boiler probably used to power the crane's transverse movement and the hoist. These were later replaced by electrically powered motors in a lower height structure. A home removals container (No 1666) belonging to the national carrier and haulage firm Pickfords is in evidence in the foreground, while behind the Pickfords container a quantity of round timber can be seen lying stacked on the ground while more is loaded in a wagon. According to the ‘Great Western Railway's Regulations and Charges for Labourage, &c.’ pamphlet the charges for loading round timber were as follows:

The drop in prices over this period may have been due to the downturn in business caused by the Great Depression or increased competition from road transport.

Robert Ferris

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