Kent & East Sussex Railway

This crane was constructed for use at the Southern Railway's Ashford Works where it remained for all its working life. A ten ton six-wheeled machine, it is more lightly constructed than Nº. 133, weighing in at 40 ton 7 cwt in working order. The parts came from Grafton Cranes' Vulcan Works at Bradford (Nº. 2690) but it was assembled by the SR at Ashford as their number 1770/10. It has a 4 ft vertical boiler by Ruston & Hornsby working at 100 psi. The maximum lift is 10 tons at 13 ft radius and is easily recognisable by its 35 ft lattice-work jib. It was originally specified for bridge work but then was fitted with an electro-magnet, now removed. Its Greenwood and Batley turbo-generator has been retained for lighting purposes. Compared with Nº. 133, the Grafton Crane is more lightly constructed on the gearing and the engine side, with slimmer journals and bearing surfaces. It became DS 1770 in BR service and, in 1978, internal user Nº. 083316, being marked ‘Internal use only, Ashford'.

After 1980 it was only used intermittently for lifting bogies from scrap wagons and steam heating oil tanks and tar containers. It was taken out of service in 1983 upon the closure of BREL Ashford. It had received a full overhaul at Horwich Works in 1975 and when examined by the K&ESR Crane Group was found to be in very sound mechanical condition. It arrived at the Railway in February 1984.It has however been out of use for some time.