Lampson Transi-lifts

The First One

Matthew Mackay posted
Lampson's first ltl trans-lift
4600 and 3900 truck mount
Peter Jeffries This is a great photo of history being made in so many ways eg structural engineering , metallurgy , and applied physics love Lampson or hate them there's no denying that they were at the forefront of lifting technology back in the day .
Riley Anderson Peter Jeffries sad thing is, I don’t they have really evolved or changed their technology in the last 20-30 years. Still building outdated transi-lifts when newer designs are MUCH more user friendly.

Ben Stalvey shared
I guess Manitowoc didn't listen. Lampson developed cranes and attachments for themselves. The rest is history......
Derik Wolfe Wonder if it had 2 operators. Bet this was pretty tough to maneuver

Jim Reyers posted
Chase Larson This was the very first transi lift. It was 1000 ton capacity. That is a 4600 on the hook for it's first test pick. You can see that there are hardly any counterweights stacked up.
[Mathew's post must have been a prototype and this was the first production model.]
Joe Leonard I’m pretty sure Manitowoc Engineering said the concept wouldn’t work so Neil Lampson sent this picture to them with their 4600 on the hook. Pretty sure that’s the jest of this photo.
Joe Leonard Darrell Couch hoist on this rig is behind the ctwt frame. Has been moved to top of stinger on current rigs.
Chase Larson The biggest we make is the LTL-3000 and we've only made one.....so far.
David Wood Big Blue set the bar for all to achieve. Well done.
Matt Mohd Ji Amazing radius with the cwt is not yet full load.
Cary Degelos Look at the size of the pendants.

Aaron Payne commented on Jim's post
We used that rig in 1992 in Detroit in a steel mill. Back then these were the big boys of the crane world.
Aaron Payne Frank Keeney yep Zug Island. We unloaded the Larry cars and pusher cars for # 5 Coke Battery.
Aaron Payne Frank Keeney Zug Island was Great Lakes before USS bought them.

Two of them building a coal handling facility

It takes a lot of land and handling equipment to store coal. In contrast, natural gas can be stored in an underground geologic structure with some wells and pumps.

The following photos are from a posting by David Guarino.
Ben Stalvey 4600 series 4
Anthony Sophios Wiggins island coal terminal, just north of Gladstone. The sections being lifted in these images are the conveyor galleries, then the stackers run on them and across the stockpile pad.

1

2

3

4

5

6

Building two pressure vessels

Lampson International, LLC posted
Lampson Transi-lift making a lift in Bayway, NJ
[The comments indicate this was done in 1998 or 2000.]

I think it is building the two tall towers in this view.

3D Satellite

Miscellaneous

 

Philip Slow posted
I believe world record pick and carry at the time..approx 1500 t. Port Kembla. NSW. Pete Abdoo being one pilot.
Pete Abdoo: They were both purpose built for the ExxonMobil job mate. They only ever done 2 other jobs in Oz one at Stadium Australia for Olympics. 400 ft boom 200ft jib. The other was Vic at Mobil Altona installed a new cracker. Then sat around at Toronto for years. The crawlers were used for dragline relocations mostly Qld mines.
Frank Favaro: The preparation of the areas and the pads cost about 7 million dollars.
[A comment said that one of these was the Big Blue crane that collapsed while building Miller Park Stadium in Milwaukee, WI. But other comments nullified that statement.]

Christopher Winston posted
Here's A Better Picture . I Found This Picture On The Robert D. Marple Our Town Website.
Christopher Winston Is It True, That It Takes A 3 Man Crew To Operate These Cranes ? 1 For Each Set Of Crawlers And 1 For The Crane.
John Golden Christopher Winston yes
Tim Gann You are correct. John I put the 1200 ton together 3 times in Port Arthur Texas. We were using it to lift the domes off the car crackers. It takes 143 tractor trailers to bring it onsite. We ran a 32 part block with a collection ring with 24 2 and 1/2 inch chokes on it. The first time we put it together it took about 5 and a half weeks. The last time we had it together in 3 and a half weeks. Same people putting it together each time. Milo Bingston was the head operator on it.
Gerry Celia You walk the rear cats to swing the load. The whole rig is Ingenious for the time and still widely used today. And when you are done, the boom unbolts completely and the pieces store in those containers for shipping to the next job. In fact, the whole crane goes in containers for shipping.

Bob Brickman commented on Christopher's post
Bob Brickman Christopher Winston here’s a LTL3000

Lampson International, LLC posted
Fun facts from the Plant Vogtle job site in Waynesboro, GA where our Lampson Transi-Lift® LTL-2600 Crawler Crane is at work

MCindustrial (Oct 2015)
[Upgrading the NRG Powerton Power Plant. The article indicates this is a 2,500 ton crane.]

Lampson cranes range from 350 to 3000 US tons. This article asked about a huge crane stored at the Port of Pasco.

This crane is owned by Hitachi Transport Limited. They were due to take delivery of it back in 2012, but with the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, they asked us to keep it here in the United States. For now, we are storing it for them at our test facility in Pasco. We continue to exercise it on a regular basis. Hitachi is expected to take delivery in Japan in spring 2020 at its Oma Nuclear Power Plant site.

It took me a while to find where their test yard is.

3D Satellite

Before I found the test facility, I found their headquarters and shop on the south side of the Columbia River. I found that the street view car had gone down Crane Street. But when I tried using it to find the Hitachi crane, it was not there. So I checked the street view date. It was 2012. Evidently the car had gone down the street in 2012 before the crane was stored there. And since 2012 Lampson has successfully made Crane Street off limits to the public.

I spent quite a bit of time going up and down that street because this facility is obviously also a storage yard for them. For example, here is one of the movers where they add a cab and low-profile engines to one of their base units.

Street View

When I got out of street view, I noticed the mover is still in its assigned location.

Satellite

These four cranes also appear to be a custom design.

Street View

And eight years later, they are still there.

Satellite

More photos of cranes built with extenders

More photos of tandem (or more) lifts