Heavy Metal

It was given to me by a real estate agent. It's been abandoned on property for several years. Rusted and frozen up. It will scrap for about 5K. If you know somebody who can use something from it? It's got a few weeks before I start cutting it up
That piece of machinery has a heritage, and seems to have a collector market .. dunno how active though. Maybe that model list below can help ID it?

source: https://tractors.fandom.com/wiki/Hanson_Clutch_and_Machinery_Co.

Hanson Clutch and Machinery Co.

The Hanson Clutch and Machinery Company was founded in 1914 by two brothers in Tiffin, Ohio, USA as a manufacturer of clutches.

The company introduced its first excavator in 1924. the company was taken over by Pettibone-Mullikene Corporation of Chicago. The company survives as the Tiffin Parts, LLC.

Founded in 1914 by brothers Milton and Clifford Hanson to manufacture there patented clutch design.

In 1924 Milton retired and Clifford took control of the company. Then in 1924 the company then introduced the first excavator, using there own clutches, in a 3/8 cu yd crawler excavator, powered by a petrol engine.

The company claimed it was the first excavator of this type built in the USA. At this time most excavators were still Steam shovels.

In 1963 the company was sold to an MBO and renamed the Hanson Machinery Company.

The Pettibone-Mulliken Corporation of Chicago then bought the firm in 1966, and droped excavator manufacture but continued building cranes at the Tiffin facility for a few years before switching it to be a parts facility.

Model range​

  • 3/8 yd excavator - 1924 - McCormick-Deering petrol engine
  • Hanson model 28 3/8 yd
  • Hanson model 22 - 1/4 cu yd
  • Hanson model 33 - 3/8 cu yd
  • Hanson model 44 - 1/2 cu yd
  • Hanson model 55 - 5/8 cu yd
  • Hanson model 66 - 3/4 cu yd
  • Hanson model 30 comet - 1938 with hydraulic control of clutches.
  • Hanson model 31 - 3/8 yd
  • Hanson model 41 - 1/2 yd of 1944
  • Hanson model 61 - 3/4 yd
  • Hanson model 254 - 3/8 yd of 1954
  • Hanson model 354 - 1/2 yd of 1954
  • Hanson model 454 - 1/2 yd HD
  • Hanson model 654 - 3/4 yd Universal excavator.
 
The world's biggest crane?

"Big Carl", official name is SGC-250 built by Sarens, is in use at the Hinckley Point nuclear powerplant construction site (the biggest civil engineering project since WWII in Britain) in the UK. Took 250 trucks several months to move it from Belgium.

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Source: ‘Big Carl’: How to handle the world’s biggest crane at Hinkley Point

Although dozens of tower cranes cluster against the horizon at Hinkely Point C, the world’s biggest and strongest land-based lifting machine stands metaphorically head and shoulders above the rest.

Five years after construction work started at the nuclear power station mega project, Ashley Daniels, the head of lifting and temporary works, proudly reels off a list of superlatives associated with the giant he affectionately knows as ‘Big Carl’

Big Carl rises above the tower cranes at Hinkley Point C.

Not only is ‘Big Carl’ the world’s strongest land-based crane, able to carry 5,000 tonnes [2,240 lbs in US system] in a single lift, according to manufacturer Sarens.


But the giant lattice boom crane is also the tallest. Big Carl’s main boom can be extended from 118 metres [1 meter = 3.3 feet] to 160 metres and its jib can be extended to 100 metres, giving him a maximum height of 250 metres, nearly as tall as the Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt.

Named after Carl Sarens, the director of global operations and technical solutions at Belgian crane manufacturer Sarens.

Since "he" [referred to in in anthropomorphic terms by the Hinckley Point build team] arrived on site in 2019, Big Carl, has received much of the site’s media attention.


A one minute video piece from the BBC on Big Carl.

 
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Couple Decade later version of #1,650.

This is te Hungarian Railways MÁV 242 steam locomotive, a 4-4-4T. B&W photo is in 1939, while the color version is restored version in a Hungary museum today.

Locomotive was "streamlined", therefore designed for high speed. In a way, they (and others designed in the 30's) were ancestors of the "bullet trains" of today.

source: MÁV Class 242 - Wikipedia

MÁV Class 242 was a 4-4-4T steam locomotive of Hungarian State Railways.

A small class of only four examples, they were built between 1936 and 1939. They were highly unusual in that they were both streamlined, as was the fashion of that period for fast express service, but they were also tank locomotives [carried their water onboard the locomotive in a tank].


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As you might imagine, the fastest steam locomotive ever built was the "Magnificent Mallard" -- a streamliner.

Set the record of 126 MPH in 1938, never broken by any other steam locomotive.

Is it me, even tho you can tell its a steam engine by its drive wheels, or doesn't this baby look fast .. sitting still no less, i get the feeling by the way it looks this sum-gun could "carry the mail" -- so to speak -- back in the day.

Then came the diesel-electrics we have all through this thread .. not surprisingly, they were '"steamliners" too...

source: LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard - Wikipedia

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The LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard is a 4-6-2 ("Pacific") steam locomotive built in 1938 for operation on the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) at Doncaster Works to a design of Nigel Gresley.

Its streamlined, wind tunnel tested[1] design allowed it to haul long distance express passenger services at high speeds. On 3 July 1938, Mallard broke the world speed record for steam locomotives at 126 mph (203 km/h), which still stands today.

Mallard is now part of the National Collection and preserved at the National Railway Museum in York.


Below, there's a period piece archival film of the Mallard in action .. even the feller driving the day the record was set in this BBC vide

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The Shinkansen, Japanese for the "new main line", which the colloquial English term is the "bullet train".

If you've been to Japan/traveled around, since 1964 when the Tokaido Shinkansen became the world's first "bullet train", they have made an art form (technical, coverage, reliability, safety) outta high-speed rail.

1967 photo of the first bullet train, Tokaido Shinkansen.
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A ton of reading material at the source: Shinkansen - Wikipedia

A 2012 photo Japan Railway East's line of bullet trains.

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The Japanese designs have come a long way from their "faces for radio" offerings in the 1930's/40's below.
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Background: Fascinating technology, magnetic levitation propulsion. Nerd out at the link if interested/haven't followed this technology.

World's fastest train? The SCMaglev in Japan.

The Asian countries are leading the commercial applivation of super-high speed mag-lev railways currently operating (carrying passengers).

source: SCMaglev - Wikipedia

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The SCMaglev (superconducting maglev, formerly called the MLU) is a magnetic levitation (maglev) railway system developed by Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central) and the Railway Technical Research Institute.

On 21 April 2015, a manned seven-car L0 Series SCMaglev train reached a speed of 603 km/h (375 mph), less than a week after the same train clocked 590 km/h (370 mph), breaking the previous land speed record for rail vehicles of 581 km/h (361 mph) set by a JR Central MLX01 maglev train in December 2003

Specifications

. Engine only Width:
2.9 m (9.5 ft)
. Engine only Height: 3.1 m (10 ft)
. Maximum speed: Design: 550 km/h (340 mph)
. Record speed: 603 km/h (375 mph)
. Operational speed: 500 km/h (310 mph)
. Power supply : L0 series: gas turbine-electric

. Electric system(s): 33 kV AC
 
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