"Victoria Lynne" Finally
Arrives At Coventry
September 2007
Courtesy of financial sponsorship from A.E Beckett & Sons C/N 35 finally arrived at its new home, the Midland Air Museum at approximately 6.00pm on the 6th September.
After two previous move dates had been cancelled due to the adverse weather conditions England had experienced this next attempt had been planned for Thursday 6th & Friday 7th of September 2007. All the finally laid plans went slightly astray when early Tuesday morning we were advised by our chosen haulage companies that they had decided to move the dates forward by one day to avoid roadwork’s which would effectively close part of our route on the Friday.
Changing the dates meant that we lost a lot of our chosen team due to insufficient notice to change holidays that had already been booked with employees. Somehow we managed to get around this problem and assemble a somewhat smaller but no less capable team for day one. Disappointingly though this meant that your author (Martin) wasn’t able to arrive on site at Hatch on the first day until shortly after Midday.
The target for day one was to get the main wings loaded onto the lorry trailer. These would be left at Hatch over night and would travel up to Coventry on day two in convoy with the fuselage. From conversations we'd had with people who had previously moved Viscounts we deemed this would be the hardest part of the move. The fuselage is a uniform shape and the balance point is relatively easy to locate.
However the shape of the wings combined with the weight been located at both the root, and the leading edge of the wing in the form of the nacelles and the undercarriage leg meant that the balance point would be harder to find. Therefore before the wing was lifted to any great height a number of gentle lifts would be required to see if the wing balanced, if not it would be placed back on the ground and the lifting straps adjusted for another trial. And remember this is complicated further by the fact that there are only certain points of the wing you can lift from without causing irreversible crumpling to the structure damage.
Mark and Craig travelled down to Hatch and met up with the guys from Allum Plant Hire. After setting up the crane and completing a couple of the afore mentioned trial lifts they managed to have one wing loaded by the time the remainder of the group arrived on site shortly after mid day. In this time they had also managed to ready the second wing for the lift and pack the lorry with tyres so the wings sat nicely.
With the "how to lift a Viscount wing" lesson already learnt the lift of the second wing was a relatively quick process and the vast majority of the time seemed to be taken up by positioning the packing tyres and adjusting the restraining straps to ensure the stacked load didn't damage itself and equally didn’t fall of the lorry the first time it hit a bump on the public high ways.
After the success of day one we arrived on site at 7am the following day assuming that we would be in for another relatively hassle free day. How wrong we would be. The fuselage was more than a little stubborn in being lifted and in the end it was Tim Moore who saved the day by taking the bull by the horns and providing the use of his Iron Fairy and a charming ex BOAC tractor called Trixie.
Trixie pulled the fuselage (which at this point was still on the trailer she had been sat on since arriving at Hatch) into a new location which enabled the lifting equipment to locate alongside the fuselage and finally lift it skywards. With the fuselage hanging in the air Trixie pulled the now redundant trailer out the way which enabled our hired low loader to reverse into position and finally have the fuselage lowered onto it. Sounds easy doesn't it? I assure you it wasn’t and by the time the fuselage was strapped down and we were ready to leave Hatch we were a lot more than a couple of hours behind schedule.
So with the fuselage loaded it was a case of driving up to Coventry. This thankfully was completed without incidence although getting out of Hatch village was tight in one location. The lorries had to pass through what was effectively a small S bend in the village with a house on one side of the road and a metal post with a mirror on the other side. The fuselage passed this area easily enough but it was tight for the lorry carrying the wings because the width of the load was approx 17 ft. Mere inch’s was the distance between success and damage and Glen, Allum Plant Hire's driver performed the manoeuvre faultlessly with one of the most impressive pieces of driving I'd ever seen. Even more impressive as the pressure was surely on as it seemed half of Hatch Village had come out to see the Viscount leave.
Having left Hatch so late we didn’t arrive at Coventry until a little past 6pm and by the time the fuselage and wings had been unloaded it was not far gone 11pm. With Victoria Lynne home and settled it was now time to have a cup of tea and time for the weary team to head of to where ever home was and catch up on some well earned sleep.
As I sit here typing this its only just sinking in what the team has achieved in such a short time span. Together we moved a very large aircraft. Many of us on the move had never moved an aircraft before. Of those that had, non had moved an aircraft of such large proportions before. For me personally it was one of the biggest roller coaster rides of emotions I had experienced. When things were going well and success was achieved the feeling was tremendous. When it wasn’t going according to plan the feeling was quite the reverse. But the team stuck together and the reward is there for all to see, there is now a Vickers Viscount on site at the Midland Air Museum awaiting reassembly and restoration. I’m obviously over the moon that the Viscount is home but I’m also hugely proud of the team and what was achieved on two days in September.
Team on Day 1
Mark Painter (Team Leader)
Martin Garrett
Rob MacSkimming
Craig Martin
Brian Mason
Team on Day 2
Malcolm Lambert (Team Leader Fuselage)
Mark Painter (Team Leader, Wings)
Andrew Bagley
Martin Garrett
Rob MacSkimming
Craig Martin
Brian Mason
Dave Waters
Thank you to all the team mentioned above. Without your help she wouldn’t have moved an inch, Its hard to single out special praise as everyone performed a vital role. But I do wish to mention a special thanks to the following people.
First off has to be Mark Painter who without his help during the initial planning, stepping into the breach and taking charge of the move during Day 1 of the move this wouldn't have happened. You know how much you’ve been appreciated Mark but sometimes saying "cheers mate" 100 times a day just doesn’t seem enough. Thank you.
Thanks must also go to our official photographer on the day Craig who also filled the breach on the Wednesday morning helping Mark load the first wing.
A special thanks must also go to Ian and Glen from Allum Plant Hire. Nothing was ever too much hassle and even when things weren't going to plan the smiles never slipped. The phrase "above and beyond the call of duty" more than applies to these guys. Thank you for sticking around till the job was done on Day 2, even though that meant completing it in the dark. We look forward to seeing you again when we put her back together.
Lastly and by no means least a thank you to Tim Moore and Pete from Sky Sport Engineering for jumping in when time was slipping away from us on the Thursday morning. Once again thank you gentlemen without your intervention I think its fair to say we would probably still be there.
All photographs copyright of Craig Martin who kindly provided his services and has allowed us to use his work. More of Craig’s images of the move will be added to the gallery shortly.
September 2007
Courtesy of financial sponsorship from A.E Beckett & Sons C/N 35 finally arrived at its new home, the Midland Air Museum at approximately 6.00pm on the 6th September.
After two previous move dates had been cancelled due to the adverse weather conditions England had experienced this next attempt had been planned for Thursday 6th & Friday 7th of September 2007. All the finally laid plans went slightly astray when early Tuesday morning we were advised by our chosen haulage companies that they had decided to move the dates forward by one day to avoid roadwork’s which would effectively close part of our route on the Friday.
Changing the dates meant that we lost a lot of our chosen team due to insufficient notice to change holidays that had already been booked with employees. Somehow we managed to get around this problem and assemble a somewhat smaller but no less capable team for day one. Disappointingly though this meant that your author (Martin) wasn’t able to arrive on site at Hatch on the first day until shortly after Midday.
The target for day one was to get the main wings loaded onto the lorry trailer. These would be left at Hatch over night and would travel up to Coventry on day two in convoy with the fuselage. From conversations we'd had with people who had previously moved Viscounts we deemed this would be the hardest part of the move. The fuselage is a uniform shape and the balance point is relatively easy to locate.
However the shape of the wings combined with the weight been located at both the root, and the leading edge of the wing in the form of the nacelles and the undercarriage leg meant that the balance point would be harder to find. Therefore before the wing was lifted to any great height a number of gentle lifts would be required to see if the wing balanced, if not it would be placed back on the ground and the lifting straps adjusted for another trial. And remember this is complicated further by the fact that there are only certain points of the wing you can lift from without causing irreversible crumpling to the structure damage.
Mark and Craig travelled down to Hatch and met up with the guys from Allum Plant Hire. After setting up the crane and completing a couple of the afore mentioned trial lifts they managed to have one wing loaded by the time the remainder of the group arrived on site shortly after mid day. In this time they had also managed to ready the second wing for the lift and pack the lorry with tyres so the wings sat nicely.
With the "how to lift a Viscount wing" lesson already learnt the lift of the second wing was a relatively quick process and the vast majority of the time seemed to be taken up by positioning the packing tyres and adjusting the restraining straps to ensure the stacked load didn't damage itself and equally didn’t fall of the lorry the first time it hit a bump on the public high ways.
After the success of day one we arrived on site at 7am the following day assuming that we would be in for another relatively hassle free day. How wrong we would be. The fuselage was more than a little stubborn in being lifted and in the end it was Tim Moore who saved the day by taking the bull by the horns and providing the use of his Iron Fairy and a charming ex BOAC tractor called Trixie.
Trixie pulled the fuselage (which at this point was still on the trailer she had been sat on since arriving at Hatch) into a new location which enabled the lifting equipment to locate alongside the fuselage and finally lift it skywards. With the fuselage hanging in the air Trixie pulled the now redundant trailer out the way which enabled our hired low loader to reverse into position and finally have the fuselage lowered onto it. Sounds easy doesn't it? I assure you it wasn’t and by the time the fuselage was strapped down and we were ready to leave Hatch we were a lot more than a couple of hours behind schedule.
So with the fuselage loaded it was a case of driving up to Coventry. This thankfully was completed without incidence although getting out of Hatch village was tight in one location. The lorries had to pass through what was effectively a small S bend in the village with a house on one side of the road and a metal post with a mirror on the other side. The fuselage passed this area easily enough but it was tight for the lorry carrying the wings because the width of the load was approx 17 ft. Mere inch’s was the distance between success and damage and Glen, Allum Plant Hire's driver performed the manoeuvre faultlessly with one of the most impressive pieces of driving I'd ever seen. Even more impressive as the pressure was surely on as it seemed half of Hatch Village had come out to see the Viscount leave.
Having left Hatch so late we didn’t arrive at Coventry until a little past 6pm and by the time the fuselage and wings had been unloaded it was not far gone 11pm. With Victoria Lynne home and settled it was now time to have a cup of tea and time for the weary team to head of to where ever home was and catch up on some well earned sleep.
As I sit here typing this its only just sinking in what the team has achieved in such a short time span. Together we moved a very large aircraft. Many of us on the move had never moved an aircraft before. Of those that had, non had moved an aircraft of such large proportions before. For me personally it was one of the biggest roller coaster rides of emotions I had experienced. When things were going well and success was achieved the feeling was tremendous. When it wasn’t going according to plan the feeling was quite the reverse. But the team stuck together and the reward is there for all to see, there is now a Vickers Viscount on site at the Midland Air Museum awaiting reassembly and restoration. I’m obviously over the moon that the Viscount is home but I’m also hugely proud of the team and what was achieved on two days in September.
Team on Day 1
Mark Painter (Team Leader)
Martin Garrett
Rob MacSkimming
Craig Martin
Brian Mason
Team on Day 2
Malcolm Lambert (Team Leader Fuselage)
Mark Painter (Team Leader, Wings)
Andrew Bagley
Martin Garrett
Rob MacSkimming
Craig Martin
Brian Mason
Dave Waters
Thank you to all the team mentioned above. Without your help she wouldn’t have moved an inch, Its hard to single out special praise as everyone performed a vital role. But I do wish to mention a special thanks to the following people.
First off has to be Mark Painter who without his help during the initial planning, stepping into the breach and taking charge of the move during Day 1 of the move this wouldn't have happened. You know how much you’ve been appreciated Mark but sometimes saying "cheers mate" 100 times a day just doesn’t seem enough. Thank you.
Thanks must also go to our official photographer on the day Craig who also filled the breach on the Wednesday morning helping Mark load the first wing.
A special thanks must also go to Ian and Glen from Allum Plant Hire. Nothing was ever too much hassle and even when things weren't going to plan the smiles never slipped. The phrase "above and beyond the call of duty" more than applies to these guys. Thank you for sticking around till the job was done on Day 2, even though that meant completing it in the dark. We look forward to seeing you again when we put her back together.
Lastly and by no means least a thank you to Tim Moore and Pete from Sky Sport Engineering for jumping in when time was slipping away from us on the Thursday morning. Once again thank you gentlemen without your intervention I think its fair to say we would probably still be there.
All photographs copyright of Craig Martin who kindly provided his services and has allowed us to use his work. More of Craig’s images of the move will be added to the gallery shortly.
