View allAll Photos Tagged Loader
Having dealt with the drainage in Bledlow Cutting last year, we are now replacing the track. In readiness, new concrete sleepers are being loaded at Chinnor, after which they will be hauled to the worksite and offloaded. The next task will be to do the same with umpteen bags of ballast. And of course redundant sleepers and the old ballast will be coming the other way.
Here the crew is doing the second wagonload. I drove the class 08 all day (under the watchful eye of driver Dave).
Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway.
It’s fun to explore Pic College as I use it to scrap.Today I not only added stickers, but I modified one,too. My comfort level with arty apps is going up!
The mighty Lloyd LT600, a handy vehicle for it's time and perhaps one of the first MPV's. With 19,5 hp, not much speed and excitement though.
This truck was hauling a single-axle trailer carrying an oversized load through Stayner, ON today. I saw it coming and jumped out of the car to grab a shot but forgot to turn on Steady Shot (turned off for table-top shots earlier) so it is a bit soft, and didn't have time to dial in Continuous Shooting to get try to avoid overlapping traffic. Not the shot I was hoping for, but not a total bust.
I have had this film for about 10 years. I noticed how much the colour of the leader had changed. I have set the camera to expose this film at iso 50 to compensate for loss of sensitivity.
I am looking forward to seeing how the photographs turn out. I love the exitement of not knowing what film photographs will be like until they are developed. I will iuse this camera and film to make informal photographs mostly of my family and our friends.
With most of the train through the load out, it's almost ready for 2nd shift to take the train over for another rine to the plant.
A weapons load crew team from the 44th Aircraft Maintenance Unit work together to lift an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile onto an LAU-128 Missile launcher Jan. 5, 2015, during a quarterly weapons load competition on Kadena Air Base, Japan. The competition tests teams’ abilities to arm F-15 Eagles in a fast and safe manner. The competition was held between the 44th and 67th Aircraft Maintenance Units of the 18th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo by Naoto Anazawa/Released)
As CBNS train 306 shoves coal loads into the Nova Scotia Power Generating Station in Trenton, NS, the old buildings of TrentonWorks are coming down.
TrentonWorks was once a major employer in the area building railway cars. The company that owned the operation decided to relocate to Mexico years ago. Since then a wind turbine venture has failed in the buildings, and the Nova Scotia Government failed to find a buyer. So, down come the buildings.
The tipple at the BM&LP loadout at Kayenta Mine hums along as the day comes to an end. The conveyor fell silent for good on August 24th, and on the morning of August 26th, the final coal train departed for the Page generating station.
Pacific National loading wheat at Yarrawonga, Victoria.
Later in the evening XR557 & BL26 will set off for Inverleigh near Geelong.
Tuesday 27th September 2022.
Bolton allocated Ivatt class 2 46417 and a short parcels train at Ramsbottom Station. In reality 46441 on a photo charter in 2002 creates the illsion perfectly
Loading the largest log boat to enter the Port of Nelson, the "Ultra Tradition" This is looking into one of five holds, and then the logs are stacked a further 6m high on the deck after the hatches are closed.
IATR steeple cabs 51 and 54 double team 12 loads of bio-diesel produced by Renewable Energy Group and are headed for the UP interchange a few miles up the line. With the steep grades, the crews use two electric motors, one on each end, to manage to heavy loaded tankers.
Mason City, IA
2023.08.04
Class 56 56100 was heading for Redcar Mineral Terminal when recorded near South Bank. The hoppers were either for loading with imported coal or possibly coke for Scunthorpe Steel Works.
All images on this site are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, manipulated or used in any way without expressed written permission of the photographer. All rights reserved â Copyright Don Gatehouse
i was listening to my fave version of this song on my ipad and decided to look on etsy...more crafty than ebay...to see if there were any ideas. Someone had a cool piece of art. I can do that...i LOVE this. I may need many more rainbow pages.Thank goodness we r done making pages..i made 50 pages this month and filled an entire album.See ya'll in OCT.
Loading area for powder and dust products at the Morris & Perry Ltd., Gurney Slade limestone quarry. This independent family owned company supplies asphalt, ready mix concrete and aggregates. I think that this section is operated by the Gurney Slade Lime & Stone Company Limited (a subsidiaty of LKAB Minerals) a group engaged in the manufacture of ground limestone and fertilizer products, the recycling of limestone powders and mineral processing.
I am now determined to use this LOAD to get my Reunion photos scrapped! Today the landmark was our trip to the Sugar Bowl for dessert. Heather Dubarry completely ignored the directions we were given, used her own SATNAV and got us there first! We had to take a photo to celebrate. :) Oh, and yes, I remembered I'd pocketed a napkin so that made it onto the page. Our neon lime green shirts were pretty bossy but I think I dealt with it okay.
This Blue Jay is stuffing his face with sunflower seeds and corn on the deck railing on May 03, 2008, in rural upstate Columbia County, NY, USA. Camera: Canon 350D and AI Nikkor 300mm f4.5 ED-IF lens plus Fotodiox Nikon mount to Canon mount adapter ring, hand held, manually focused, stop-down metered in Av mode, with available ambient light.
Kreka Mines 'Kriegslok' 2-10-0 No.33.248 undertakes shunting duties at Dubrave loading point during the early morning of 6 November 2014, before the daytime temperature rose to around 23C, thereby ensuring negligible exhaust for the remainder of the day. The Dubrave loading point, fed by conveyor from a vast opencast lignite mine, is at the end of an approximate 5 kilometre branch from the main line at Ljubace, where steam hands over to diesel traction for the remainder of the trip to Tuzla power station.
© Copyright Gordon Edgar - Strictly no unauthorised use
Testing a new camera!
Helsinki, Finland 2024
Olympus Trip 35
Foma Fomapan 100
Compard R09 One Shot 1+100
60 min semi-stand at 19°C
Agitation: 1 minute + 10s at 30 min
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The AH-1 Cobra was developed in the mid-1960s as an interim gunship for the U.S. Army for use during the Vietnam War. The Cobra shared the proven transmission, rotor system, and the T53 turboshaft engine of the UH-1 "Huey". By June 1967, the first AH-1G HueyCobras had been delivered. Bell built 1,116 AH-1Gs for the U.S. Army between 1967 and 1973, and the Cobras chalked up over a million operational hours in Vietnam.
The U.S. Marine Corps was very interested in the AH-1G Cobra, too, but it preferred a twin-engine version for improved safety in over-water operations, and also wanted a more potent turret-mounted weapon. At first, the Department of Defense had balked at providing the Marines with a twin-engine version of the Cobra, in the belief that commonality with Army AH-1Gs outweighed the advantages of a different engine fit. However, the Marines won out and awarded Bell a contract for 49 twin-engine AH-1J SeaCobras in May 1968. As an interim measure the U.S. Army passed on thirty-eight AH-1Gs to the Marines in 1969. The AH-1J also received a more powerful gun turret with a three-barrel 20 mm XM197 cannon based on the six-barrel M61 Vulcan cannon.
During the 1990s, the US forces gradually phased out its Cobra fleet. The withdrawn AH-1s were typically offered to other potential operators, usually NATO allies. Some were also given to the USDA's Forest Service for fire surveillance, and a handful AH-1s went into private hands, including the NASA. Among these airframes were some USMC AH-1Js, which had in part been mothballed in the Mojave Desert since their replacement through more powerful and modern AH-1 variants and the AH-64.
About twenty airframes were, after having been de-militarized, bought by the Kaman Corporation in 2003, in a bold move to quickly respond to more than 20 inquiries for the company’s K-1200 ‘K-Max’ crane synchropter since the type’s end of production in 2001 from firefighting, logging and industry transport requirements. While not such a dedicated medium lift helicopter as the K-1200, which had from the outset been optimized for external cargo load operations, the twin-engine AH-1J promised to be a very effective alternative and a powerful basis for a conversion into a crane helicopter.
The result of this conversion program was the Kaman K-1300, also known as the “K-Cobra” or “Crane Cobra”. While the basic airframe of the AH-1J was retained, extensive detail modifications were made. To reduce weight and compensate for the extensive hardware changes, the SeaCobra lost its armor, the chin turret, and the stub wings. Beyond that, many invisible changes were made; the internal structure between the engine mounts was beefed up with an additional cage structure and a cargo hook was installed under the fuselage in the helicopter’s center of lift.
To further optimize the K-Cobra’s performance, the dynamic components were modified and improved, too. While the engine remained the same, its oil cooler was enlarged and the original output limit to 1.500 shp was removed and the gearbox was strengthened to fully exploit the twin-engine’s available power of 1,800 shp (1,342 kW). The rotor system was also modified and optimized for the transport of underslung loads: the original UH-1 dual-blade rotors were replaced with new four-blade rotors. The new main rotor with rugged heavy-duty blades offered more lift at less rotor speed, and the blades’ lift sections were moved away from the hub so that downwash and turbulences directly under the helicopter’s CoG and man hook were reduced to keep the cargo load more stable. Due to the main rotor’s slightly bigger diameter the tail rotor was changed into a slightly smaller four-blade rotor, too. This new arrangement made the K-1300 more stable while hovering or during slow speed maneuvers and more responsive to steering input.
The Cobra’s crew of two was retained, but the cockpit was re-arranged and split into two compartments: the pilot retained the original rear position in the tandem cockpit under the original glazing, but the gunner’s station in front of him, together with the secondary dashboard, was omitted and replaced by a new, fully glazed cabin under the former gunner position. This cabin occupied the former gun station and its ammunition supply and contained a rearward-facing workstation for a second pilot with full controls. It was accessible via a separate door or a ladder from above, through a trap door in the former gunner’s station floor, where a simple foldable bench was available for a third person. This arrangement was chosen due to almost complete lack of oversight of the slung load from the normal cockpit position, despite a CCTV (closed circuit television) system with two cameras intended for observation of slung loads. The second pilot would control the helicopter during delicate load-handling maneuvers, while the primary pilot “above” would fly the helicopter during transfer flights, both sharing the workload.
To accommodate the cabin under the fuselage and improve ground handling, the AH-1J’s skids were replaced by a stalky, fixed four-wheel landing gear that considerably increased ground clearance (almost 7 feet), making the attachment of loads on the ground to the main ventral hook easier, as the K-1300 could be “rolled over” the cargo on the ground and did not have to hover above it to connect. However, an external ladder had to be added so that the pilot could reach his/her workstation almost 10 feet above the ground.
The bulky ventral cabin, the draggy landing gear and the new lift-optimized rotor system reduced the CraneCobra’s top speed by a third to just 124 mph (200 km/h), but the helicopter’s load-carrying capacity became 35% higher and the Cobra’s performance under “hot & high” conditions was markedly improved, too.
For transfer flights, a pair of external auxiliary tanks could be mounted to the lower fuselage flanks, which could also be replaced with cargo boxes of similar size and shape.
K-1300 buyers primarily came from the United States and Canada, but there were foreign operators, too. A major operator in Europe became Heliswiss, the oldest helicopter company in Switzerland. The company was founded as „Heliswiss Schweizerische Helikopter AG“, with headquarters in Berne-Belp on April 17, 1953, what also marked the beginning of commercial helicopter flying in Switzerland. During the following years Heliswiss expanded in Switzerland and formed a network with bases in Belp BE, Samedan GR, Domat Ems GR, Locarno TI, Erstfeld UR, Gampel VS, Gstaad BE and Gruyères FR. During the build-up of the rescue-company Schweizerische Rettungsflugwacht (REGA) as an independent network, Heliswiss carried out rescue missions on their behalf.
Heliswiss carried out operations all over the world, e. g. in Greenland, Suriname, North Africa and South America. The first helicopter was a Bell 47 G-1, registered as HB-XAG on September 23, 1953. From 1963 Heliswiss started to expand and began to operate with medium helicopters like the Agusta Bell 204B with a turbine power of 1050 HP and an external load of up to 1500 kg. From 1979 Heliswiss operated a Bell 214 (external load up to 2.8 t).
Since 1991 Heliswiss operated a Russian Kamov 32A12 (a civil crane version of the Ka-27 “Helix”), which was joined by two K-1300s in 2004. They were frequently used for construction of transmission towers for overhead power lines and pylons for railway catenary lines, for selective logging and also as fire bombers with underslung water bags, the latter managed by the German Helog company, operating out of Ainring and Küssnacht in Germany and Switzerland until 2008, when Helog changed its business focus into a helicopter flight training academy in Liberia with the support of Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
A second Kamov 32A12 joined the fleet in 2015, which replaced one of the K-1300s, and Heliswiss’ last K-1300 was retired in early 2022.
General characteristics:
Crew: 2, plus space for a passenger
Length: 54 ft 3 in (16,56 m) including rotors
44 ft 5 in (13.5 m) fuselage only
Main rotor diameter: 46 ft 2¾ in (14,11 m)
Main rotor area: 1,677.64 sq ft (156,37 m2)
Width (over landing gear): 12 ft 6 in (3.85 m)
Height: 17 ft 8¼ in (5,40 m)
Empty weight: 5,810 lb (2,635 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 9,500 lb (4,309 kg) without slung load
13,515 lb (6,145 kg) with slung load
Powerplant:
1× P&W Canada T400-CP-400 (PT6T-3 Twin-Pac) turboshaft engine, 1,800 shp (1,342 kW)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 124 mph (200 km/h, 110 kn)
Cruise speed: 105 mph (169 km/h, 91 kn)
Range: 270 mi (430 km, 230 nmi) with internal fuel only,
360 mi (570 km 310 nmi) with external auxiliary tanks
Service ceiling: 15,000 ft (4,600 m)
Hovering ceiling out of ground effect: 3,000 m (9,840 ft)
Rate of climb: 2,500 ft/min (13 m/s) at Sea Level with flat-rated torque
External load capacity (at ISA +15 °C (59.0 °F):
6,000 lb (2,722 kg) at sea level
5,663 lb (2,569 kg) at 5,000 ft (1,524 m)
5,163 lb (2,342 kg) at 10,000 ft (3,048 m)
5,013 lb (2,274 kg) at 12,100 ft (3,688 m)
4,313 lb (1,956 kg) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m)
The kit and its assembly:
This is/was the second contribution to the late 2022 “Logistics” Group Build at whatifmodellers.com, a welcome occasion and motivation to tackle a what-if project that had been on my list for a long while. This crane helicopter conversion of a HueyCobra was inspired by the Mil Mi-10K helicopter – I had built a 1:100 VEB Plasticart kit MANY years ago and still remembered the helicopter’s unique ventral cabin under the nose with a rearward-facing second pilot. I always thought that the AH-1 might be a good crane helicopter, too, esp. the USMC’s twin-engine variant. And why not combine everything in a fictional model?
With this plan the basis became a Fujimi 1:72 AH-1J and lots of donor parts to modify the basic hull into “something else”. Things started with the removal of the chin turret and part of the lower front hull to make space for the ventral glass cabin. The openings for the stub wings were faired over and a different stabilizer (taken from a Revell EC 135, including the end plates) was implanted. The attachment points for the skids were filled and a styrene tube was inserted into the rotor mast opening to later hold the new four-blade rotor. Another styrene tube with bigger diameter was inserted into the lower fuselage as a display holder adapter for later flight scene pictures. Lead beads filled the nose section to make sure the CraneCobra would stand well on its new legs, with the nose down. The cockpit was basically taken OOB, just the front seat and the respective gunner dashboard was omitted.
One of the big challenges of this build followed next: the ventral cabin. Over the course of several months, I was not able to find a suitable donor, so I was forced to scratch the cabin from acrylic and styrene sheet. Size benchmark became the gunner’s seat from the Cobra kit, with one of the OOB pilots seated. Cabin width was less dictated through the fuselage, the rest of the cabin’s design became a rather simple, boxy thing – not pretty, but I think a real-life retrofitted cabin would not look much different? Some PSR was done to hide the edges of the rather thick all-clear walls and create a 3D frame - a delicate task. Attaching the completed thing with the second pilot and a dashboard under the roof to the Cobra’s lower hull and making it look more or less natural without major accidents was also a tricky and lengthy affair, because I ignored the Cobra’s narrowing nose above the former chin turret.
With the cabin defining the ground helicopter’s clearance, it was time for the next donors: the landing gear from an Airfix 1:72 Kamow Ka-25, which had to be modified further to achieve a proper stance. The long main struts were fixed to the hull, their supporting struts had to be scratched, in this case from steel wire. The front wheels were directly attached to the ventral cabin (which might contain in real life a rigid steel cage that not only protects the second crew member but could also take the front wheels’ loads?). Looks pretty stalky!
Under the hull, a massive hook and a fairing for the oil cooler were added. A PE brass ladder was mounted on the right side of the hull under the pilot’s cockpit, while a rear-view mirror was mounted for the ventral pilot on the left side.
The rotor system was created in parallel, I wanted “something different” from the UH-1 dual-blade rotors. The main rotor hub was taken from a Mistercraft 1:72 Westland Lynx (AFAIK a re-boxed ZTS Plastyk kit), which included the arms up to the blades. The hub was put onto a metal axis, with a spacer to make it sit well in the new styrene tube adapter inside of the hull, and some donor parts from the Revell EC 135. Deeper, tailored blades were glued to the Lynx hub, actually leftover parts from the aforementioned wrecked VEB Plasticart 1:100 Mi-10, even though their length had to be halved (what makes you aware how large a Mi-6/10 is compared with an AH-1!). The tail rotor was taken wholesale from the Lynx and stuck to the Cobra’s tail with a steel pin.
Painting and markings:
Another pushing factor for this build was the fact that I had a 1:72 Begemot aftermarket decal sheet for the Kamow Ka-27/32 in The Stash™, which features, among many military helicopters, (the) two civil Heliswiss machines – a perfect match!
Using the Swiss Helix’ as design benchmark I adapted their red-over-white paint scheme to the slender AH-1 and eventually ended up with a simple livery with a white belly (acrylic white from the rattle can, after extensive masking of the clear parts with Maskol/latex milk) and a red (Humbrol 19) upper section, with decorative counter-colored cheatlines along the medium waterline. A black anti-glare panel was added in front of the windscreen. The auxiliary tanks were painted white, too, but they were processed separately and mounted just before the final coat of varnish was applied. The PE ladder as well as the rotors were handled similarly.
The cockpit and rotor opening interior were painted in a very dark grey (tar black, Revell 06), while the interior of the air intakes was painted bright white (Revell 301). The rotor blades became light grey (Revell 75) with darker leading edges (Humbrol 140), dark grey (Humbrol 164) hubs and yellow tips.
For the “HELOG/Heliswiss” tagline the lower white section had to be raised to a medium position on the fuselage, so that they could be placed on the lower flanks under the cockpit. The white civil registration code could not be placed on the tail and ended up on the engine cowling, on red, but this does not look bad or wrong at all.
The cheatlines are also decals from the Ka-32 Begemot sheet, even though they had to be trimmed considerably to fit onto the Cobra’s fuselage – and unfortunately the turned out to be poorly printed and rather brittle, so that I had to improvise and correct the flaws with generic red and white decal lines from TL Modellbau. The white cross on the tail and most stencils came from the Begemot sheet, too. Black, engine soot-hiding areas on the Cobra’s tail were created with generic decal sheet material, too.
The rotor blades and the wheels received a black ink treatment to emphasize their details, but this was not done on the hull to avoid a dirty or worn look. After some final details like position lights the model was sealed with semi-matt acrylic varnish, while the rotors became matt.
A weird-looking what-if model, but somehow a crane-copter variant of the AH-1 looks quite natural – even more so in its attractive red-and-white civil livery. The stalky landing gear is odd, though, necessitated by the ventral cabin for the second pilot. I was skeptical, but scratching the latter was more successful than expected, and the cabin blend quite well into the AH-1 hull, despite its boxy shape.
6Z20, DCR's 08:38 York Holgate - Butterwell box wagons stand at the Potland Burn Surface mine loading pad on 6 December 2013. The driver returns to the cab after detaching 56303 to enable it to run round. Towards the rear of the train wheeled loaders (sometimes called diggers or buckets) have begun loading the train.
Railfreight Coal Sector refurbished Class 37/7, 37704 with a set of HAA hoppers being loaded was to form the 7C82 09:05 Tower Colliery to Aberthaw Power Station MGR.
All images on this site are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, manipulated or used in any way without expressed written permission of the photographer. All rights reserved – Copyright Don Gatehouse
Mercato Market in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is simply HUGE, reputed to be the largest open market in all of East Africa. Everything is sold there from spices to recycled plastic items - 09/10/2018
Nikon D7200
ƒ/2.8
35.0 mm
1/1000 @ ISO 500
Flash (off, did not fire)
Exploring the Automobile
"Usual Blurb" © 2013 by Wil Wardle. Please do not use this or any of my images without my permission.
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