Guns of Cartagena – Cartagena, Spain – July 2005

[Chambers696]

Great post mate.A few years ago there was an article in Old Glory magazine about how they got the guns up there.I'll dig it out to confirm but from what I remember the barrels were hauled up by two Aveling and Porter crane engines with the help of an early Holt half track tractor.The barrels were mounted on bogies with short sections of track leapfrogging each other.I seem to remember it took days to haul each barrel to the top.

Holt tractor

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=ho...8&tbnw=188&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:0

Aand P crane engine
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=av...w=132&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:56&tx=78&ty=77

Thanks for looking at this. It would have been some job using these old vehicles and machinery. If only they would have had modern cranes and contruction vehicles!

 

[oldscrote]

Thanks for looking at this. It would have been some job using these old vehicles and machinery. If only they would have had modern cranes and construction vehicles!

Old isn't the word,the crane engines were built by Aveling and Porter in Rochester around 1884 which makes them at least 35 years old and the Holt was probably built during the 1st world war