Doing The Locomotion

Every once in a while you get to do one of those jobs that makes a few heads turn and saves the customer a lot of money in the process. Check that. Bringing value and doing the "impossible" is something Barnhart does every day. However, in this case HOW we did this project for the City of Birmingham wasn't as unusual as WHAT we were moving.

Barnhart was asked to move this vintage Frisco steam locomotive from the old Fairgrounds to its new home at the historic Sloss Furnace. Seeing that engine ride on top of 12-axle PSTe Goldhofer and get unloaded to rail was quite a head turner for those lucky enough to see it, but for us it was just another day in the office (we had already done a similar job in Houston several years before). Still, our solution did save the city a good bit of money and some major traffic headaches.

Tight Challenge

At Barnhart we love a good challenge. Our Mobile branch was recently given an opportunity to prove just how good they were when they were asked to complete a project at a western refinery. On the surface the project seemed simple enough: lift and install 4 heat exchangers weighing around 43k each. However, you can see the difficulty of the lifts by the pictures. The refinery was a "new build", but was running behind a bit with the exchangers arriving four weeks late. So, the team had work smart, but fast. To install the exchangers into the tight confines of the plant the Barnhart Team from Mobile used the cantilever beam with the Tri-Block on a 275 ton crane to slide the pieces into place. In each case we had to use the auxiliary line for the Tri-Block and approximately 34k in counter weight. In the end, the guys from Mobile met the challenge and made it look easy. Way to go guys.