New Cumnock Turbine Blade
Being moved to
Sanquhar II windfarm.
Sanquhar II windfarm.
Select the thumbnails to view in full size
All images are © 400photos.uk
All images are © 400photos.uk
A turbine blade for the Sanquhar II Wind Farm being moved from New Cumnock
down the A76 to just north of Kirkconnel by CWP Energy.
The photos show its route through the town from the railway station, over the River Nith, along the main street (called simply Castle), past the shops and open-air pool before turning sharp left into Afton Bridgend and over the Afton Water.
In the first photo you can see the yard north of the town which acts as a staging post, the blades being delivered there from King George V Docks in Glasgow (presumably imported?) before the last, slowest, part of the journey.
The whole rig travels at walking pace and takes a few hours to make the journey and the guys walking alongside are the ones controlling the steering.
The blade lifter is an FTV850 manufactured by Goldhofer and run by Collett and Sons Ltd and can be configured to transport blades up to 330 feet (100 metres) long safely on various road widths. The vast majority of the turbines at Sanquhar II will be around 650 feet high and these blades are about 250 feet long, well within capability.
(200 metres high and 75 metres long)
The last two photos show the rig turning left at the roundabout. The wheels are steered remotely and as you can see in the close-up (last) photo the front wheels turn progressively left while the rear wheels are turned progressively to the right. The guess is that it causes a bit of tyre scrub but at such low speeds that's probably not important.
This is just one of 132 blades for 44 turbines being moved (very slowly) on the back of a blade lifter over a few months. Traffic flow is controlled to cause minimum disruption.
The swimming pool in some of the photos can be seen in more detail here.
The photos show its route through the town from the railway station, over the River Nith, along the main street (called simply Castle), past the shops and open-air pool before turning sharp left into Afton Bridgend and over the Afton Water.
In the first photo you can see the yard north of the town which acts as a staging post, the blades being delivered there from King George V Docks in Glasgow (presumably imported?) before the last, slowest, part of the journey.
The whole rig travels at walking pace and takes a few hours to make the journey and the guys walking alongside are the ones controlling the steering.
The blade lifter is an FTV850 manufactured by Goldhofer and run by Collett and Sons Ltd and can be configured to transport blades up to 330 feet (100 metres) long safely on various road widths. The vast majority of the turbines at Sanquhar II will be around 650 feet high and these blades are about 250 feet long, well within capability.
(200 metres high and 75 metres long)
The last two photos show the rig turning left at the roundabout. The wheels are steered remotely and as you can see in the close-up (last) photo the front wheels turn progressively left while the rear wheels are turned progressively to the right. The guess is that it causes a bit of tyre scrub but at such low speeds that's probably not important.
This is just one of 132 blades for 44 turbines being moved (very slowly) on the back of a blade lifter over a few months. Traffic flow is controlled to cause minimum disruption.
The swimming pool in some of the photos can be seen in more detail here.
