WITH AN EXTENSIVE CRANE FLEET FROM RIGID HIABS UP TO SUPER HEAVY OUTFITS THAT CAN LIFT OVER 500 TONNES AND A RANGE OF ARTICS AND TRAILERS IN SUPPORT, FORSYTH OF DENNY IS A ONE-STOP SHOP FOR SPECIALIST LIFTING OPERATIONS, AS HEAVYTORQUE REPORTS.
Forsyth of Denny has a long history as a specialist heavy lift operator and haulier, but the company has made particularly dramatic strides in recent years. Extensive investment in a diverse range of equipment across trucks, trailers and cranes has seen it move to the forefront of wind turbine installation and maintenance work. And there is enormous scope and variety to the work the fleet does, with vehicles ranging from rigid crane trucks and general-purpose artics to STGO outfits and a wide range of cranes – culminating in a gigantic 650-tonne set-up that takes a total of 15 trucks to fully erect. The company has a number of long-serving employees among its 120 staff, who include HGV drivers, crane operators, mechanics and a welder, along with a dedicated office team.
Forsyth changed ownership when it was bought by the McNally family in 2016, at which point a 10-year development plan was put in place to modernise and expand the fleet and diversify into new work areas.
AFTER MORE THAN 40 YEARS OF PUTTING CRANES ONTO HIS OWN TRUCKS, FRASER DUNLOP DECIDED TO LET SOMEONE ELSE HAVE A GO. HEAVYTORQUE VISITS THE FAMILY-RUN TRANSPORT COMPANY IN SOUTH LANARKSHIRE TO FIND OUT WHY.
Tucked away among the rolling hills of South Lanarkshire is a busy yard belonging to Fraser Dunlop that is home to a 10-strong fleet of trucks fitted with cranes, a workshop, an office, and a couple of houses. The eponymously named company is celebrating its 55th year. When we arrive, Fraser’s two daughters Heather and Linda and his brother-in-law Rennie Angus are there, but Fraser himself and his wife Rosemary are in Spain. So Fraser joins our interview with Heather and Rennie via FaceTime on Heather’s phone. Thankfully, the connection is good.
Now 78, Fraser was just 23 with a background in farming when he set up T Dunlop & Son with his father Thomas – himself a farmer who’d retired and would briefly drive one of the trucks.
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AW BAXTER HAS GROWN FROM ITS ORIGINS AS A MIDLANDS-BASED HEAVY MACHINERY EXPORTING BUSINESS INTO ONE OFFERING A COMPLETE LOGISTICS SOLUTION, INCLUDING A SPECIALIST PROJECTS ARM THAT PROVIDES ABNORMAL HAULAGE MOVEMENTS. HEAVYTORQUE FINDS OUT MORE.
Cows running around loose on the M6 are not your average excuse for being late to an interview with a haulage firm, but seeing as Wolverhampton’s AW Baxter has seven of its own vehicles stuck in the ensuing traffic jam, our tardiness doesn’t raise any eyebrows.
“The M6 is the main route in and out for us,” acknowledges Jack Baxter, who heads up the group’s transport side. He is more than aware of the motorway’s reputation as the country’s biggest carpark, but as with any other challenge in modern day haulage, this company has the skill and determination not to let such cattle chaos affect its operation too much.
AW Baxter’s forays into haulage, particularly abnormal loads, began when Jack and his brother George joined the family firm almost a decade ago. But this was by no means the beginning of the story; the company had been trading for more than 20 years by this point.
IT MIGHT BE RELATIVELY SMALL IN SIZE COMPARED TO HEAVYTORQUE'S USUAL FARE, BUT THE IVECO eDAILY IS CERTAINLY ONE MIGHTY MINI WHEN IT COMES TO ITS TOWING CAPACITY, PULLING OVER 153 TONNES RECENTLY TO SCOOP A NEW GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS TITLE. HEAVYTORQUE REPORTS.
The Iveco Daily’s 3.5-tonne towing capacity has seen it become a staple of fleets needing to lug generators, diggers and other large items from site to site. But as the world enters the new zero-emissions age of light commercials, is the all-electric eDaily still up to the task?
It turns out that the eDaily is every bit as capable as its diesel sibling – including in the towing department. Its ladder-frame chassis not only neatly stores its modular batteries without cargo volume intrusion, but also provides the strength to tow up to 3.5 tonnes. While its official towing figure is unrivalled at this point in time, Iveco wanted to know just how strong its latest model really was. And what better way to do so than to take on an official Guinness World Records title for towing?
Breaking or setting a world record isn’t as straightforward as you might think. There’s a huge amount of planning involved, incorporating everything from geographical gradients to the physical task itself.
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INSTALLING FOUNDATIONS AND PREPARING SITES FOR CONSTRUCTION IS NO SIMPLE BUSINESS. BUT SPECIALIST CONTRACTOR VAN ELLE KNOWS EXACTLY HOW TO GO ABOUT IT, AND WHAT HEAVY HAULAGE EQUIPMENT IT NEEDS TO GET THE JOB DONE. HEAVYTORQUE REPORTS.
Strong and stable foundations are the starting point for every construction project and now, more than ever, construction companies call upon the services of specialist contractors to achieve them. Creating them is a broad and complex discipline involving a wide range of technology and skills, key to which is the ability to analyse ground conditions and decide on the correct approach to stabilise the site and prepare it for construction.
Nottinghamshire-based Van Elle is an expert in the field and the largest and most diverse geotechnical and ground engineering contractor in the UK. Founded in 1984 by the late Michael Ellis, a structural engineer, it started in a modest way but grew fast, being floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2016 and becoming the largest UK contractor in its sector in 2018.
IN AN IMPRESSIVE MOVE EARLIER THIS YEAR, MAR-TRAIN MOVED A LARGE SAND BARGE IN THREE SECTIONS FROM THE DOCKS AT LONDONDERRY TO THE LARGEST FRESHWATER LAKE IN THE UK, LOCH NEAGH. HEAVYTORQUE REPORTS
An interesting heavy haulage move took place last year in Northern Ireland, in which Mar-Train Heavy Haulage moved a dredging barge from the docks at Londonderry to Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake in Ireland and the British Isles, which covers an area of 151 square miles. Lough Neagh is a source of high quality sand, which the Norman Emerson Group has been extracting for generations for use in a wide range of building materials. When its old barge was due for replacement, a new one was sourced from Holland. This new barge is much larger and more efficient than the old one. But its size resulted in a number of challenges in terms of getting it from the docks to the lake, some 65 miles away. Lisburn-based Mar-Train – which had assisted with the move of the group’s last barge back in 2003 when it was brought in complete by Heanor Haulage – was tasked with the job, which initially entailed moving it around two miles from the dock to a holding area.
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