The water column.

Some time around 1970 the Liverpool Loco Preservation Group managed to acquire a water column from Liverpool Exchange Station. We turned up at the station one Saturday afternoon with a mini van for transport. None of us realised how heavy these things were !.
B.R. had kindly split it into 2 sections when they removed it ,then loaded the sections onto a 4 wheel platform trolley.
We had to get this across the river to our base at the Cheshire Lines warehouse in Birkenhead, so the only way we could do it was by taking the trolley plus column on the Mersey ferry. We wheeled it down the street ,across the dock road & down the gangway onto the ferryboat. On the Birkenhead side we were faced with a puzzled toll collector who didn't know what to charge us for the trolley, so just let us off with the passenger fares. We then wheeled it through the Shore Road dock entrance & along the road into the warehouse.
We certainly got some funny looks but were not challenged by anybody - and we never returned the trolley !
I believe that the column is now at Embsay.

Bob.

 

Platform trolleys certainly took some hammer.
Steamport Southport was donated some material from Royal Birkdale golf club.
Only problem no one had any transport so we took a trolley for a walk and loaded up at the golf club then roamed the streets of Southport back to Steamport.
I can't remember what it was we picked up probably a load of sleepers but not sure.

 

Could be the same trolley as in the above tale, as it was probably moved to Steamport when the locos. moved from Birkenhead in Summer 1973.

Bob.

 

It might even have been to provide sleepers to lay down beyond the concrete apron outside the shed.
I was there on both days when Lucy and Efficient arrived at the shed.

 

Sounds like when I had two platform trolleys coupled together heavily loaded with scrap metal being pulled by a Peugoet 106 to the metal skip.

Also pulled our bigger LMS trolley to our other site at Swanwick Junction over 1.5 mile of back roads. Was too big to get in a BG. My friend and I nearly died. Was all uphill!! and very very bumpy.

 

We've wondered a bit from this thread's title on to trolleys. and in that vein I offer this extract from an article I wrote for SMF News about the formation of the Fund and the preparations to move 2968 to the SVR, dead on own wheels:

Slowly we prepared 2968 for her movement and one outstanding item was the stowage of the coupling and connecting rods. These had arrived at the yard in the tender coal space and there they remained. Unfortunately, the engine could not leave with them in the bunker; they would have to be removed and taken to Bridgnorth separately. Now Sir William was not one to skimp on the metal when he designed his valve gears and 2968's side rods were no exceptions - they are very heavy. So it was most unfortunate that on the day chosen to extract them from the tender and take them up to Barry shed, only Phil, Dave and I were available.
The first challenge was to move one of the connecting rods out of the tender as these, being heavier than the coupling rods, would be dealt with first before exhaustion set in. This was more difficult than might be realised. The obvious way out was to throw it over the top but this was ruled out because of possible damage to the rod following an eleven foot fall. We also doubted our ability to lift it the height of the coal rails.
The alternative was to take it through the coal space doors into the cab, then swing it around and pass it out through the cab doors. This hit a problem when we found that the rod was somewhat longer than the cab was wide, so we first manoeuvred one end through a side window. This allowed the other end to be swung around and shoved out of the afore-mentioned side door, then lowered to ground level. After a brief rest until we stopped seeing flashing purple lights, we picked up the accursed rod and carried it a hundred yards or so over several tracks and between a couple of lines of engines, to a rough ballast roadway, where transport awaited.
The transport was nothing more than a four-wheeled platform-type trolley borrowed from the still-operational shed. With the rod placed aboard, this was dragged protestingly through the ballast until tarmac was reached. At this point, we would be about a mile from the shed, our destination, and some of this distance would be up quite a steep hill. Despair called for drastic measures and these turned out to be Dave's Mini. A rope was attached between this and the trolley to provide motive power.
A remaining problem with the trolley was the lack of a steering system, since the Mini did not possess a towbar. This was solved with yet two more pieces of rope attached to the handle which protruded out from the front. By holding the other ends of the ropes and pulling on each side as required, Phil, standing at the front rather in the style of a Roman charioteer controlling his horses, effected a very crude means of control. I, meanwhile, clung on desperately at the rear to both the trolley and the rod in an attempt, not always successful, to prevent the two from parting company.
Thus the strange procession set off, very slowly, for the shed. Even by the standards of Barry's working parties, it was an unusual sight and I was well aware of the many passers-by who stopped to stare. I also noticed that one or two produced cameras but I did not see Alan Castle, an SVR regular at the time, record the scene on cine. This piece of film apparently played to applause at packed houses at several SVR meetings but mercifully, I never got to see it.
On arrival at the shed, the rod would be unloaded and the trio, the trolley and the Mini would all return to the starting point and begin again. There were six rods in all to be dealt with, two connecting and four coupling, and by the time they had all been delivered, a process which took all day, I was totally exhausted. The trolley obviously felt the same. We had to hide it in a dark corner and sneak off before anyone could see us, since a large portion of its woodwork had mysteriously vanished and one of its wheels had developed a tendency to wander off on its own.