Biglorryblog hates to see a man driven to desperate measures. But no sooner do I blog on Palfinger's new products than I get an e-mail from Ashley Coghill, (Keeper of the Classic Truck Flame and ace driver and crane operator for Milbank Trucks) in which I detect a touch of crane envy. However, tells me: 'Palfinger? PAH.....Who are they?.......Nice publicity article in BLB, but that Palfinger is nothing compared to this baby!"
Attached to his e-mail is the above picture which Ash says is: "Milbanks latest "big arm". She will lift 40 tonnes at 12m.........What a beasty!" You bet says BLB, only it seems that the mother-of-all-cranes is not what she seems. For under pressure from BLB my man finally admits: "I off-loaded on a jetty at Gravesend recently and couldn't resist another bit of trick photography. Just like my "infamous" Wembley shot, (see below) I positioned the truck at just the right angle to include the huge quayside crane, making it look like it was mounted on the truck!" Good wheeze Ash, it fooled me and, I suspect, a few other BLB readers....But there's more photographic foolery to come...
Of course, says Ash, "If the monster crane really was part of the rig, she would surely topple right over into the murky Thames and we wouldn't want that to happen to a nice Milbank Volvo would we?" Indeed not especially as I've had the famous Irish quayside recovery cock-up slide show sent to me at least five times now!
Meanwhile, here's that picture of Ash single-handedly lowereing the arch onto the new Wembley Stadium. Some operator eh?
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