We have one of these that we are considering moving to another location along the line. Advice on moving?

Primarily I am wondering if this could be lifted by the roof cap with a chain or heavy duty straps and if it would hold together?

What equipment do you have available to move it with? We moved one of the six sided booths with a skid steer, it was a bit more than the machine wanted to handle. It did it, but it was pretty messy. Another one that came here to the J&LNG I was able to maneuver with out 20,000 lb. Hyster and it had no problem with it (Hyster rarely has problems with ANYTHING!).

If it were me, I would place it on its back side and then pick it up with forks to place on a trailer to haul away. The tricky part is laying it down without it getting away from you and standing it up again without it going over the other way, but is certainly safer to haul on its side than standing up.

If you want to lift it with a crane, two long straps basically choking it from two opposite corners near the top would be how I would do it. That is probably the strongest place to grab it at.

I'm in the early stages of planning it's movement, and I will get some input from others along the way, but I'm trying to get opinions before getting too far in. We have a boom truck that can lift it and since it is a truck, it's mobile, both on the road and the rail. We have a forklift also, but not sure if we could load it on the same vehicle that the booth will ride on. Perhaps if we can load/unload a forklift on our flatbed, that might be the best way to go.

I used a chain and a burro crane, I of course didn't care if it broke so it went ok

Well, keep in mind that concrete by itself has very little tensile (pulling/bending) strength.

It likes to be compressed. The reinforcing rods inside the concrete are meant to "pull" the concrete together when it is under a load.

Lifting it from the top using a hook molded into the concrete (possibly attached to the internal reinforcing rods) may be the most risky way to move it given it's age.

Safest way is to get some lifting means (forklift truck arms) underneath the unit.

But, on the other hand if the design includes a "hook" at the top it was probably designed with internal "rebar" that could transfer the loads from the "hook" down through the concrete to safely lift it with a crane attached at the "hook" on the top. That would be desirable for the MOW forces to install / move / replace these units.

Question would be; "Is the internal re-bar" structurally sound after all these years ?

If there are signs of rust around the internal rebar I would try to lift it from the bottom if possible.

Also, recommend you get some steel toed boots....

Good luck, Kevin

I could be completely wrong, but the top looks to me like a separate casting and the sides appear to be bolted together by small angle pieces inside. You sure it can't be taken apart? You would still have to be extremely careful with it, it is probably brittle with age by now.

Good observation, this unit looks like it has individually cast walls, top cap and floor bolted together with "corner brackets" made of angle iron. Kind of like the IKEA of railroad buildings....

Lifting it intact with a chain/rope around the upper portion would likely over-stress those brackets and the whole house of cards could fall apart.

Would investigate lifting the "top cap" off by grinding any bolts out of the way. Then lower the walls one at a time and finally move the base to the new location.

Then reassemble with modern "concrete anchors" and some new angle iron pieces with the correct size hole drilled in them,

The B&O/BR&P had a number of these phones booths cast as one piece in a hexagon shape. Very durable but hard to move.

Hmmm I did not notice that. The perils of only having low resolution photos to look at instead of looking at the actual object. I am familiar with the six sided booths which are cast in one piece and assumed this was built similar.

Heck if it is indeed separate pieces bolted together, it might be best to dismantle it on site and move the sections individually. If there is a boom truck available that makes it that much easier. Picking this one up with a boom truck would require lifting from the bottom which may expose it to flipping out of the rigging once in the air.