Unusual moves 17 cars into The Science Museum
The Science Museum were presenting a 5 month special exhibition of the history of Alfa Romeo. The cars to be exhibited dated from 1930 to 2001. 15 cars were required on the second floor, one was to be suspended in the atrium and one was to be taken to the second floor for storage but returned to ground floor nearer to the exhibition.

There is no lift in The Science Museum to suit this kind of task and just to make life more interesting, the insurance value of the cars was communicated to Unusual in millions of Lire. There are so many zeros in the grand total that nobody has yet been able to work out what it really means!

The longest and heaviest car was a 1938 2900 B Lungo at 5.15 metres and 1.6 tonnes and the widest car was a 1975 33TT12 at 2.05 metres.
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Robin Elias of Unusual Rigging designed a system, which was to be suspended from the top of the atrium. MK4 Telestage truss was used to avoid the possibility of flexing with an uneven load over the required span. However, the system needed to extend into the second floor at ceiling height. Bracketry was designed, installed and tested on the second floor ceiling structure to accept the weight of the system. The other end of the system, effectively in mid air in the atrium, was held by rigging points from the roof structure.

Four one tonne Lodestars were then installed on beam trolleys in 2 channels running the length of the system, from which the car lifting platform was suspended. The car lifting platform was a simple construction with the front and back constituting two pieces of minibeam truss. On top of these two trusses were placed two steel channels with bevelled ends. This design specifically catered for the need to accept cars of differing lengths and widths, with ease of alteration being a crucial consideration.

To get the car onto the platform, one end of the steel channels would be raised, the stick of truss would be removed and the channels then lowered to the floor, hence creating a car ramp. The channels would then be hoisted by 2 Lodestars, the truss replaced, the whole assembly plus the car would be ratcheted together and the car was ready for moving. Once at a height where the whole assembly would clear the second floor balustrade, the hoists were stopped and the whole assembly would be pulled along the channel on the beam trolleys.

The car platform was then lowered onto four dollies and rotated 90 degrees for unloading on the balcony. Unloading the car was the reverse process of creating a ramp. The whole process was repeated each time averaging out at about one car per hour.

Once complete, the whole grid and lift structure was removed and the bracketry on the second floor ceiling was left for the de-rig and any future re-use.

Hanging the final car was carried out from roof level. Four steels terminating at one masterlink above the car were installed. The precise orientation of the car was carried out two feet above the ground and once achieved, the car was lifted to the required height, secured and then rotated to the required final position.

As usual, all work was carried out overnight. The opening of this exhibition coincided with the date that admission charges to The Science Museum were abolished.