Set up on a narrow access road above an underground car park, a Liebherr LTM 1450-8.1 placed a 1950s suspension railway carriage at Wuppertal Central Station
The load was light. The site was not. To lift a historic suspension railway carriage weighing around seven tonnes into Wuppertal Central Station, crane hire company Franz Bracht Kran-Vermietung brought in a Liebherr LTM 1450-8.1, a 450-tonne all-terrain crane, and the reason was reach in a confined space rather than capacity.
The only possible crane position was the narrow access road to the station. Directly in front of the site sit a basement-level shopping area and an indoor car park, and the operational plan allowed only vehicles of up to eight tonnes to drive over them.
Built for tight set-ups
The crew set up the LTM 1450-8.1 with a reduced outrigger width of 7.95 metres. The VarioBallast system, carrying 134 tonnes of ballast, was retracted to a radius of five metres. The telescopic boom was extended to 31 metres and fitted with a 56-metre luffing jib, giving a maximum reach of 65 metres. A Liebherr LTM 1090-4.2 from Wuppertal-based Wilden acted as support crane.
In practical terms, the combination of VarioBase and VarioBallast let the crew adapt the crane to the space available instead of the other way round. For hire companies working in city centres, that flexibility is often what wins the job.
A piece of city history
The carriage is car 76 of the Series 50, built in 1950. After leaving regular service it moved from a restaurant in Düsseldorf to Siegen and then Witten, where it stayed in storage. Markus Bürger, the new owner of the main station, found it on a classifieds platform and bought it for his project.
Bracht loaded the carriage onto a Kahl Schwerlast flatbed on 31 August 2026 and lifted it into place on 1 September. It was towed to its final position on 18 September, in time for the 125th anniversary of the Wuppertal suspension railway the following day. Once refurbished, it is set to serve as a registry office and an event venue.
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