[MOC] Hydraulic slewing crane T157/1

This is the hydraulic slewing crane “T 157/1” – a crane (or rather an excavator or “loader”) that was developed and built in the former GDR (More about the T 157). Actually, the machine is quite ugly, but somehow it fascinated me and I had to build it.

The construction started with a trip to a well-known Scandinavian furniture store, where I saw the model parked on a trailer on the opposite roadway. I was allowed to turn around and take pictures. From then on, it was clear that I was going to build the excavator and that it was going to be pretty good in LEGO® Technic.

The challenges were the really tight space (of course I wanted to put in all the functions) and the unusual construction of the front axle. The latter also cost me a few evenings and a lot of testing. Also for the tires at the front I had to come up with something. LEGO® doesn’t have suitable wheels in its range. The solution: I mounted the balloon tyres 68.8×40 on the Technic 43.2×26 rim, which was actually too small. And see, it worked and looks really suitable.

The rest was sometimes very tricky to solve due to the limited space. So the pneumatic pump had to find place underneath the excavator as well as the turning wheel for the rotating structure of the excavator.

I am very happy with the controls of the Pneumatic. Thanks to the new valves I was able to install real joysticks that look very similar to the original. Also the steering could be built functional after some tests and that despite the pendulum axle.