Posted By Philip Roberts Hi All, I am looking for help with a manual handling problem underneath a train. We have a 58kg exhaust system to manoeuvre into position over a drive shaft and axel. It has four clamps to fit and is extremely difficult to hold in position whilst the clamps are removed or refitted. It is impossible to get a lift table underneath and there is nowhere to fit pulleys for lifting. Does anyone out there know of a specialist company who may be able to design/supply specialist lifting equipment. Thanks for your attention best regards Phil Roberts

Posted By Philip Roberts Chris, thanks for you input it is much appreciated. Just to clarify a bit we are a specialist train maintenance company servicing mainline trains. It is just I am fairly new to the company and have been reviewing risk assessments and have found a few dodgy areas which need addressing. The exhaust system being one of them, best regards Phil

Posted By Darby Allan Philip Having been in submarine repair we regularly were confronted by this type of situation. Initial thoughts would be to block and wedge into place or even better is to get a couple of the the large airbag systems and gradually lift the exhaust into place. Also depending on access rig up chainblocks/pull lifts using rails as anchor points to rig up a lifting system. Ensure that tackle etc is all in date, of course. regards Darby Where there's a will there's a way to do these tasks safely.

Posted By Philip Roberts Hi All, Thanks for all responses both on line and direct. I would just like to answer some of the points raised.I am fairly new to this company and have been reviewing risk assessments and found some dodgy areas, the exhaust system being just one of them. We do have equipment to remove the wheelset and drive shaft and do the job safely but production do not want to "waste" the time as it would take three times as long. Hence looking for a safe short cut. Air bags had been thought about as we use them in other situations but there is not enough clearance to allow them to be used in this case. We have done the job with wedges and wooden blocks but this method has in the past led to manual handling difficulties. There is no room or fixing points for block and tackle so now looking for a company to designe a lifting system for us. I have been given a lead which I am following up but I think we will end up "wasting" the time as it is not reasonably practicable to hurt sombody just at the expence of time. Once again thank you all for your input. best regards Phil Roberts MIOSH