Vertigo pre-rigged the lifting system and support trusses on a Saturday night. These were assembled in two halves, the first was lifted up through the atrium from the ground floor on four half-tonne chain hoists, and then joined to the second half which was suspended from rigging points over the second floor balcony. The whole rig was then transferred onto 2-tonne static rigging points.
The get-in proper started at 6pm on the Sunday, when the Museum was closed to the public. With the cars in position beneath the lifting rig, the lifting frame, which Vertigo had designed and built, was attached before a final rig check, and then the 16m lift to the second-floor balcony level began. With the vehicles at the desired height, the motorized beam trolleys were activated to track the cars 7m forward to their landing position on the balcony. The vehicles had to be ready and all access equipment cleared away ready for the general (non-Bond) Museum areas to re-open to the public at 9am the following morning.
The Goldfinger Rolls was the first to fly. Weighing 2.9 tonnes, it was the heaviest object ever lifted in the Science Museum. Vertigo are experts at lifting valuable and delicate cars, and this proved to be another smooth and well-designed operation. Vertigo fabricated the special I-beam trolleys that run beneath the trusses, each one suspended by four 1 tonne motors. Underneath these are smaller truss assemblies used for attaching to and picking up the vehicles.
For this project, Vertigo also designed a new car-lifting frame that clamps around the wheels. The frame is connected to the truss assembly and the whole thing is lifted up and then tracked across.The Vertigo team was led by Tim Roberts. In addition to his four riggers, he employed three people from The Stratton Motor Company in Norfolk, which prepares and looks after all the Bond cars. MD Roger Bennington was responsible for delicate operation of driving and manoeuvring all the cars across the fragile suspended wooden floor of the museum to their final exhibited positions. Moving the vehicles up and into position took approximately 45 minutes each, and all were ready by 2am.
Roberts comments that the biggest challenge was the preparation, and the hours of calculations that went into ensuring the move went smoothly on the night. He worked with the Science Museum's structural engineer Nat Barnett to establish where the load could be spread without over-stressing the building. When hauling the cars up the atrium, they also had to negotiate and avoid a mass of steel wire ropes holding up various existing exhibits, plus canopies and other obstructions. After the meticulous planning, Roberts commented: "Regardless of all the planning and calculations, an operation like this is guaranteed to raise your heart rate - but then, that's probably why we do it."
(Lee Baldock)
