Vinten Motorised
The precursor to the Heron.
Geoff Fletcher
Crew 4 in action on a CETO programme 16 March 1964: the chaps in the photo are Mike Harrison on the left hand ped, Pete Ware on the Vinten Motorised dolly with John Lower tracking, and it looks like Tim Healey on the right hand ped.
Meanwhile in photo two crewed out camera bods are taking it easy in TC5 crew room -Senior Cameraman Reg Poulter sitting on the table talking to Harry Kicks, with Paul Salinger looking on.
Alec Bray
The motorised Vinten was a tricky crane to track, as the two rear wheels steered and were the drive wheels, as each had an electric motor mounted above it. As the wheels were turned to change direction, the speed of the wheels remained the same: the effect was that you seemed to get faster the tighter the turn. And the faster you seemed to go, the more difficult it was to correct! It was quite vicious.
The Motorised was used as the main crane on the old “Tonight” programme with Cliff Michelmore. A tracker (OK, me) was in constant fear of the back-end swinging round too fast and crunching into the fish tank that was part of the set.
A Vinten Motorised in the Theatre (?)
Vinten Heron
Peter Combes
“… was there ever a sign on the side of a Heron saying "THIS HEAVY VEHICLE CAN MOVE SIDEWAYS, IN SILENCE, WITHOUT WARNING"?…”
Alec Bray
When “Top of the Pops” was in Television Centre (Studio 2), the main crane used was the Vinten Heron. I was a regular tracker on the Heron, and although (at that time) we had the audience in for the final run-through, there were a number of times on Transmission when I had to leap off the crane and “bundle” the girls out of the way so that we could get the Heron to crab: it was no match for the press of girls round the rostra. Gosh, better not confess – would not be allowed nowadays!
Vinten Peregrine
One day we all trooped into TC4 to see the latest crane from Vinten – the Peregrine. Without exception we all took an instant dislike to it – the cameraman, for example, was nowhere near the camera.
It was big, it was ugly, it was not all that manoeuvrable.
Stan Appel is the cameraman on the Peregrine
