Graham Brent, former editor

When I joined CT in 1979 we were still printing in black and white, and setting the type with a “hot metal” linotype typesetting machine.  Cranes were still manufactured in the UK by Coles, Jones, Thos. Smith and Jones (remember the “Iron Fairy”?). That seems to date me far more than it should! Graham Brent is now executive director of the US National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators.

Ian Johnston, former publisher

Once, at a small gig run by French rental companies north of Paris, two guys from French rail company SNCF asked [ad manager] Nick Ratcliffe and me (we were known as Monsieur Cranes and Monsieur Today), in front of a large group of French crane folks why the British did not have high high-speed trains like theirs. We replied, in French, “Because French tourists like to look at our pretty countryside.” They didn’t think it was that funny and chalked it up to the English sense of humour.

Many great memories.

David Taylor, former editor

Our offices were in Bowling Green Lane, EC1. It was a dump. We wrote on manual typewriters and the studio on the top floor pasted everything onto layout sheets. On the other hand, with CT I travelled the world.

About a year after I joined, United Trade Press (the publisher) was bought by Robert Maxwell and became Maxwell Business Communications. I met Maxwell in 1987 just before he bought the company. He’d just bought British International Helicopters and we had run a feature on aerial lifting the previous year. Maxwell decided to turn up and we were lined up to shake his paw. At the press conference later, I was impressed to see that he’d memorised every single journalist’s name.

Tim Whiteman, former editor

I joined a week before we moved offices to Dartford, in Kent, a site owned by Maxwell. But then Maxwell disappeared in November 1991, and the business was in turmoil. Out of frustration in the situation – our foreign travel budget was frozen, there was no work done on the circulation – I tried to do a management buy-out of some of the titles. But the receivers did not want to sell two or three titles. At that point I had done the calculations, and knew how much money the magazine was making. I left Cranes Today and joined some others to launch International Cranes. I wish Cranes Today every success- it is a great old magazine. Tim Whiteman is now the managing director of the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF).

Mark Aldwinkle, former editor

The sad news in mid-March of a crane collapse in New York reinforces the message that all those articles that Cranes Today and others sought to carry over in my time as editor (1992-7) – ‘safety begins with you’. That slogan has been around for many years, of course, but it struck me with particular resonance during ConExpo 1993 when I was touring some of the nearby Las Vegas crane hire companies.

Phil Bishop, former editor

Compared to the generally uptight and cautious civil engineers whose universe I had specialised in previously, I was happy to find crane people to be open, warm and helpful. I saw some amazing machines, with Van Seumeren’s PTC a stand out, and remarkable projects, including the clear-up of Ground Zero in September 2001, which will always be a vivid memory.