Heavy lifting January 26, 2011
The fundamental process may be thousands of years old, but picking up and moving entire, multiton structures remains a feat tackled only by a small number of specialized professionals. John Earnshaw is no stranger to carting unwieldy cargo through precarious situations around Shawnee and the surrounding area. Most recently, he moved Shawnee Town's farm house, barn and smokehouse across the museum grounds to their new homes in the under-construction 1929 Truck Farm.
John Earnshaw, who hails from one of Shawnee's oldest families, learned the house moving trade from his father and has been moving and lifting structures for 30 years. Although the buildings are smaller than most he's tackled over the years, Earnshaw's most recent moving project was relocating the Shawnee Town farmhouse, barn and smokehouse to the other side of the museum property, where they will become part of the 1929 Truck Farm. Earnshaw now lives in Overland Park and runs Lenexa-based HouseLifter.net.
From left, Earnshaw, his brother-in-law Joe Dickerson Sr. of Marshall, Mo., and John Scherbarth of Prairie Village work to build a "crib" -- a tower of shortened railroad ties -- beneath the Shawnee Town barn during the process of moving it on Dec. 17. "You've got to be slow and cautious, no doubt about that," Scherbarth said of the work.
Earnshaw eyes the cribs underneath the Shawnee Town barn, prior to lowering the barn onto a flatbed trailer.
Phillip Travis of Konrath Construction, the company leading Shawnee Town's 1929 Truck Farm project, inspects the barn as it's lowered onto a flatbed trailer to be moved.
Earnshaw moves cribbing blocks out of the way before the truck and barn take off for the other side of the museum grounds.
The truck pulling the barn on the back slowly makes its way into the construction site. Truck driver John Coulter of Haggard Hauling and Rigging Inc. is used to hauling unwieldy specialty equipment. He said he treated the barn the same way. "You want to ease in and out of the brakes, the gas, everything," Coulter said. "Just be smooth."
Most buildings Earnshaw has moved are larger and heavier than the Shawnee Town barn. Typically, trucks pull houses sitting on top of special, heavy-duty dollies instead of trailers.
Earnshaw guides truck driver Coulter to a stopping point next to the barn's new foundation.
The primary equipment Earnshaw used to move the Shawnee Town buildings is the same as house movers might have used in the 1930s and 1940s -- 20-ton hydraulic jacks with hand pumps, railroad ties and a few strong backs.
Working in sync, Earnshaw and Scherbarth pump the jacks beneath the barn to lift it enough that the truck can drive out from underneath it. After setting up slidesticks -- a pair of steel beams positioned perpendicular to the ones the barn is resting on -- the men will coat them with Ivory bar soap and slide the barn over its new foundation. The final step is lowering it, accomplished with jacks and cribbing blocks just like the lifting process.
Earnshaw and his crew moved the Shawnee Town farm house on Nov. 22, using the same method they did for the barn.
The farm house arrives at a spot next to its new foundation.
Earnshaw and his crew build new cribs to lift the house above the surface of the trailer, enabling the truck to pull away.
Moving day for the Shawnee Town farm house and for the barn drew onlookers ranging from neighbors to TV crews.
The Shawnee Town farm house rests atop a set of cribs, waiting to be slid over its new foundation and lowered into place.
