WH SCOTT
Overhead Gantry Cranes
Bespoke overhead gantry cranes designed, manufactured, installed, tested and maintained by WH Scott. Single girder, double girder, underslung and goliath configurations with spans to 40 metres, built to UKCA or CE standards and supported for life from 14 depots across the UK and Ireland.
What is an overhead gantry crane?
An overhead gantry crane moves loads in three dimensions across a fixed working area. A hoist travels along a bridge girder, and the bridge travels along runway beams — either carried on the building structure or on the crane’s own legs, keeping heavy loads off the floor and out of manual handling.
You will also see them called electric overhead travelling (EOT) cranes or bridge cranes, and where the crane runs on floor rails, goliath or portal cranes. BS EN 15011 covers the whole family as bridge and gantry cranes.
Replacing repeated manual handling or slow forklift movements takes weight off people, frees floor space and shortens cycle times. WH Scott designs, fabricates and installs these cranes in-house and maintains them afterwards, so one company stays accountable from the first site survey onwards.
Why Specify a WH Scott Crane
Capacities to 250 tonnes
Solutions from 100 kg handling systems through to 250 t heavy-industrial cranes.
Engineered, not just supplied
Crane and supporting steelwork designed together by one accountable team.
EN 1090 certified steelwork
Supporting gantry steelwork designed and fabricated in our own certified workshop.
End-to-end delivery
Design, manufacture, delivery, installation, commissioning, testing and aftercare.
Bespoke crane design
Lifting heights, speeds, spans and structural arrangements built to your application.
UK & Ireland coverage
14 depots across the UK and Ireland for faster commissioning, inspection and callout.
LOLER & PUWER in-house
Thorough examination, load testing and certification by our own inspection engineers.
Indoor, outdoor and EX-rated
Including explosion-proof cranes for EX zones 1 to 21 and 2 to 22.
Freestanding or integrated
Installed as freestanding systems or built into new and existing buildings.
UKCA and CE compliant
All WH Scott overhead gantry crane solutions conform to UKCA and CE standards.
Intelligent lifting controls
Sway control, microspeed, load display and hoisting frequency converter.
Lifting expertise since 1897
Over a century of lifting engineering, supporting cranes across their full lifecycle.
Crane Types & Configurations
The right configuration depends on what you lift, how far it travels, the headroom you have and how hard the crane will work.
Single girder gantry cranes
The most cost-effective option for production, engineering and workshop environments. A single bridge girder keeps deadweight and cost down while maximising usable floor space, making these the default choice for light to medium-duty lifting.
Double girder gantry cranes
Two adjacent bridge beams deliver the strength, stability and hook height required for medium to heavy loads and high duty cycles. Greater lifting heights are achievable, and a fixed maintenance platform can be supplied for safe access.
Underslung gantry cranes
Also called underhung or under-running cranes, these suspend from the underside of the runway beams. They are the answer where floor-mounted gantry steelwork is not feasible, or where low headroom and complex roof structures rule out a top-running design.
Goliath cranes
Floor-running portal cranes carried on their own legs, for heavy-duty lifting where no suitable building structure exists. Commonly specified for shipyards, large fabrication yards and outdoor storage areas.
Semi-goliath cranes
A hybrid arrangement with one side floor-running on its own leg and the other supported by a fixed gantry or building column. Ideal where one supporting structure already exists and building a second would be uneconomic.
Lifting Solutions
Part of a complete lifting range
This is one of the complete lifting solutions delivered by WH Scott across the UK and Ireland — from radio remotes, hoists and crane components to fully bespoke crane systems. Explore the full range to find the right fit for your operation.
Specification at a Glance
Every crane is configured to the job, but these are the working envelopes we design within.
- Capacity: 100 kg to 250 tonnes — single girder to 40 t, double girder to 250 t, underslung to 12.5 t
- Span: to 30 m single girder, 40 m double girder, 28 m underslung
- Girders: single or double I-beam profile, or fabricated box girder
- Running arrangement: top-running or underslung end carriages
- Hoists: manual, electric chain or wire rope hoist
- Control: pendant or radio remote control
- Environment: indoor, outdoor, or EX-rated for hazardous areas
Where precision or high duty cycles matter, cranes can be specified with a hoisting frequency converter for regulated handling down to 1% of nominal speed, microspeed limiting, sway control during acceleration and braking, and a load display readable from the floor.
Where Our Cranes Work
WH Scott cranes run in manufacturing and engineering workshops, warehouses and distribution facilities, aerospace and composite production, shipyards and fabrication yards, and on construction sites. We also design for the harder cases: EX-rated cranes for hazardous zones, cleanroom cranes for controlled environments, and latching crane systems that transfer loads between bays without setting them down.
Lifting Equipment Compliance in the UK and Ireland
A new crane must be supplied with a Declaration of Conformity and the correct marking. In Great Britain that is UKCA or CE marking under the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008; in Ireland it is CE marking under the Machinery Directive, with the EU Machinery Regulation 2023/1230 taking effect from January 2027. We handle the conformity route as part of the build.
Once the crane is in service the duties sit under different law but run to the same intervals. In Great Britain, LOLER 1998 requires thorough examination of the crane at least every 12 months and of lifting accessories at least every 6 months. In Ireland, S.I. No. 299 of 2007 sets the same periods, enforced by the Health and Safety Authority. BS 7121-2-7 is the recognised code of practice for thoroughly examining bridge and gantry cranes and their supporting structures. Our engineers carry out both regimes, so the crane we build is the crane we certify.
Get in Touch
Tell Us About Your Project
Whether you need a single piece of equipment or a fully engineered lifting system, our specialists can help. Tell us your load, environment and compliance requirements — we’ll do the rest.