I was looking at some old pictures of Larne Harbour station (and @LARNE CABIN's excellent model thread) and in some pictures noted container wagons under a gantry crane in the sidings in front of the main platform. Some of those containers would be the Red Star parcels, which I vaguely remember from getting the ferries to go on summer holidays in the 70s and early 80s to Scotland.
My question:
Was the gantry crane used to lift containers off the flat wagons for transfer to road vehicles and/or the ferries?
If so, noting that it appears to have a single lifting hook, was it a case of running four strops from the hook to each top corner of the container?
(Lifting frames strike me as being a more recent tool)
If the containers weren't lifted off, does that mean they were used as "vans" and loaded/unloaded in those sidings by hand? With one set of end doors, would that be a rather complicated way to move parcels and need a lot of work?
I'm aware of @jhb171achill's question about the design of CIE container gantries, though those look to be a different design than was used at Larne Harbour. However, maybe operating practice was similar.
I am considering adding a container siding and crane to my work-in-progress layout (not very much progress so far...)
Thank you in advance for any information.
Michael