19.06.2026

Thomas Henry Newell 1938 – 2026

We have received the sad news that UK tower crane and hoist veteran Tommy Newell of Vertical Transportation has died.
He passed away on May 30th at the age of 77. He leaves behind his son Alan and daughters Yvette and Lisa, sadly his wife Yvonne died some years ago, following a short illness.

Raised in Muswell Hill, London Tommy Newell became one of the well known characters in tower crane and hoist rental from the 1960s until 2017 when he sold the business to Trevor Jepson at City Lifting, and retired.

A talented motorcycle racer, he competed in many events, including the Isle of Man TT and was still riding a 1,200 cc Buell motorbike around London for site meetings well into his 70s and also remained a hands-on tower crane erector.

His crane career began with Climbing Cranes Ltd, the UK dealer for Linden Alimak in the early 1960s. The tallest building in the UK at that time was the GPO Tower, now the Telecom Tower. It is rumoured he performed a handstand on top of the crane jib more than 180 metres in the air purely for a bet.

He then began working for Ferry Works Plant Hire, followed a few years later at Rapid Plant Hire, leaving in 1980 to set up Vertical Transportation with his wife Yvonne, Ray Balach and three Swedish colleagues, Ingmar Pada, Nils Soderlov and Christer Klemets.

Tommy and Ray then took over company and ran it together for many years. All the cranes and hoists were of Nordic origin, Linden Alimak hoists, Linden Cranes, Tornborg Cranes from Sweden and Kroll Cranes from Denmark.

The most well know cranes in the fleet were the Magni S40 and S46 Folding jib or swan neck tower cranes and the distinctive Kroll 103V ‘pipe cranes’.

Tommy Newell’s funeral will be held on Tuesday 14th July
Leaving From: The Woodman Inn, 21 Warrengate Road, Hatfield, AL9 7TT, with the Funeral Service starting at 13:00 at Oak Hill Lawn Cemetery and Crematorium, South Way, Hatfield, AL10 8HS. It will be followed by a reception at the Woodman Inn. The family has said that in order to assist with catering could anyone wishing to attend the reception please let them know via [email protected] or +44 7779 191331.