Wayne,
I did not know Roco made something like that. You did a great job modifying it.
The Roco raw material is pretty interesting. It surely doesn’t look European, though I suppose they could have placed an order for an American one if they wished.
Here’s a CP crane that looks kinda similar, what with the modern windows:
And a nice side shot of the Roco:
Ed
You’re right, Dave, and I hadn’t really thought of that. I put fuel- and water-fill hatches on the crane’s roof, but never considered that it might be in use for longer periods of time.
I do have a water car, but it’s usually in use of MoW trains…
In the photo above, it’s coupled to a weed sprayer…
I suppose that I could fill the bunker with coal (I modelled it open, but empty), but would still need a way to get the coal from there to the roof-top access hatches for fuel and water on the crane. Perhaps I should have made it an oil burning steam crane.
I also have the Tichy crane, and also modelled it with roof-top fill hatches - they work fine when the crane’s at its home base, but not so practical for on-the-job service, I guess…
Looks like my list of projects continues to grow.
Wayne
On the rear of this Athearn crane are what appear to be doors–very handy if you’re shoveling coal from an adjacent tender. Or to catch a cooling breeze:
The same would appear to be true for the rear of this Bachmann:
Looking at Wayne’s crane, with it’s top-loading coal bin, maybe the way to go, instead of modifying the crane, is to modify the tender with some sort of raised permanent decking so a guy can carry buckets of coal from the tender over to the crane. I doubt that a steam powered crane used lots and lots of coal. Most of the time, it was just idle. Waiting for something to lift.
Ed
Do you think that paint started out as work train silver or UP gray??
EDIT: Sorry I posted before reading everything. I guess is was the “aluminum”? I have a black Athearn heavy crane built, and a decorated aluminum kit in the queue. Plus a Tichy smaller crane unpainted kit that will be a UP when done.
I haven’t reread my MR bound volumes in several years, since they badly need expert rebinding, but I seem to recall that steam-powered cranes had doors on the back for the firemen to use when there was an auxiliary tender. The roof hatches serviced interior coal bunkers, but IDK if the bunkers were refilled via locomotive coal chutes–I’d guess they were, as I can’t imagine men climbing ladders with any amount of coal! Can some of you guys with similar libraries confirm or deny?
I converted an HO Tru-scale industrial crane (the kind with the long, lacy boom) into a small wrecking crane, using the George Lenz contest-winning article in MR, way back when. It, along with a lot of other stuff (OT locos included [sob!] was stolen from a storage locker, back in the early 2000s. Come to think of it, I had a lot of work train stuff, including a winged snowplow, flanger, bunk car, water tanker… Good luck with your
I do not think steam cranes were supplied by regular locomotive coal chutes:
They generally aimed at the center of the track and wouldn’t hit an offset opening
The chute output opening was quite large, perhaps larger than the input opening on the crane
The coal chute did not have a precision delivery control–coal all over the place
Actually, guys up on ladders were very likely how the cranes were fuel if they had top hatches for the purpose. They didn’t hold much coal. They didn’t use much coal when they were operating. And they didn’t operate very often.
It IS interesting to examine the two options for adding coal to a locomotive crane: from the top or from the back.
By the way, the fuel/water tender wasn’t always accompanying the crane. Here’s a shot of one set up without one. It COULD have been disconnected for the operation, to allow more clearance. Or perhaps it wasn’t even there:
Ed
Ed, I’d guess that that Nevada Northern crane could have been the prototype for the Tichy wreck crane. Their stock model is similarly open, while I’ve added sliding doors to mine in consideration of Canadian winters.
I checked my Tichy crane, and it appears to have hinges moulded on the right side of its back end, but because I’ve added a ladder on the left side, can’t see if there’s a moulded-in line representing the edge which would open. It would be easy enough to add a line or strip of trim to create one, though.
On the other hand, the rear of the Roco crane is all counterweight, top-to-bottom and side-to-side.
I looked for info on the coal bunker capacity of tank locomotives, for comparative purposes, with no success, but would guess that a large wreck crane would have room for at least one ton of coal (about 35 cubic feet), and that that amount would likely give it a fair amount of working time, as opposed to stand-by time.
As has been mentioned, though, how the heck do they load that bunker through a roof hatch, even at the crane’s home base?
It seems to me that out on a wreck site, that might be even more of an issue.
Wayne
I’ve just had a look through a book of GN MOW equipment diagrams, looking at cranes. Since GN burned oil in their steamers in the west and coal in the east, I figured they might mention some coal capacities.
The big wreckers rarely showed that information. The best I could get was for a 250 ton diesel, which carried 150 gallons of fuel.
I did find a 30 ton crane that burned coal. Capacity was 1000 pounds (water 750 gallons). Another is a 25 ton crane with 2000 pounds of coal and 500 gallons of water.
I think it would be a mistake to assume a 250 ton crane would carry 10 times as much coal as a 25 ton crane. The little ones tended to work much more continuously. So I would guess a ton of coal would be very typical.
Loading a ton of coal in a top-loading crane is actually very easy. You just lift up a 40 pound bucket 50 times, and you’re done. Ideally, it’s done with a guy on the ground and a guy up top. And a rope.
Since wrecking cranes are rarely called out, it’s not that big a deal.
That said, if a guy had a steam powered Roco crane, and it had a solid counterweight forming its rear, that guy just might decide to have it be oil fueled from a tender. Then there’s just a hose connection for oil and one for water.
If you look at the lower rear of the crane in the photo, down around the counterweight, you’ll see the water hose connection.
Ed
I have a few spare small tender bodies, but a Vanderbilt style would look good, too. I’ll have to keep that in mind for the Ancaster train show next month.
Wayne
I’ve been searching for info on this since you and Wayne started throwing theories around about how much they carried, and how did they reload while “on the job”, I emailed the NN Museum, they have a “historical questions” on their email list.
I’ll see if I get a reply. It sure has captured my interest.
Mike.
Remember this thread? I got an answer from the NNRY.
Heres a picture of the crane that was sent to me from Joan Basset, showing the open coal hatch door:
And here’s her email reply to my question about how much does it hold, and how is it filled:
Michael, I sent a picture of the coal bin on the crane. It is basically loaded by 5 gallon buckets from a front end loader. It holds about the amount of the bucket of our loader. It is not an easy thing to load. Joan curator curator@nnry.com
My original question to her was how was it done back in the day, when this operated on site, for days.
So, I guess it would have been filled by hand, maybe from a coal car or gondola, pushed up to the crane.
Mike.
Thats a pretty good pic! I may have to incorparate some interior detail into my project…
Thanks, Mike, both for coming back with the info on loading and for the photo, too!
Wayne