Crane car rigging

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

I have amodel of an ordinary I think burro crane. I am going to buy and modify a 40 ft flatcar to put the boom on, and I was wondering, how do the real railroads tie a boom down, so when there going around the corner the boom doesn’t fly off to the side?

Thanks for any help, Noah[:p]

2

I saw a crane just yesterday and didn’t get a photo of it. From what I’ve seen of cranes around here on the old BN, they have two I beams on each side, welded together at a 70 degree angle, with one beam going through the middle of the car. The cars are usually close to that ATSF red, with the beams yellow, but I have seen all black and silver cars too. I’ll look for a photo and if I find it I’ll tell ya.

3

Found a photo. This ones a little different than the ones I’ve seen, but hopefully will help you out now.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/10981082/28931551WdJemeReMo

4

I don’t know for sure, but…

I would think that the boom is not tied to the idler/spacer flat car. If it was, the crane and the flat would become one unit. The rest for the boom is probably a wide “Y” shape, to allow the boom to shift a bit on curves, but with end stops so it cannot slide right off the support.

Of course, it may be secured tightly, as a lot of the curves on the prototype are not nearly as tight as our model curves. This is where model and prototype accuracy may need to diverge slightly.

Good luck with your project!

Andrew

5

Thanks to all of you. I am using a flat car for a boom suport right now, but I want to make the flat car into a boom car. I have to tie it down because of the fairly shap curves on the layout of mine.

Thanks again, Noah