It was a crane. It appeared to be pretty old, but maybe it was just worked hard. It looked like your typical crane on a flat car, but it looked like the flat car itself was seperate but permanently atached to another, much smaller car that actually held the crane body. It was self-propelled and on the flat car was sections of track and ties all still together, like the ties were still spiked to the rails, and the crane had just lifted the whole section right up onto the flat car. It had 4-5 sections stacked on top of each other on the flat car. There was a hi-rail truck running in front of it that seemed to be helping block traffic at grade crossings, although this crane had it’s own, somewhat weak horn. The only markings I managed to see was on the back, in large letters was the word “AMERICAN” which I assume is the manufacturer. I wish I had my camera handy so I could get a pick.
Can anyone tell me a little more about this crane? It was on a NS line.
EDIT The crane I saw was very similar to this one, only the one I saw was all black, crane body and flat car, everything black.
These small self-propelled cranes are quite common in maintenance-of-way service. The flatcar was carrying panel track and the crane and hi-rail were probably headed to a grade crossing maintenance job.
You assume correctly. The rail crane portion of “American”, previously the American Hoist & Derrick Co, is now part of “American and Ohio Locomotive Crane”, part of ERS Industries. Check out this website: http://www.ersindustries.com