I saw a photo of a self propelled Crane Car in an old Pentrex video and wonder if anyone knows if any of the major roads still use these anymore? It was pretty neat watching it go buy in the video without an engine pulling or pushing it.
Larry
Are you talking a hook/ Wrecker (Industrial Brownhoist 100-330 Ton Units) or or something like a railroad pile driver (Ohio Crane or similar, 50-100 Ton) that every big railroad uses for pile drivers or bridge construction…?
Ed has seen several BNSF Pile Drivers in Houston in recent history.
Burro Crane Model 30 and Model 40’s are everywhere.
There are three RGCX/ex-DRGW 150-250 ton hooks in Denver including one that started life as an ATSF 150 ton hook that was stationed at La Junta, CO…as a steam derrick.
Mudchicken,
I was referring to the hook/wrecker type unit. Thanks.
Larry
You are not going to see the big hooks anymore except for places where access is an issue (usually mountain country)…Rubber tired hydraulic cranes are faster, cheaper , less labor intensive and more flexible plus railcars have gotten to the point where they outweight the crane’s ability to lft anywhere except up directly against the side of the crane. (the moment arm on the boom extended to any degree is getting excessive making lifts impossible)
http://www.dgbn.com/train/work.html
http://www.readingrailroad.org/roster/roster_wreck_90901.html
****To answer CSSH’s comment below, the derricks and old piledrivers that I was around all could move on their own, but the gear ratio used was so low that except at the wreck site, they had a locomotive attached. (because they were powerful, but horribly slow - you could walk faster than they could move)…More modern Ohio and American cranes used by bridge and pile driver gangs get up to 20 MPH with a conventional transmission.*****http://www.aolcrane.com/overview.htm
http://www.mchughlocomotiveandcrane.com/cranes.html
The only self-propelled cranes of which I’m aware are Burros and similar designs which are routinely used in M/W service and quite frequently in scrap yards, minimills, etc. There are plenty of those around.
Mudchicken is right, the big hooks have all but vanished, at any rate, I don’t remember any of them being self-propelled.
We are getting our big hook ready for a wreck job as I speak. I think it’s a 150 ton brownhoist
Randy
It is not uncommon to see light duty cranes such as the ones in M/W work pass by in the Muncie area…sometimes with another rail car attached to them and moving on their own power.
Some American cranes are self propelled
Yea I remember THe CN&W used to have one I remember it because they always used up where. I used to live and it was so cool looking just to see this thing moving up and down the tracks and it was so cool by how it picked up a whole piece of track and set it on a flat car I even think that. The Up still uses this crane but I have not seen it in along time.
Are two of these the cranes that responded to the Pinecliff wreck in 1991?
Saw an amtrak one last year in harrisburg.
Adrianspeeder