Any idea what this looked like from different angles?

[sirenwerks]

In the category of "How would I model this?"







1950s New Haven, in Rhode Island I believe.  It's a crawler crane on a what?  Looks like a tie cart with bigger wheels, with an extension of some sort to a second, normal-wheel-sized tie cart (to accommodate the length of the boom, I presume), led by another tie cart with human load.  And there's no loco, so is, and if so how, the crane powering the whole shebang?


Wish I could find some photos of this thing from the side and other angles...  Wonder what crane model it is too...

[sd45elect2000]

Start with this Bantom dragline.

I picture was taking in Providence RI

http://www.blackforesthobby.com/railway-express-miniatures/

Randy

[central.vermont]

I think what you see on the cart directly in front of the crane is possibly a switch frog. If you notice the crane has a hook for picking rails. So possibly they are on their way to a switch repair.

Jon

[Cajonpassfan]

Forget the crane, look at the beautiful (west coast) reefers! Love the new planks on the PFE
Otto K.

[strummer]

Gawd, this is why I love this forum...

Mark in Oregon

[nkalanaga]

I don't know how the mechanicals worked, but I've seen crawlers of various kinds powering small rail cars.  Apparently the tread drive can also be used to turn the rail wheels, probably through some kind of chain or belt arrangement.

[wpsnts]

My how times have changed.
Check out the lettering on the tie car, "Safety First". Now look at the men riding the car and crane. We can't do that on today's railroads.

[sd45elect2000]

I'll bet these guys made it to retirement without serious injury. It was a different time back then. Safety was an individual responsibility. These days more than a few injuries are more for personal gain than for real injury.

edit: Interesting that I got a negative feedback for this statement. I base my opinion on the fact that I have 30 years on a real railroad. I have seen employees "disabled" with severe back injuries and find them during the summer roofing houses. On another occasion suing the railroad with carpal tunnel and then taking a bowling trophy, I have no illusions.

Randy

[sirenwerks]

Google obsession mode.  Similar but not the same...



Observations about this unit:
1.  The crane tracks are situated perpendicular to the tracks, rather than parallel to them like the first unit pictured;
2.  The crane seems to be riding on, at least part of, an AAR loco truck or passenger car truck.

[sd45elect2000]

That looks like a model 30 Burro crane, I don't know if there are any model 30's available.

Randy

[Jim Starbuck]

The Railway Express Miniatures Bantam dragline crane looks like a great place to start.
Randy's picture shows the crane manufactured by Koehring (which bought out Bantam).
A couple of REM tie carts and this project looks very doable.
We'll also want to see it powered, lighted and a decoder installed when you're done.

[wpsnts]

I'll bet these guys made it to retirement without serious injury. It was a different time back then. Safety was an individual responsibility. These days more than a few injuries are more for personal gain than for real injury.

edit: Interesting that I got a negative feedback for this statement. I base my opinion on the fact that I have 30 years on a real railroad. I have seen employees "disabled" with severe back injuries and find them during the summer roofing houses. On another occasion suing the railroad with carpal tunnel and then taking a bowling trophy, I have no illusions.

Randy

Randy,
I'm still learning how to use this board.
Maybe it has since been removed but I don't see any negative feedback about you in this thread.

[sd45elect2000]

The negative feedback went away an hour after I posted.

I am thinking that the model 20 burro http://www.blackforesthobby.com/burro-crane/ might be a good place to start, maybe some crawler tracks can be attached to the frame ?


Randy

[OldEastRR]

I'm wondering whether this was self-propelled at all. In the original pic, the crane cab is pointing toward the camera, yet the men on the cart  are facing away. If self-propelled, the crane driver is running blind or the guys on the cart like riding while looking backwards -- not  a good idea on a RR track. Crawler tracks seem to indicate the crane can dismount the cart. What kind of coupled universal or linked connection would allow it to do that and power the cart would be quite a contraption. Awfully short center cart if it's to rest the boom on.

[sd45elect2000]

A lot of these carts are still around, at least I have seen them in my travels. There is a chain  drive sprocket attached to an axle on the cart . The carts are also much heavier duty than the smaller pushcarts. Since they are entirely made from heavy steel they last a long time unlike the wooden deck push carts. I assume that the crane had some sort of PTO to adapt it to the cart.



Randy