by BobLI
Were the 250 ton cranes self propelled? I mean being able to move slowly around a work site or did they need an engine to push them at the site to reposition them?
Railroad Forums
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BobLI wrote:Were the 250 ton cranes self propelled? I mean being able to move slowly around a work site or did they need an engine to push them at the site to reposition them?They were pushed around the work site by locomotives as some of these big cranes still required water tenders to power there steam boilers. Many of these cranes lasted into the late 70's and 80's before being replaced by cranes set up with hi-rail capabilities. Standard pulling operations for a 250 ton crane required at leased 5 idler cars between the Locomotive and the Crane when in transit from one location to another. The reason for this was to give more brakeing power as these cranes were ofton just as heavy or heavier than a single locomotive.
scharnhorst wrote:Amtrak owned (and may still own) and operated at least one self propelled diesel-electric derrick type crane built by the American Crane company (who built many steam wreckers and ditchers over the years,IINM). It used to be based at the Pawtucket, RI maintainence facilty and was used routinely for MOW work. I don't know the capacity but it was considerably larger than 25 tons....BobLI wrote:Were the 250 ton cranes self propelled? I mean being able to move slowly around a work site or did they need an engine to push them at the site to reposition them?They were pushed around the work site by locomotives as some of these big canes still required water tendered to power there steam boilers. Many of these cranes lasted into the late 70's and 80's before being replaced by cranes set up with hi-rail capabilities. Standard pulling operations for a 250 ton crane required at leased 5 idler cars between the Locomotive and the Crane when in transit from one location to another. The reason for this was to give more brakeing power as these cranes were oftonley just as heavy or heavier than a single locomotive.
Smaller 25 ton railroad cranes and Burro cranes are about the only cars that I know that are self propelled and able to move around a job site on there own.
v8interceptor wrote:could be 50ton or maybe 100ton cap?? anything bigger than that like the 250ton Big Hooks of yester year were pushed around the site. There is anouther rule in the books that I forgot to add railroad cranes are not to be moved a speeds any faster than 20mph in a train or 15mph while being pushed in transit from one location to anouther. The speeds may vary from railroad to railroad as well I saw this in an old Conrail rule book.scharnhorst wrote:Amtrak owned (and may still own) and operated at least one self propelled diesel-electric derrick type crane built by the American Crane company (who built many steam wreckers and ditchers over the years,IINM). It used to be based at the Pawtucket, RI maintainence facilty and was used routinely for MOW work. I don't know the capacity but it was considerably larger than 25 tons....BobLI wrote:Were the 250 ton cranes self propelled? I mean being able to move slowly around a work site or did they need an engine to push them at the site to reposition them?They were pushed around the work site by locomotives as some of these big canes still required water tendered to power there steam boilers. Many of these cranes lasted into the late 70's and 80's before being replaced by cranes set up with hi-rail capabilities. Standard pulling operations for a 250 ton crane required at leased 5 idler cars between the Locomotive and the Crane when in transit from one location to another. The reason for this was to give more brakeing power as these cranes were oftonley just as heavy or heavier than a single locomotive.
Smaller 25 ton railroad cranes and Burro cranes are about the only cars that I know that are self propelled and able to move around a job site on there own.