John -

Well said!


Les

Here is the background on the Altoona wrecker.

Industrial Brownhoist C/N 11822 250 tons Wrecker Steam (to Diesel) $151,591
(operable)
New York Central #X-16 (converted to diesel)
Penn Central #50209
Conrail #50209 to #45215
Mar Ke & Asso. (D)
http://berwickrailfan.webs.com/moweqipp ... R45215.gif

Digging around various photo websites, trying to identify the derrick tender that is @ Altoona I came across one group of photos that identify the car as being CR 45509, previously NYC 24133. Hope to do some more digging out of the hope of proving that this is the case.

I don't know. A railway museum derailed a South Shore car on an exploratory run to see if they could shove through the last dregs of the winter snow… it was a shoving move and they put it well into the ditch... and calling one of those commercial services to re-rail it cost nearly their annual budget. Having an in-house wrecking capability is something you might want.

Does anyone (maybe E.B. in particular?) know what all the Elkhart wreck train had besides the crane and boom car now seen in Altoona? I want to know what the entire support train consisted of, maybe even find pictures, for a model building effort. Thanks!