Job Briefing: L to R: John Brazil, Rigger/ Helper; Andy Chmuar, Rigger/Helper; Dan Fenlaciki, Wrecker Operator; Jerry Lynn, Signal Passer/Rigger; Terry Glenn (retired), UP Ohio Crane Operator, former operator of our Ohio when owned by CNW/UP. Dennis Powell (retired), CNW/UP mechanic. Dennis set up our Ohio and her 5 sisters when CNW purchased them in 1976. Mark Secco (retired), CNW/ UP crane operator. Not pictured: Rick Clayton (retired), CNW/UP also ran our Ohio crane while employed. Bob Olson, Fork Truck Driver/Rigger; Dave Diamond, Buildings and Grounds Manager IRM, Helper/Rigger/ Gawker. Checking Radii
Setting up for basket hitch. Polyester round sling good for 80,000 lbs. Turntable weight, 120,000 lbs.

40 ton Ohio ready.
160 ton wrecker using polyester sling with lifting beam.
Ohio travels forward 30 feet while wrecker swings.

Wrecker re-hooks 30' from end, while table rests on custom made false bent. Ohio's end is resting on flat car. This will reduce the Ohio's load by 11,000 lbs allowing Ohio to safely swing load onto landing blocks.
Fork lift takes away bent.
Done! Everything went very smoothly. Now we need the pit. Donations accepted. Send to Turntable Fund Illinois Railway Museum. Thank you. Mark

Using museum cranes to unload a turntable instead of shelling out gobs of money to rent cranes and crews to do the same job? What a bizarre idea! So what's next, hauling coal cars with steam locomotives?

Seriously, great job using the cranes as they were intended to be used. And making efficient use of money donated for the project. I'm much more inclined to make a donation knowing that it will be well managed.

And it's great to see that big ol' wrecker in action! Congrats to all involved in the unloading and getting those cranes working.

Unfortunately, a lot of local museums have had to stop using their cranes as the certification requirements for the boom and cables are too complicated and expensive for the minimal use they get.

Suspect that's why more than a few have become "display only".

Before we did any lifts with the Ohio we replaced all the wire rope including the boom pendents. Was it expensive, it could have been but I shopped around like a normal person who wants the best bang for the buck. Like anything the prices run all over the place . After paying $10 and some change for 7/8" wire rope per foot one time , the next time I got it for under $5 from the same company , why you ask , cause I talked to the owner and he became intrigued on my plan to save us bucks with our cranes and he now helps us whenever he can.
Now with brand new wire rope and a good boom the maintenance expenses, not including a paint job will be for grease and oil. You must lube all the wire rope with an oil at lease twice a year so it doesn't become rebar like. The industry I believe says 6 times a year. Wire rope will last a very very long time if lubed properly . Oil and grease are cheap.

I want to also say once you get your crane going properly it's easy to maintain . Get someone or a small group dedicated to it. It may also have an interesting history like our CNW 6363 Bucyrus 160 ton wrecker which was on the other end of the table lift. She picked up a wreck on the North Shore once and two of the wrecked cars just also happen to be at our museum. To stop the rumors , no we are not going to recreate that moment in history . (at this time)

Out of curiosity, was there a turntable fund already? After 30 years of owning one, hopefully there's a good start already. Or is there a long road ahead from scratch to being able to get this larger one installed and functional?

Hopefully we're talking 5 years instead of decades since this will be a nice addition to IRM.

Yes there is a turntable fund at the Illinois Railway Museum. It is somewhat depleted at the moment with all the dismantling and loading costs of the table by contractors even with the help of 3 volunteers . It was still a good deal ,being built in the "40s" ,rebuilt about 5 years ago and what I read about it's American Bridge design being the best of the best with three point constant contact and a shallow profile when compared to the Bethlehem designed 3 pointers.

No doubt about it.

I wasn't hinting at criticism of any sort, if it may have read that way despite efforts to keep it from sounding like that. Glad it was there to be used to fund saving this item and provide some sort of start towards installation.

No problem ,you weren't critical at all. Hopefully a Daddy Warbucks will come along and get on board for the turntable pit . The sooner the better while the irons hot.
By the way no money from the turntable fund was used to fix or prepare the two cranes at IRM for the unloading. That was mostly from the Crane Safety And Training group along with a lot of hard work and long days for the last 5 weeks .
PS. It was great not having to rent two cranes and besides, I know we did a better job rigging it cause it arrived with bent flanges in all 4 corners from someone using hooks that only have a small contact area . We had brand new Polyester slings with corner protectors . Believe me , a "Professional Certified" contractor seldom has the correct slings for your special job.

For those interested this delivery is of the 104th turntable moved for use at museums or tourist lines. It is now one of 59 moved and in storage. There are 37 moved and in use, 18 moved twice, and 4 moved three times. These latter moves were due to the museum moving or having to move it from one temporary storage site to another. And the situation is unclear about a few so these numbers don't add up to 104. Only 9 have been moved and later scrapped.

At this time 11:45am this article has had 1418 hits. If everyone chipped in $10 bucks that would be $14,180 , enough to pay for the purchase price of the table plus 2 of the 4 semi loads of parts delivered to IRM.
Please do what you can. We really want to forge ahead with this great project . Donate to the TURNTABLE FUND , ILLINOIS RAILWAY MUSEUM.
Lets get it done.
THANK YOU.

I want to thank Dennis Dougherty for the great job he did managing the turntable project in Denver for the Illinois Railway Museum. After his winning bid of the turntable for IRM ,Dennis arranged for contractors to strip off everything removable from the frames to make it easier to ship and unload, ( JD and Phil from the Steam Department spent a week there for that.) Acting as liaison between IRM and the Union Pacific Railroad, Dennis was involved with ordering the heavy flatcar along with two idler flats for the overhang . Arranging the lift out of the pit and loading with two Caterpillar side boom crawlers. Welding of the many tie down brackets on the heavy flatcar till it passed UP muster . Fighting snow storms, loading out four semi's of parts,on and on and on.
He gave me the weight and dimensions we needed to get the right slings made up and both cranes arranged to make a safe and easy unloading at IRM. Accept for a short break in activities, Dennis was on the job from March 20th to April 28th. I honestly beleave if he hadn't stepped forward , the 130' long D&RGW turntable would not be in our backyard .THANK YOU Dennis, Thank You very much.
signed: 47 year member of IRM.

OK