Can someone tell me if Burro Cranes were equipped with either a bell or a horn/whistle? Being self propelled and able to handle a few cars I would think they may have had something.
Thanks,
Bob D.

I've worked on them (repair shop) and all they had is an air horn... and not a loco horn, either. No bell. Most have a strobe light.

I've just had the opportunity to remove stuff from one that is getting scrapped, and the horn was one of the items. A two trumpet style of horn.

The Burro has a 2 cylinder Quincy air compressor belt driven off the Detroit diesel, which supplies air for the pneumatic control system, and air for the horn is taken off that supply.

On the UP, they seem to be a thing of the past.

You want to see something wild.... watch a man load his Burro onto a 50' flatcar by running it up the incline ramp. Back off 50', get a run at it and run right up that ramp wide open (which isn't really that fast ;) ) and get stopped before you run off the other end of the car!

The guys who were more conservative.. they'd pull themselves up the ramp with the hoist cable.

After they get the burro loaded, they pull down to the end of the car, swing the boom around and pick up the ramp and load it on the other end of the car. Self contained!

I've seen a Santa Fe Burro pulling a scrap gon during a right-of-way cleanup campaign (probably when the price of scrap iron was high). With that GM engine, it sounded like an old-look transit bus.

Thank you for the info Bad Order.

Bob D.

The Burros I saw in the East (Penn Central, CR, B&O, Amtrak, etc.) were all equipped with two-tone truck air horns, not bells or railroad-grade air horns. Remember, they occasionally had to cross road crossings while running light.

This one had no air or whistle of any kind. It did come with a hand crank start Buda in line gas motor. I can't remember much about it as I haven't started it since 1973, it was a 4 cyl, but it started pretty easy compared to some old hand cranks. Probably a little bit older than this discussion is headed? But couldn't resist putting this one out there. Think it a very cool pc of equipment. Regards, John.

http://www.midcontinent.org/collectn/service/crane_.jpg

The Pacific Locomotive Association has had a couple operational Burro's over the years. One was a model 30 and the other a model 40, both were equipped with GM 2-stroke diesels with a small air compressor and a rather small air reservoir. The horns on both of these are typical of MOW equipment, truck air horns.

Both of our Burro's have been used for moving equipment around, but anything more than about 60 tons is really pushing the limits of an old Burro. The air system does not have the volume to cycle the automatic brake more than a couple times before running out of air.

When we have used our model 40 for MOW rail moving the most we pull is a single 40' flatcar which is never loaded more than about one or two layers of rail. If we need to travel any distance a locomotive is used to shuttle the Burro and flat around the railroad for safety.

Johnathon Kruger
Road Foreman of Engines
Niles Canyon Railway

Pertaining to a Model 40 Burro. From the operator's cab area, is there access to the engine/ mechanical area? Is it wide open behind the seat or a low wall to allow use of the rear window? I read that generally in transit the boom trailed, does the seat swivel?
Haven't seen a good picture showing the winch for the boom. Is it the same general size as the two main drums?
Thanks,
Bob D.

If it's like most crawler or truck cranes of that era, it's pretty wide-open inside the house. Sometime about 1970-1975 manufacturers started isolating the operator's section from the rest of the house in similar cranes (I imagine in the interest of noise abatement), but even those have a door to allow the engine area to be accessed.

If you really want info on these things, try contacting the Historical Construction Equipment Association. They have a huge archive and supply copies of operating, maintenance, and parts manuals for practically anything like this:

http://www.hcea.net

I worked one short summer as a yard clerk for a contractor who used a burro crane as a switch engine (they were in a bind, their switch engine developed a thin flange and there was miles of red tape needed to fix that) and it did indeed have a horn. It was loud...that is all I know.

T7

I've worked for the UP/CNW for 37 years as a crane operator. All the rail bound cranes that I saw came with truck type horns from the builders. When an operator was assigned a crane i.e. Burro, American, Ohio, Little Giant the first thing to "go" was that stupid horn. We'd put on any locomotive horn we could get our hands on. I myself installed a Nathan five chime on my American Crane . Some guys would also mount locomotive bells on theirs. My bell came from a GP9 going to scrap. We'd even take out the engine oil bath air cleaners and replace them with dry ones. One guy installed an extra large intake on his 671 Detroit which increased its horsepower . As for the room in the back of a Burro it is very very cramped. You can't even get past the "A" frame . You just have to reach what you can , thats why they have doors on both sides , the front and the back . Burro 40s have around 12,000 lbs tractive effort in 1st gear. The higher the gear the lower the TE. Once I borrowed a 40 to take my American, which had a shorted traction motor, from West Chicago to Proviso to be repaired. It pulled my crane,idler flat and caboose , a total of 130 tons at about 26+ mph though mostly down hill with no problem except that it still had that stupid truck horn on it.

Secco,
Thanks for the info. One item I haven't seen a clear pic of is the winch for the boom. It looks to be much smaller and set off to the operators side. Or were there two upper winches? I've seen a different boom on a Model 40 that was set up with a cable operated shovel and wondered if that required a 4th drum. Were the winches single speed? Or was there a gearbox and throttle? It's really tough finding much technical info on these cranes.
I have one pic with the rear cab wall and engine removed that shows what some of the innards look like. Your right, there isn't much room.
Bob D.

The boom drum is driven by a worm gear which has an automatic applying brake. There are 6 clutches "not counting the master Twin Disc clutch on the motor" that run off a common gear train. They run both hoists, left and right swings and both travel directions. The crane machinery can be disconnected from the travel gears so that when you shift to high gear you don't blow up the magnet generator which was not uncommon though that even can be taken out of gear on its own. The transmission on the 40s is a Cotta 4 speed. You were only suppose to run the craning functions in 1st or 2nd gear otherwise things could be damaged . There is also a two speed transfer case between the travel clutches and travel gear and a high speed notch on the throttle . These cranes could really get you home on time if you know what I mine. Hope this was helpful. Mark

Thanks Mark, that was some good insights on Burro operations.

Bob D.

Was there a chart in the cab with lift capacities for different boom and turret positions? The Model 40 was rated at 25,000 lbs. Was that with the boom nearly vertical with the load over the tracks? Is there a pendulum type angle indicator on the boom the operator could see to know where he was at? What was the lift capacity with a low boom perpendicular to the tracks? Do the winches stall or slip at overmax ratings or could the crane pull itself over?
Anyone have any cab photos of a model 40?
Thanks,
Bob D.