Strasburg Rail Road's Wascally Wreckers

S. Weaver · **Posted:** Fri May 10, 2013 3:02 pm

softwerkslex wrote:

Was not the burro used to clean out the ash track in the 1980's?

Steven, as Kelly says, "yes," and there were also a lot of other jobs where it was routinely used. We have a fair number of crane "stories" ...

elueck · **Posted:** Sun May 12, 2013 9:07 pm

Georgia State Railroad museum in Savannah, Ga has a Burro crane on site, but I don't believe that it runs.

Another existing Burro Crane is on the Acadiana Railway at Mowata, LA.

Brian Norden · **Posted:** Sun May 12, 2013 9:35 pm

Orange Empire Railway Museum has ex-Santa Fe Burro crane #749 and its transport flatcar ATSF 206204. The flat car ("mother car") came with the special loading/unloading ramp for the Burro crane

See webpage here: http://www.oerm.org/collection/santa-fe/atsf-burro-crane-749-and-flatcar

Stephen S. Syfrett · **Posted:** Sun May 12, 2013 11:01 pm

Since this has moved into the "Who has a Burro Crane" realm, I'll add that Gold Coast Railroad Museum has (or at least "had" when I was there in 2006) a Burro amongst all their other hodgepodge of railroad equipment. At that time it was between FEC 113's (4-6-2) tender and a 50-ft composite gondola, which was coupled to LIRR 1555 (RS-3). I understand they've thinned the collection considerably but I would guess the Burro is still there. Alive or not I don't know.

M Secco · **Joined:** Sun May 12, 2013 2:46 pm **Posts:** 245

She looks like a model 30 burro. Model 15 burros had a square operator compartment i.e. vertical windshield. I'm not sure if there were any late model 15s with slanted windshields though. Your boom was optional for model 30s and 15s over a lattice boom which is 33' and 35' respectively. Some specs follow; model 15....11,000 lbs. cap. at 10' radius, drawbar pull 6,000 lbs, speed 1.3 to 27 mph. Model 30....15,000 lbs cap. at 10' radius, drawbar 7,500 lbs, speed 1.2 to 22 mph, weighs 41,000 lbs. Good luck, be safe, have fun.