Just thought to update this thread.... I have what appears to be most of a manual for IB CN 12325, a 250T built for C&NW in 1958, I believe. IPS Cranes was kind enough to send me a copy. I'll see if I can get permission to distribute copies if anyone wants a one.

Now we're looking for drawings for two reasons: 1) our own use; 2) a premium brass model manufacturer is considering this model for production if they can gather enough data. If anyone has any Type Z drawings they'd like to share, or has any idea where some may be found, please contact me via PM or email.

Thanks,

Here is what I have for IB
12325 250t DW 1955
Canadian National #50387
Alberta Railway Museum Edmonton, Alberta 2000


Can you shed light on the C&NW ownership?

Hey John,

I'd be inclined to trust your list on ownership. I popped the owner question and the guy didn't have that info in front of him. The manual index is dated November 1956 for CN 12325 but there are other pages with dates out to December 1958 so my assumption is that this is made up from a combination of manuals to conform with our wrecker.

.

Thanks, Kelly. Going by memory - always dangerous in my case - the engine looks different than our steam 250T but I'll check next time I'm there. Odd that I don't have images of the engine. 40+ years and 130 ton difference, however.... At the least, we'll know who has a 1909, 120T manual.

Kelly,

I give up! What wrecker is that book for? IB #10613 would have been built in Cleveland in 1929 or 30. I can't find any listing for a X202 and the only thing I can find for X74 is a B&O 120 tonner built in 1911.

Being a fan of Industrial Brownhoist, it makes sense to jump into this thread.

The type Z wrecker was configured or marketed in different arrangements during its reign.
As mentioned here in the past, the cranes were fitted with five different boom styles and
a variety of super structure housings dependent on the crane being steam or diesel powered.

Finding the exact drawings for a particular style of type Z wrecker remains a daunting quest.
(Likely requiring an actual trip to Minnesota where some of the boxed up manufacturer material has been reported to exist.)
The historical museum in Bay City, Michigan has very little to sift through.
But local residents are likely sitting on information they don't know they have.
I recall a modeler here in Michigan getting close to assembling the needed reference material
to market a model but don't know what Z style arrangement of crane he was/is working toward.

The famous American Flyer model No. 644 first marketed in 1950 and fitted with a shortened style "B" boom
was patterned from IB's first new diesel (Crane Number/Construction Number 11776) introduced in 1945.

In 1952, Popular Science published an article "The Crane That Saves $2,000 a Minute" with an illustration
showing the guts of the type Z super structure. To think of the reference material they had access to at that
time to render such a drawing... how it would be quite useful for a model maker to have today.

An additional few cents to the thread... IB Wrecker 12325 mentioned was built featuring the two vertical
window panes on the rear of the super structure. This aspect of the wrecker housing first appeared in 1953 on crane number 12267 finished in April of that year.

Last winter during the cold days, I reverse engineered John Taubeneck's extremely useful
Industrial Brownhoist crane list to determine much of the above.
Surprisingly, a photo of nearly every type Z wrecker ever constructed was found on the Internet somewhere.

Eric, you can put me on the interested party list in getting a copy of your new found info
should you be able to share it.

For now... I better get to bed, or Santa won't show up ; )

John

John,

If IPS gives the OK, I'll share a copy on Google drive for downloading and post a link here. I'll also make it available on my website.

I don't recall if I mentioned this in one of the other crane threads... IPS Cranes owns the intellectual property of IB. The story goes (I may not have all the details right), they had all the original IB records - documents and drawings - to use as references stored in a basement at one of their buildings and a main water line broke and flooded the basement. All the drawings were destroyed along with a good portion, if not most of the documents. I don't know if they lost any of the American and Ohio records. So if there are drawings or other records out there, they need to be scanned and preserved.

We still have three 250T on the property: B-E CN 33779 steam, IB CN 11594 steam, and IB CN 12064 diesel, the one we're working on.

Thank you Eric.

As for the damaged original IB records, I do recall reading here at RYPN about a flooded basement.

I've always "assumed" that sad accident is not tied to the 21 boxes of the Amhoist Collection stated to exist
at Ramsey County Historical Society in Saint Paul, MN.
To gain access to that material of correspondence, publications, advertisements, photographs,
mechanical drawings etc. one has to do it the old fashioned way, and travel there to research.

https://www.rchs.com/research/our-collections/

Your B&O wrecker is similar to the one found at Coopersville, Michigan yet features
many more cab options like the additional doors and windows. A beautiful crane indeed.

Keep us posted as I'm sure you will.

Merry Christmas!

John

The Bay County Historical Society told me that they have a large amount of IB and AH&T material but that it has never been cataloged and woun't be avalable for research until it is. My IB list that is available on line is very out of date and I have added a lot to it in the last few years. If anyone wants a copy drop me a PM or E mail.

That’s a shame about the flooded/destroyed records. Just in case any of you are ever involved in such a situation, there have been companies for some time now that specialize in recovering and restoring flooded documents.

~15 years ago, the 8th Air Force headquarters at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana was struck by lightning and caught fire. In the process of putting the fire out, much of the building, especially the basement, was flooded. The basement contained the complete archives of the 8th Air Force, including things like Gen. Dolittle’s raid on Tokyo. Within a couple of days, a company was setup on site with drying equipment, and within a few days after that,the entire archive (several tractor trailer loads) of material had been dried out.

I imagine the technology has progressed significantly since then.

I have permission from IPS to make the manual available for download. I don't imagine there will be a lot of requests for it but for now, here's a temporary link to the manual on my Google Drive account: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CbFusaedBjIsxOy1JtrvIjZjSqXSeGjU/view?usp=sharing

[EDIT] Updated the link to the manual.

Eric;

I'd say you've made one very big contribution toward sharing Industrial Brownhoist data.
It ranks right up there with John Taubeneck's IB crane list.

Thank You.

John D. Atkinson

Eric,
I just downloaded it. Thanks a lot ,very handy.


Illinois Railway Museum
Crane Safety and Training
Mark Secco