Uh, uh. I have dibs on that!! Heck. A little caulk, new glazing, some vinyl patch, and it is good as new!!!

The only reason it is still in the wall is that it is one less hole to cover at this time.

Later!
Mr. Ed

Seriously. For those of that are contemplating a move, you should consider your local wrecking company. These rotators are fantastic pieces of equipment. If you ever watched "Highway though Hell" you know how they work. It is basically a rotating crane on a wrecker chassis. And these folks charge a ton less money for their services than a crane company.

Later!
Mr. Ed

But is there a capacity issue? That trolley shell is pretty light.

Granted, but for jobs within their capacity, worth looking into. Mobile cranes here have been ever increasing in capacity, and with the majority of their work being big budget construction, there is not much impetus to keep the smaller lighter equipment in service. The rotators could nicely fill that gap.

The rotator used for the trolley car move had a 75 ton capacity. That is fairly substantial. The trolley weighed in at 16,100 pounds so quite lite.

The big difference between a rotator and conventional crane is that the rotator boom is not very long and there are two cables, not one, which are independently controlled. A rotator also slides the length of the truck bed, not fixed. The ability to make fine adjustments to the load is impressive.

The crew in this case set up a wifi network on site, then wore headsets with microphones so that they could talk easily to one another on the ground via their private network.

This is the second time that I have seen a rotator used, the last for the loading of my little Porter fireless.

I did talk to the rotator operator about training and certifications for crane and rotator operators. He is in school for conventional "fixed cab" crane operation and was talking about the differences in the operation of the two machines. Very much night and day.

We found these guys when I was looking at scrapping a caboose frame. Turns out scrap yards know how to move things quickly and cheaply. So, check heavy tow companies and your local scrap yard if you are moving something not too far.

On the TV show, Highway through hell, they used two 75 ton rotators to pull a fully loaded tractor trailer out of a ditch. One on the tractor and front of the trailer, and the other on the rear and middle of the trailer. They lifted this loaded rig straight up, rotated it between them and parked it on the shoulder where the driver got in and drove it away. And like a crane, the farther out you boom the rig, the less you can lift.

Later!
Mr. Ed

While we have a new topic for fund raising, just wanted to update this topic with the fund raising information:

Fund raising for the restoration of the #288 has started. If you could, please pass the word. Perhaps make a small donation yourselves if possible.

We really have three options for how to make a donations:

1) gofundme as follows:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/trenton-trol ... g-campaign

2) If someone would prefer to send a check directly to LHRy that would be
great as well. Checks can be sent to the below address with a note that the
donation is for "Trenton #288" and if possible send me an email
(jrmay@optonline.net):

Liberty Historic Railway, Inc.
103 Dogwood Lane
Berkeley Heights, NJ 079224

3) LHRy has a donate button on their web site. Just send me an email
(jrmay@optonline.net) that you made a donation so that we can keep track of
it.

https://www.lhry.org/donate

If there are any questions, or if someone wants to see the car in person,
just drop me an email or call 732-330-1876.

Many thanks all, and please remember, small donations are just as important
as large ones!

J.R. May
Director
Liberty Historic Railway, Inc.