Alexander, you're thinking too small. Think "industrial equipment rental" like RSC or Hertz.

When BAERA retrucked the Red Car bodies, they used one forklift at each end - BAERA's own 20,000 lb. and another they rented, from Hertz IIRC. The 20K was often used to pick up boxcar or caboose bodies. Now we have a 30k.

Stationary Steam: I didn't think you were kidding at all. Federal surplus is a goldmine. That's where BAERA got our 30.

For those of you that either didn't read my post back then or have forgotten, we moved our PS-1 40' box car with one fork lift. Granted it was a big forklift but it picked up the car (without trucks) and layed it down on the lowboy. The forklift was a 50 ton, not their biggest, but it did need another smaller lift to pick the ballast weights off of the escort trailer and place them in the back compartment of the big boy. And don't forget your local big rig haulers that pull loaded tractor trailers with loads. Pair them up and you can lift some huge stuff.

My all time favorite was seeing a small loco moved in a dumpster. That's right, a dumpster. They rolled the thing in there and then picked it up with the machine and drove down the road. When it comes to moving large, heavy objects, you've got to be either rich or creative.

And how many groups out there have thought about asking the local Guard unit to assist in moving a rail car? They do it all the time as a training exercise. There are the Navy Seabees, Army Guard, and as we've seen here, Marines. And let's not forget the Air Force with their huge transports that can haul an M1-A1/2.

Later!
Mr. Ed

Knowing Marines as I do, if they REALLY did this tactically, they’d simply call in indirect fire or an airstrike (probably from danger close, of course, as spotters and FAC parties always like to be close in) and turn the wayward caboose into a crater. Recovery under fire is something nobody revels in doing. It’s tough enough in training (I know all too well as I was an Army Ordnance officer and dealt with recoveries all the time, and personally worked on recovering an M-1 from a very deep mud pit once, all the way up to my shoulders, in some pretty foul muck). I too am familiar with HETS, have been in many of them in various places.
Great that they recovered it. You can see photos of this hack when the paintjob was still new and it was being used here, on what looks like a DS victory special, note the former Iraqi (probably mostly Chinese built) vehicle loads: http://www.themech.org/rr/CPRR1.pdf And if you want a HO scale model of this hack, someone makes one! http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Re ... D=ATH74000

For the record, I know darned well what's involved in REALLY heavy equipment procurement--suffice it to say that one time I was getting rates from High Steel Structures, Hulcher, and/or Cranemasters.

My remark was a bit of evil subterfuge for the inexperienced, idealistic twits who think, for example, that they can get away with rolling a caboose down the street on its own wheels (don't laugh, I've seen at least two cases where this was tried!). I figure that if they can't find the Sawzall or forklift, they won't get themselves in the trouble that we may end up bailing them out of!

Sandy's not kidding about twits and nitwits. A railroad-themed restaurant nearby hired an architect to help them set up a couple of Lackawanna m.u. cars to expand their dining and function space. When it came time to move the cars from live rail to their permanent resting places, the architect hired a mobile-home erection outfit. They showed up with a 20 or 25-ton hydraulic crane. I told the "expert" the m.u. carbodies probably weighed over 50 tons, and he laughed, saying they were just like mobile homes. He apparently had no idea the floors were concrete. The first lift went okay, though the tires on the crane bulged ominously. On the second lift, the weight broke a weld on the boom, which collapsed and dropped the carbody several feet, narrowly missing a worker who had been under the car to adjust blocking. The architect almost had a heart attack, and work was suspended until a second, much heftier crane arrived to complete the job.

The Lackawanna MU car move reminds me of the story about the Seashore Trolley Museum's efforts to preserve a structure from the Boston Elevated. I don't remember which building--it was either a tower or a station, but the structure-relocation firm got set up with a crane and "spreader bar". The crane operator took up the slack and hoisted away. The spreader bar "bent like a paper clip", and the crew realized that it was time to re-think the project.

I have moved several locomotives and railcars over the years. The way I moved the frist 15 to 20 cars, would not be allowed today. Dolley under one end, with brakes and lights, and a king pin plate bolted under the other end. This made for a high load.

We have also moved GE 45 ton, 65 ton, a ballasted 80 ton centercab and railroad passenger cars over the road.

My friend who owns the semi and trailers has moved many special oversize loads. A few years ago he was offered a job to move several 16 feet in diameter steel tanks from Minnesota to Ohio. He built a special trailer for this job. It hauls the tanks in a well that is only a few inches off the ground. The trailer has a 40 foot well and has an add-on 20 foot section. To clear objects such as railroad crossings, the trailer has a large hydraulic cylinder in the nose, you just raise the front from the cab.

He recently moved 2 cabooses. I helped on one of these jobs. The caboose was picked up off it's trucks with a large Taylor forklift, carriered out of the former owners back yard and placed in the well of the trailer. The cupola did not present any height problem and the only items removed from the caboose, were it's couplers.

Why and or where is this not allowed? And maybe we're not picturing quite the same set up. Putting a cupola caboose on a flatbed trailer like we did in Camp Pendleton, no matter how low a deck unless you're removing the battery box and steps is going to make a for a very tall load. It would seem the system with a dolly under the body bolster at one end, and a goose neck fastened to the frame at the other end so that the steps and the battery box are at the minimum ground clearance, would make for the most efficient method. There was a guy out in the Newberry Springs/Daggit area that used a rig like this move cabooses all over the west.

Greg

My wife was taking all these pictures, and neither of us thought to take images of the other cars we were not moving. Perhaps we can get Brian to go back up there to document the rest of the equipment.

Greg

Knowing servicemen as I do, I can promise you the hack's interor has to be covered wit unit mottos, dirty grafitti and obscene drawings from units who rotated through there...

Actually I don't remember seeing any of that. The interior is pretty shabby, and its the first time I've seen one full of empty shell casings, but other than dirt and animal droppings, it's mostly just weather damage. All the windows are out, but I think that might have been done on purpose.

more pics

That picture of the caboose in the mountains is great! I'm as guilty as your wife, Greg; I only took pictures of the caboose. I may have to go up to fetch that missing knuckle, if I do, then I will take some more photos of the other freight cars.

An extensive interior cleanup today yielded four trash cans full of critter feces, nesting materials, and shell casings. I would describe the overall condition of the caboose as humble... all of the glass is broken (lights and windows) and the surprisingly-intact upholstery will probably end up being replaced due to the aforementioned feces. Most of the white paint on the interior is flaking off, revealing a green base coat. There is a lot of corrosion along the bottom of the exterior of the toilet-side of the caboose that will need to be addressed.

The caboose isn't the first piece of railway equipment that the Mechanized Museum has had to move over the road. About five years ago, with the help of Brewer Crane & Rigging and Bill Signs Trucking (at no cost to the Marine Corps), we moved our 80 ton center cab switcher from near the main gate to the trackage behind the Mechanized Museum. Here are some photos from that adventure...

The locomotive was rebuilt in 1988 by Construction & Mining Services and only has around 600 hours on it...













As stated before, our eventual goal is to assemble a display train that is representative of the freight operations conducted on Camp Pendleton just prior to the 1993 flood. As such, next on our list of things to get is a DODX flatcar and perhaps a boxcar or two resembling this one -- location classified!

Oh, and there are a few things (but still not a whole lot) scrawled onto the interior walls of the caboose... however, none of it is very exciting. Just last names and dates. Nothing more recent than seven years ago that I saw, either. I'd assume that this was the point where the level of small-animal feces inside began to dissuade potential vandals...

Additionally, the caboose was in enough of a remote location to be exempt from typical hit-and-run vandalism. There is no reason for one to be at the training facility that the caboose was at unless one is partaking in some sort of training exercise. It is not "on the way" to anywhere!