Does anybody have any information on Western Pacific wrecker #79? The WP bought it surplus from the US Army in 1979 and it passed to the Union Pacific in 1982. It was photographed in Salt Lake City in 1984.

See http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=449403

What is its history? What happened to it?

WPMW 79 had been a US Navy crane, it was purchased to replace WPMW 27, which ran a way at Quincy Junction and went over the edge just east of Keddie It was purchased from an equipment dealer in the Baltimore area and shipped west. It was reconditioned in Sacramento Shops, including repairs to the Cat engine, which had frozen and had a number of cracked castings on it. The Navy had replaced the wreckage boom with a longer lattice boom, which was of less capacity. At Sacramento the center section of the lattice boom was removed, but the crane still lacked the capacity of 37.

Crane 79 was stationed at Elko. When the UP took over they replaced 79 with a high rail rubber tired crane. This made good since as much of the track covered by Elko was highway accessible. It was UP's plan to set up 79 as a stationary crane for some special project they had going on. It was to be set up on a tower to increase its height. I do not if this ever happened or what happened to 79 beyond this.

"It was purchased from an equipment dealer in the Baltimore area "

The would be Striegel Equipment and Supply.

I just recieved a letter from Dick Shideler, the las Western Pacific Superintendent of Cars.

"Derrick 79 was purchased from Ever Ready Machinery Co. All my records on this unit went to the Union Pacific at the time of the merger. I personally inspected and purchased this unit which was located in Red Hook, New Jersey. It was lettered for the United States Army. It was a 200 ton Model Z with a lattice boom. It saw little use and was in excellent condition. We had plans to build a wrecking boom but the UP merger eliminated completion."

Can anyone clear up the discrepencies here?

I will defer to Dick on the details of 79. He purchased it and I repaired it for service. I am surprised that it was Army. It arrived in Sacramento painted that Navy gray color. I do not recall the reporting marks, that was 35 years ago.

Will someone please clear up the Red Hook business? There is a Red Hook in Dutchess County, NY, and another one in Brooklyn. There is a Red Bank, NJ. Is there another place name associated with the crane's point of origin? Perhaps Red Hook is a physical feature, perhaps in the Atlantic Highlands coastline, and not a place name?

Not sure if this will help, but there is Naval Weapons Station Earle, near Sandy Hook NJ. Not terribly far from Earle and Sandy Hook is the town of Red Bank, which is in Monmouth County. (There is another Red Bank below Camden). There is also Fort Monmouth, very close to Red Bank. Could 'Red Hook' possibly be a combination of RED Bank and Sandy HOOK?

With regard to the Army and Navy identifications, it is quite possible that the crane had been used by both services; rail equipment was frequently transferred from one branch to another.

Ever Ready was an equipment and loco dealer located in Bridgeport, Conn. in the late 60s-early 80s; see classified sections of Railway Age of those years. He seemed to occasionally deal in US military surplus locos, such as MRS-1s.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this. The crane was purchased at Red Bank, NJ, not Red Hook. Sorry of the confusion.

I don't know everything but as per Industrial Works book #115 of 1923 the "Type Z wrecking crane has a capacity of 200 tons at 17 1/2' with a normal type of wrecker boom. With that said and after looking closely at the picture I notice that the boom hoist sheaves are vertical and not horizontal as they should be for a IW wrecker. Also the lattice boom strongly hints this being a dock/construction configuration option. This crane would than be able to have a boom of up to 100' or more without extra counter weights and be used for heavy lift jobs that are now done by modern crawler cranes . This type of mobile crane was used to set 62 ton concrete blocks in the quay wall of Halifax terminal. They were also used in setting bridge trusses , ship building, steel mill contruction etc. With this option IW has a " two-speed slewing arrangement permitting fast slewing with light loads and slow slewing with heavy loads". Who knows what ships this crane could have worked on if at all ??? It would be very interesting to see its work history with the Navy.