As many of you know preserved is not the same as safe. Here are some of the preserved locomotive cranes that have been scrapped. Any additions or corrections are welcome.

John T

McClound, CA-Great Western Railroad Museum (Fred Kepner)
Burro Model 30 C/N 30-106 7½ tons Diesel
A. D. Schader Co.
McCloud River RR #1851 1954
GWRM 1986
http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails/Eq ... R1851.html
Scrapped Fall 2010
Industrial Brownhoist steam (converted to diesel)
McCloud River RR #72
GWRM 1986
http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails/Eq ... /MR72.html
Scrapped Fall 2010

Duluth, GA-Southeastern Ry Museum
Shaw Electric Crane Co. 75 tons Steam Wrecker 1911
Central Ry of Georgia #30205
SOLD FOR SCRAP ABOUT 1976
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaeljy/ ... hotostream

Rockford, IL-unknown (derelict)
Bucyrus Wrecker Steam (con to diesel)
Milwaukee Road
Scrapped by 03-16-11
http://www.pbase.com/trailryder/image/76679923

Baldwin City, KA-Midland Ry
Browning C/N 2470 Model 8-C 20 tons Steam 03-11-27
Kansas City, KS Department of Water, Light & Power
Darby Railcar Mfg. #2 Kansas City, KS
Midland Ry 07-88
Scrapped 2012

Cumberland, MA-Western Maryland Scenic RR
Orton 25 tons Diesel
US Army #1708
WMS 1990s
http://cjb77.rrpicturearchives.net/show ... id=2125758
Industrial Brownhoist 40 tons Diesel 1955
Baltimore & Ohio #X282
CSX #282
ABEX #282
WMS 1990s
http://cjb77.rrpicturearchives.net/show ... id=2124950
Both cranes scrapped in December 2011.

Nevada City, MT-Montana Heritage Commission
Brownhoist C/N 648 15 tons steam
Anaconda Copper Mining Co.
Charles Bovey Nevada City, MT
Montana Historical Society 1998
Montana Heritage Commission Nevada City, MT
Steve Turk 04-08-11 $9100
http://www.flickr.com/photos/77545914@N ... 8JL-bwZuVF
Scrapped by 04-26-11

Owego, NY-Tioga Scenic RR
Browning C/N 3073 Model 8-C 20 tons Steam 1940
Cornell University #8 Ithaca, NY
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30740
Scrapped late 2009


American C/N L3710 04-67 250 tons Wrecker Diesel
Seaboard Airline RR #71983 (wrecker)
Seaboard Coast Line RR #771257 Hamlet, NC
Seaboard System #771257
CSXT #991257 last location Hamlet, NC 12-08-88
retired 06-04-92
Art Davis (D) CSX #403
Donated to unknown museum at Galion, OH. When they couldn’t move the crane it was scrapped 2004/05

Sorry, I hit the send button before I finished.

Orrville-DABO, Inc. (Art Davis)
American C/N L3710 04-67 250 tons Wrecker Diesel
Seaboard Airline RR #71983 (wrecker)
Seaboard Coast Line RR #771257 Hamlet, NC
Seaboard System #771257
CSXT #991257 last location Hamlet, NC 12-08-88
retired 06-04-92
Art Davis (D) CSX #403
Donated to unknown museum at Galion, OH. When they couldn’t move the crane it was scrapped 2004/05

Rusk, TX-Texas State RR
Ohio C/N 3702 Model F 30 tons Steam 07-27-25
UGI Contracting Co. New Braunfels, TX
San Antonio Public Service Co. New Braunfels, TX
Lower Colorado River Authority #379
(Only frame and trucks remaining as of 11-18-06.)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/48076494@N03/13707150565

Charleston Chapter, NRHS of Charleston, SC owned two steam railroad cranes. One was a former Central of Georgia unit that was still operable when it was acquired. The other was donated by a local pile driving company in the 1980's. I don't have any other details on them.

The group's equipment collection was donated and moved to the South Carolina Railway Museum in Winnsboro, SC when that was established in the mid-1980's. However, the two cranes were deemed not worth the expense and were abandoned on the south annex of the Charleston Naval Weapons Station, a former Army Depot, where the group had leased trackage and stored its equipment. The Navy hired a contractor to scrap the cranes in the early 2000's.

John,

The Illinois Railway Museum has, to my knowledge, scrapped three cranes during its existence. Unfortunately I do not know very much about them.

Commonwealth Edison 1 (20-ton electric crane? from Northwest Generating Station, built by McMyler) - acq 1963, scrapped in 1964 to help pay for the museum's move to Union)

Commonwealth Edison 2 (20-ton electric crane? from Northwest Generating Station, built by McMyler) - acq 1963, scrapped in 1964 to help pay for the museum's move to Union)

Chicago & Western Indiana 1917 (self-propelled 25-ton diesel crane, acq and disposition dates unknown)

Any information you might be able to track down about when these cranes were built would be very interesting to me. Thank you!

This was owned, and apparently scrapped, by the Charleston Chapter NRHS, NOT by us. I always wondered what had happened to it after seeing it in the Beckum and Langley C of G book published in the 80's.

OK- this makes sense; it's the same crane I mentioned above. That photo is outside the former Army engine house on the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston. The crane wasn't scrapped until much later than 1976. I joined the chapter in 1978 and it was still actually operable (on air) at that time. I vaguely recall that a couple of chapter members started the scrapping process before the rest of the collection was moved, but I am pretty sure two cranes were abandoned and scrapped by the Navy. I last saw them in the late 1990's when a former co-worker of mine at the Weapons Station asked me if I knew anything about them as they were in the process of scrapping them. I suggested they at least save the air compressors off the cranes as I knew they were worth quite a bit of money, but I have no idea if this was done or not.

This Western Maryland Derrick was Privately Owned in the early 1990's and since scrapped. Seen at the WMSR in the early 1990's

While it never rated as "preserved" but lost in recent years while still steam powered was P&LE's 250 ton wrecker. This was acquired in the 1980s from RF&P. When the useful parts of P&LE were acquired by CSX this crane and a scale test car were excluded and sat at McKees Rocks until scrapped. I believe the Ohio Central obtain the crane's cross compound air pump and other parts when it was cut up.

Thanks so much for all the information. I have changed my listing for the Shaw crane so as not to besmirch the name of the southeastern Ry Museum.

Charleston-Charleston Chapter NRHS
Shaw Electric Crane Co. 75 tons Steam Wrecker 1911
Central Ry of Georgia #30205
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaeljy/ ... hotostream
unknown steam
Both cranes were abandoned at the south annex of the Charleston Naval Weapons Station in the late 1980s when the NRHS collection was moved.. Both were scrapped by the Navy in the late 1990s.


This is probibly the WM crane that was mentioned.
Bucyrus C/N 200 12-10-15 150t Wrecker
Western Maryland Ry #1656 to #940900 (to diesel)
CSXT #940900 retired & scrap

Here is what I found on one of the Commonwealth Edison cranes.

AH&D C/N 583 Electric 1912
Commonwealth Edison Co. #2 North Chicago, IL
Illinois Railroad Museum
Scrapped 10-66

My father went to school a few blocks from the Com-Ed plant were those cranes worked, and took at least one picture of them at the plant:



Later, he photographed them at IERM, in North Chicago:





Thanks to Hicks Car Works for the photo scanning, and for hosting some of his images online at http://hickscarworks.blogspot.com/2008/07/ronald-j-delhaye-collection.html

Jeff

I bought the P&LE's 250 ton big hook from P&LE Properties in 1994 for $3,500 when I was 21 years old. It was my first real attempt at rail preservation. I wanted to get it up to Youngstown to join the collection of equipment owned by the Mahoning Valley Railroad Heritage Association. Conrail would move the crane in regular train service but the track to the Conrail interchange was not in good enough shape to handle the weight of the crane. CSX would not move it at all, claiming that the journals were pitted (this was back when they would at least consider moving FB equipment). So it was for all intents stuck in McKees Rocks. After a year P&LE refunded my payment and then resold it for scrap.

Well at least I tried!

Thanks, Rick, for an explanation of why the P&LE's crane sat around for a while after other equipment they owned had left the property. I had at the time inquired of the P&LE Estate regarding their 40 ton scale test car, but between the asking price and a lack of a place to preserve it, I chose not to get involved. Pretty sure it got the torch too.

I remember them giving me a price for the car and it was around $1,500 or so. I can't remember for sure. Stuff was going CHEAP back then. P&LE wanted $35,000 for the entire northern end of Gateway Yard, from midway down the bowl all the way to Bridge Street including all the buildings but excluding the river track. At the time the MVRHA could have afforded to buy it, but they were afraid of contamination on the property. That was back when they were sponsoring 765 trips and were making a good income from it.

Also, the College, PA station was available for $35,000.

The boiler from the RF&P crane survives today as the boiler powering the Crossroad Lumber Co. saw mill at Crossroads Village outside of Flint MI. We bought it from Eagle Mechanical in Youngstown and it was installed in 2007 and has been in service since.