SHOW US YOUR DERRICKS and MAINTENANCE-OF-WAY CARS

I’m just starting to build an M.o.W train, but this is the central element.  Fun to operate with sounds and crew talk.

Thank you for starting this.  I recall it was several years ago a similar thread ran....then disappeared.

I've been hankering to scratch build an MOW car or two based on photos in the MOW book for my favorite RR, ATSF.  This thread will be my incentive to move it up on the 'bucket list'.

One reason I believe that MOW trains are seldom modeled is that they're usually simply parked....awaiting disaster or repairs...hardly a scheduled run!  OTOH, if you belonged to a group who celebrated 'operation' as a part of an evening together, scheduling an MOW train to handle a wreck or maintenance would certainly be a way to spice up the night....and take a beer-break for those in charge of the fast-mail, priority passenger, perishables freight, etc., etc..

Otherwise, for those of us who favor simply running trains, an MOW set of cars is usually at home parked on a siding.  And that's not all bad, mind you!  It certainly can make for an interesting display of creative reconstruction of old cars.  The paint/lettering is often ho-hum enough to make a project easy, too.

Here's 2 that are on my toy train layout. The red one is picking up car vs train junk. The custom built orange crane is loaded and awaiting assignment.  Azgary

NS had a derailment in town earlier this week and asked for some local assistance from this N and W Lionel Legacy crane and boom car. They just got cleaned up yesterday and we placed them on a shelf awaiting placement on the layout.

The photo below was taken by MELGAR at the Danbury Railway Museum in 2017 and shows Grand Central Terminal #1, a double-ended electrically-powered crane built for the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in 1914. This machine combines the functions of an electric locomotive and a crane and was designed to operate within the restricted clearances of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. It has a 100-ton lifting capacity at each end and is propelled by four 200-horsepower electric motors with two 150-horsepower motors for hoisting and operating the machinery. It could develop a speed of 30 miles-per-hour on level track while hauling a load of 100 tons. While designed to be powered by third-rail direct current between 300 and 750 volts, it also had storage batteries so that it could run when no external power was available. The total weight was 380,000 pounds. This data was obtained from http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/amtk16000.html#GCT 1

MELGAR

I have four cranes; three are Lionel (1PW and 2 MPC-era) and one is K-Line. The crane tenders are K-Line; 2 Santa Fe and one Kennecott Copper, with a searhlight.

Free State Junction Railway crane and welding car. 

MofW cars and Big Hook and a little hook....

Bill Webb posted:

NS had a derailment in town earlier this week and asked for some local assistance from this N and W Lionel Legacy crane and boom car. They just got cleaned up yesterday and we placed them on a shelf awaiting placement on the layout.

Wow nice looking set you have there! Were these once CSX?

Here an older Lionel crane:

I made an e-book full of cranes; it can be seen and downloaded for free here:

http://sncf231e.nl/crane-trucks/

Regards

Fred

SuperChiefer84 posted:

Bill Webb posted:

NS had a derailment in town earlier this week and asked for some local assistance from this N and W Lionel Legacy crane and boom car. They just got cleaned up yesterday and we placed them on a shelf awaiting placement on the layout.

Wow nice looking set you have there! Were these once CSX?

 

 

Thanks.

Yes they were. Lionel didn’t make N and W which is what we model. We might weather a box or gondola for the wreck train but these were expensive and hard to work with so we asked Harry Heike to do some of his magic.  He is really talented.

It turned out so well that we may send him the rest to do.

I have several MOW pieces. Agreed that they are not typically scheduled to run but still fun to have. 

Here is mine for now

Here's a MTH RailKing crane that I re-lettered & detailed to represent the CNJ's hook #4 (last photo below).  I also added LED "work lights" to front and rear (with separate on/off switches) in attempt to add a bit more realism...

Prior to LED work lights being added...

Here's the prototype...Jersey Central hook #4 in fresh paint pictured at the CNJ's Ashley, PA yard.

I took some pictures of my MTH crane and crane tender when I first bought them many years ago, then put them into storage.  Like many other train items I have, I need to get them out and play with them.

Since my layout era is late 40s, I need to repaint the tender gray since MoW yellow did not come about until the mid-50s.  Here are some pictures of a MoW camp scene I took at last week's PRR Technical and Historical Society's annual conference in Altoona.  They show the PRR MoW cars in the correct gray for me.  Also notice the coal tender for the coal fired crane.

Postwar and repainted prewar mow.

When a Railking baggage car had a run-in with my bandsaw, it became MOW:

Some backwoods specials used in MOW service in the mountains:

Jim

I have several wreck trains and work trains on my layout.

250 ton "Big Hook" and support cars

250 ton in action

150 ton wrecker with boom tender

American crane with boom car for construction train

Burro crane with "wagons" for MOW work

Tom

Love the tool train

Tom,

Very nice New Haven MOW train.

MELGAR

          Reading work trains :   https://youtu.be/Mb1O2veIZyE

Here is my Derrick and a MT-14L with a 7-1/2 inch gauge Speeder.

Melgar

Thank you. I numbered the tool car, combine and gondola with the information you  provided.

Norfolk Southern (Original pre 1-74, Norfolk VA-Charlotte NC) 150 ton #900.

Derrick started as a Railking derrick. all details removed, curved top cut flat and reinforced, cardstock pattern as master for styrene cut side overlays, Lionel boom, details, paint.  Still need to backdate the roller bearing trucks with solid bearings.

Boom car is a Railking fishbelly flat with the cabin from the original boom car transplanted (the original MTH boom car is a straight side car).  Cabin sided with styrene to simulate plywood siding, wheel stops and sides evergreen shapes.  Atlas 50 ton trucks

Only one spur track around the turntable allows two cars to go across the TT and out to the main track.  This is the spur that always holds a derrick crane car and work caboose.  It is always available to quickly be pulled to work a wreck.

 I believe the derrick crane car above is a Marx.

I used a crane body from a junk derrick crane car to make a gantry crane.  Most of the support framing was made from 1/4 inch plywood.  A nice easy inexpensive project.  I worked from pictures and measurements from a Lionel gantry crane.

 To see more details of the gantry crane see my topic below on construction

of my layout.

https://ogrforum.com/...ra-027-layout?page=2

Charlie

This is my PRR post 1953 wreck train running at Bethlehem's Black Diamond Club layout.

I made the set up using Lionel and MTH equipment.

I lowered the ride height on the cars, added details and painted them with custom made decals.

And the yellow Pennsy N6 cab at right rear.

All the other stuff is packed away, including a Pennsy TMCC 250 ton crane.

Here's some real deal steam equipment from the national RR museum in Wisconsin

I love the use of a trolley to rest the boom on when not in use.  

Here is my attempt that was posted months ago on the 2 rail page.  I started with a MTH crane.  I modified it to my taste; it is 2 railed, self propelled, battery powered, DCC with sound and lights.  I detailed the cab, added an exhaust pipe, and detailed the deck.  I modified an Intermountain composite gondola to serve as the boom and tool car.  The crane doesn't actually function but rather rides on the support cables and boom rest.  It pivots to allow movement through turnouts and curves.  In play time tests, the crane was able to push 6 NMRA standard-weight (16 oz. ea.) coal cars up a 2 percent grade.  (It could only pull 5 cars up the same grade...weird?!)  This "set" will operate as a restricted speed, stand alone train during operating sessions wrecking havoc on the dispatcher!

Speaking of 2-rail, here is my attempt - under construction, and it now has a tender that looks a lot like the one Lionel used to supply with their crane.  The tender shown is a Lobaugh flat car.  Everything you see on the crane was done in my shop, except the coupler.

We are at mp29 on the Cartier RWY as we watch a south bound work train with Cartier RS18 #63 pass with some wild looking work equipment. 

                                          https://youtu.be/kb9b3GTF1S0

Some more real ones...

  Ft. Wayne RR Historical Society  Illinois RR Museum  Mad River & NKP Museum  Monon Connection Museum and Resturant

Tom

Postwar crane car and gondola, and 2 gantry cranes (the Lionel accessory with the most play value IMHO):

Arnold