SHOW US YOUR DERRICKS and MAINTENANCE-OF-WAY CARS

Wow guys i just came across this thread thanks to a couple folks I fallow. I have to say some really outstanding looking equipment . I wish I would have found it sooner.

@chris a posted:

MTH RK Crane with a MTH Premier MOW Caboose.   Both cars lowered, weathered, Kadee's

@chris a   Really nice work, especially lowering them.  I have that MOW cabin and I want to repaint it to gray like yours.  What paint did you use?  Thanks.

@CAPPilot posted:

@chris a   Really nice work, especially lowering them.  I have that MOW cabin and I want to repaint it to gray like yours.  What paint did you use?  Thanks.

Thanks

Looks like I used some Water Based Polly Scale  MOW Gray.  Number on bottle is tough to read but I think it's 404673.

This cabin car started life as a Yellow CN&W (photo below)...  I disassembled it completely used maybe 320 grit sandpaper and scotch brite to knock down the decal and scuff up the surface, then hand painted the wood sides with the MOW gray.  Chose to hand paint so I could keep the separately applied grab irons factory yellow.   It took two thin coats but the Polly Scale paints are thin and don't alter the wood grain details.   

It's since been weathered more with a light black wash to highlight the separation of the wood side boards and the wood grain, I'll try to add an up to date photo later today.   Also, removed the running boards and filed, scraped the underside to make them much thinner and filed off the stand offs so the running boards would sit closer to the roof. 

Decided not to re-install the roof ladder. 

@chris a posted:

Thanks

Looks like I used some Water Based Polly Scale  MOW Gray.  Number on bottle is tough to read but I think it's 404673.

This cabin car started life as a Yellow CN&W (photo below)...  I disassembled it completely used maybe 320 grit sandpaper and scotch brite to knock down the decal and scuff up the surface, then hand painted the wood sides with the MOW gray.  Chose to hand paint so I could keep the separately applied grab irons factory yellow.   It took two thin coats but the Polly Scale paints are thin and don't alter the wood grain details.   

It's since been weathered more with a light black wash to highlight the separation of the wood side boards and the wood grain, I'll try to add an up to date photo later today.   Also, removed the running boards and filed, scraped the underside to make them much thinner and filed off the stand offs so the running boards would sit closer to the roof.

Decided not to re-install the roof ladder.

Wow!  Talk about attention to detail.

In my original post I forgot three!: Lionels #1523 Seaboards work train set from 1954 which rests on my display wall, contains a MOW 6460 crane car and 6419 tender, my scrap yard is home to a Lionel MOW gantry crane (IMHO-greatest play value of any Lionel accessory made) and a vintage Doepke Model Toy Unit Crane from my preadolescents, is on display in my train room; hope that counts even though it's too big for the layout!!!!

I think that covers it!    Have a great Saturday!

Cheers, Dave

@CAPPilot posted:

@chris a   Really nice work, especially lowering them.  I have that MOW cabin and I want to repaint it to gray like yours.  What paint did you use?  Thanks.

So here's an up to date photo of the former CN&W Crane Caboose after final weathering....

I never noticed this thread before today. I will post photos/videos later.

@chris a posted:

So here's an up to date photo of the former CN&W Crane Caboose after final weathering....

Your weathering effort is a good match for the great job you did on the tender.  Did you weather the crane also?

@coach joe posted:

Your weathering effort is a good match for the great job you did on the tender.  Did you weather the crane also?

Yes....  Here's a before and after...   Might go back at some point and do a little more, but didn't want to bury it with weathering, just knock the "shine" off.   

@chris a posted:

Yes....  Here's a before and after...   Might go back at some point and do a little more, but didn't want to bury it with weathering, just knock the "shine" off.   

Chris you must have been born for model train stuff! Everything you do turns out AMAZING!

@mwb posted:

And the tender...

Martin!...

Love the mascot onboard each of the cars!!  Nice touch! 

Forgot this one....

From an old, old Walthers kit...a Tool and Water car. (???)  Not sure if it had a 1:1 inspiration...couldn't find one in my Santa Fe books. But it's one of those woulda-coulda-shoulda creations from the car shop of the mind, at least.

I know, I know...those couplers are horrid!!!  But they were in the kit box.  Good enough, apparently, back in the 1930's or so when these kits were abundant.   Hardly a principal candidate for a switching layout, anyway.  Another upgrade 2-Do for a rainy/snowy day, eh what??

Wish I had some of the 'weathering' skills evident in other posters' pics.  This car needs it!!!

FWIW.  Thanks for pausing by.

KD

@chris a posted:

So here's an up to date photo of the former CN&W Crane Caboose after final weathering....

Really, really nice!  Since I use a gondola for my crane tender, I am adding a tankcar tank body to my MTH crane caboose as part of fire fighting equipment.  There is an actual MoW car like that.  Hope my finished model looks as good as yours.

Lionel NYC Derrick car # 16709 year 1995

And here’s a Lionel crane car on our small 4’ x 4’ layout. It’s my 1956 Xmas present, the Lionel 1615 switcher and work train with its Wheel Car, Crane Car, and Work Caboose.

Well I am sort of done with posting my "model" MOW vehicles how about some "real" ones.  This is a track inspection  or surface grinding train which was parked over night in one of the BNSF sidings near my home (the siding actually serves a small grain elevator) .  I believe this LORAM locomotive has instrumentation in it which inspects the track with the rest of the train able to repair it. (that's just a supposition I am not sure of all the functions such a train can do...OBTW if anyone is more familiar with this type of work, I would love you to post some help).

Oh yes..."Monitors"  I personally took this picture as it is Sunday morning and the train is resting on a siding in Crawford, TX which is  only about 15 miles from my home.

Best Wishes,  Don

A pair of American Crane railroad cranes and tenders.  Both cranes are MTH Rail King models as is the Great Northern Tender.  The USACOE tender is a homemade project.

Great Northern X-1724 and X-2507 out of MTH Rail King set 30-7006.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers DODX 158 and DODX 157.  DODX 157 is homemade, it started out as the remnant of a Lionel Corporation operating car, not sure if it was a searchlight or something else.  Individually stained and applied wood decking, end boards from a K-line flatcar, side boards and tool boxes from LEGO pieces.  USACOE logo sized and printed on return address labels and applied.

Not just a derrick but the Lionel Lines Train Wreck Recovery Set, derrick included.

The Lionel Train Wreck Recovery Set, 6-21775 includes a twelve wheel Bucyrus Erie crane (derrick) car two flats with loads and a combine.  It was an unusual gift from my wife, as she was more likely to give me train related items, pewter picture frames, decorative wooden or tin trains the size of G gauge, wall art than give me model trains.  But when she did go for O gauge model trains she usually did pretty good.  Her hobby shop of choice was our local photo shop/ camera store/ hobby shop.  She would ask the owner for "something different" so she wouldn't duplicate something I already had.  This set was something different, as were the K-Line NASA rocket flatcars she gave me on another occasion.

Leading up the train is  the Maritime Exploration GP7, or at least part of it.  I grabbed this from a set breakup at Nassau Trains, more for the frame and signal sounds system it had.  The frame was yellow so I swapped it with the frame of an Alaska RR GP7 from an earlier set that I had detail painted.  You can see the snow plow I added to the ARR GP7, and I "painted" the trucks silver with a Sharpie marker.  I thought I did a nice job.  The trucks are a little muted but I figure that's just road grime.

Here's what the ARR GP7 looks like with the yellow frame from the Maritime Exploration GP7.  It started out solid blue with the 1802 road number and the Alaska and logo.  My second air brush project was adding the yellow to match the ARR paint scheme on most of it's engines at that time and I added the cold weather hatch over the fan.  She needs a new snow plow and those trucks need some silver paint.

Finally got the MOW train organized; it is about as long as my layout permits - everything but the searchlight car is now officially N&W. 

I was thinking of adding a work caboose like this Conrail, but I don't think MTH made one for N&W. I settled for putting decals on the one you see, used to be NYC.

Seems an old wood sided caboose might work

I picked up a set of Lionel NYC MOW cars a couple of years ago…

Shortly after I got the NYC set, the good folks at NLOE offered the same cars in Long Island livery - couldn’t pass up a Lawn-guy-lind set

And finally, I took this pic on a visit to the Danbury Railway Museum back around 2018…

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

I never noticed this thread before today. I will post photos/videos later.

You posted to it previously, Arnold.

RK Conrail Work Train

Wow.... Resurrection of a nearly seven year old thread.

Ok, so I will share an old pic of a custom painted work caboose that I did for the fella who posted right before me.

Well fellows, with all your big, heavy, "big hooks" how about making some room for the "little guy"  The Hornby, No 1 Crane Truck reappeared after the war in 1948.  The crane wagon shown below appeared after the war (It was available before the war from the 1920's but the color, printing, etc varied in some details from the one shown here).  The one shown here was available from 1949-1954.  However this version  has the metal vice plastic wheels which makes it earlier than 1951.

Best Wishes, Don

@coach joe posted:

Great Northern X-1724 and X-2507 out of MTH Rail King set 30-7006.

I have the same crane but with a different tender:

These were dredged out of the 'bay mainly because someone had done a good job of two-railing them. I do not know if these were sold as a set or individual items.

No pictures, but I also have the short ERIE crane and the C&NW  longer crane, both with tenders. All three tenders are different; another fifty-footer with the cabin removed and replaced with storage for ties and assorted timbers; the other is the shorter one. All are MTH that have been two-railed.

@PRRMP54 posted:

I have the same crane but with a different tender:

These were dredged out of the 'bay mainly because someone had done a good job of two-railing them. I do not know if these were sold as a set or individual items.

No pictures, but I also have the short ERIE crane and the C&NW  longer crane, both with tenders. All three tenders are different; another fifty-footer with the cabin removed and replaced with storage for ties and assorted timbers; the other is the shorter one. All are MTH that have been two-railed.

I believe that tender was paired with the larger Premier issue crane that had a larger cab and a longer boom.

Another wreck train with a derrick or crane, flat car for rails, a work caboose, a flat with a bulldozer to repair the grade or ballast, if necessary a track maintenance car all pulled by a NW2.  The black Williams NYC NW2 was chosen as power for the train because the predominant colors of the train are red and black.

The 6812 Track Maintenance Car and the 6827 are from the original train set my brothers and I had as kids.  The 6827 is supposed to have a yellow and black P&H Steam Shovel but that is lost to history as was the upper platform and workmen from the 6812.  The platform, crank and workmen were purchased from a vendor at a long ago train show, The Remco bulldozer made for a decent load and those original P&H shovels were fetching more than I was willing to spend.  I do have a later Lionel version of the steam shovel, gray and orange that may find it's way to 6827 some day.

This K-Line AT&SF rail carrier fit right in when I entered the hobby in the early 90s.

The Lionel Lines 6560 Bucyrus Erie crane with 4 wheel trucks and the DL&W 6119 work caboose were from a set given to me by friends of my parents who were leaving the Bronx for California and since their son was out on his own and had no interest in the trains the Super O set came my way.

When I got into the hobby the crane was a mess.  Both cranks were gone as well as the hook, guy wires, and the interior drum to roll the cable up on.  Again parts from a train show to the rescue, cranks, hook, guy wire, some of grandmas heavy duty sewing thread, and I mean heavy duty, and jury rigged cable drum and she was ready to go.

@coach joe posted:

I believe that tender was paired with the larger Premier issue crane that had a larger cab and a longer boom.

Interesting. I got them as a set from one seller but who knows how he had acquired them. They were definitely done by the same person as either the MTH conversion trucks were used or two-rail wheelsets replaced the stock three-rail ones; the truck and body/truck bolsters were not changed so the ride height is a bit high. The KaDee coupler mounts have some thicker pads to lower the couplers to the proper height.

@coach joe posted:

...snip...

I am thinking the the depressed-center flat with the tank is an RMT product; I have two and now will need three more. You just solved the problem of fuel tenders for my two rotaries and three cranes! Thank you, I was originally on the lookout for some relative short semi-modern tankers but this ends the search.

@PRRMP54 posted:

I am thinking the the depressed-center flat with the tank is an RMT product; I have two and now will need three more. You just solved the problem of fuel tenders for my two rotaries and three cranes! Thank you, I was originally on the lookout for some relative short semi-modern tankers but this ends the search.

Your correct.  I won an eBay auction for 7 LIRR pieces, two of which are RMT depressed center flats, but only one tanks was included.  Never thought of using as a fuel tender.  Figure out a way to rig some spring "hoses" ala Pat @harmonyards, from the tank to the crane or rotary.  I've got two ARR depressed flats with tanks, maybe one serves my ARR rotary.

Here’s a short video of my work train.

MPC 6560 crane, ca. 1970.

Well guys when I was digging around in my collection to find the Hornby Type 50 Crane Wagon I posted on the 13th, I discovered another crane wagon, even smaller than the Type 50.  The story is that in 1954 Hornby finally decided to face the fact that railway nationalization had taken place and to create a whole sale revision of liveries to reflect that fact.  One of the changes brought to an end the Type M0 trains, which had been the smallest of the line since the 1930 and they were replaced by the Type 20 locomotive and the Type 20 Goods train set.  In the wagons created for the Type 20 was a crane wagon.  Only 4  inches in length it is even smaller than the one I showed before.  So here you go...

Here is the full side view of the Type 20 Crane Wagon.  It is a hand cranked hook and the boom is manually able to be turned in a circle and raised or lowered slightly.  Note the build in boom cradle built in towards the front of the car and the fact that the base stamping also included the fixed tab/slot couplers.

To pull these little 4" freight wagons, the Hornby Type 20 clockwork steamer was introduced.  Resplendent in its new British Railway livery, it was actually the first Hornby product to receive the post nationalization treatment.  This by the way, signaled the beginning of the end for the Hornby 0 gauge train line which finished up in 1962 with these 20 series trains the last production.

OK folks that is my post of perhaps the two smallest cranes available from any major manufacturer.

Best Wishes, Don

@Don McErlean posted:

Well guys when I was digging around in my collection to find the Hornby Type 50 Crane Wagon I posted on the 13th, I discovered another crane wagon, even smaller than the Type 50.  The story is that in 1954 Hornby finally decided to face the fact that railway nationalization had taken place and to create a whole sale revision of liveries to reflect that fact.  One of the changes brought to an end the Type M0 trains, which had been the smallest of the line since the 1930 and they were replaced by the Type 20 locomotive and the Type 20 Goods train set.  In the wagons created for the Type 20 was a crane wagon.  Only 4  inches in length it is even smaller than the one I showed before.  So here you go...

Here is the full side view of the Type 20 Crane Wagon.  It is a hand cranked hook and the boom is manually able to be turned in a circle and raised or lowered slightly.  Note the build in boom cradle built in towards the front of the car and the fact that the base stamping also included the fixed tab/slot couplers.

To pull these little 4" freight wagons, the Hornby Type 20 clockwork steamer was introduced.  Resplendent in its new British Railway livery, it was actually the first Hornby product to receive the post nationalization treatment.  This by the way, signaled the beginning of the end for the Hornby 0 gauge train line which finished up in 1962 with these 20 series trains the last production.

OK folks that is my post of perhaps the two smallest cranes available from any major manufacturer.

Best Wishes, Don

Don - you never fail to provide an interesting post, reflective of the history of model railroading. Thank you!

@Mark V. Spadaro -  Mark thank you for your very kind comment.  Glad you enjoy the posts.

Best Wishes, Don

A couple wreck outfits of mine.

The Erie is MTH modified and repainted by me and the CNJ stock crane, is also MTH with some details added…

Tom

Some of the following I had custom painted:

Chessie Crane, Railking stock. Chessie Crane Tender, Railking, superbly painted and decaled by Ron045

Frisco, both Railking pieces custom painted and decaled by Krieglok (Tom)

Lionel, from the 1994 Western Pacific Feather River set. I believe this was a Service Station Set.

Lastly, Lionel Crane car, out of ??? set. Crane Tender started as a K-Line Southern Pacific, another beautiful custom job by Krieglok. The boom stand on the K-Line crane tender is a nice touch. Very hit and miss, though. Not a consistently offered feature.

@Mark V. Spadaro - Mark that is quite a collection of cranes and boom cars.  I really like the "Chessie System" one.  We lived near the Chessie System in the Baltimore area for a decade and I took my boys, then 5 & 7 to ride (for 2 sucessive summers) the "Chessie Steam Special" when it ran out of Cincinatti.

Best Wishes

Don