Hi, I recently bought a book from a local train show. The book is called "Rails Through West Park" and is by Blaine Hays and Ralph Pfingsten.

While skimming through it, there was a scene where a steam crane was removing a bridge (Triskett Road near Triskett rapid station in Cleveland Ohio) in 1936. This is along the New York Central Water Level Line. The crane itself is small, and after a quick picture search, I think I found something similar: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/670051250781690829/

The crane did have NYC reporting marks, but I couldn't really make out the number. It appears to be X361, if not X301 or some other similar number. If it helps any, there is one shot where the tender number is clear: X16415

A couple questions:

1. Any ideas what this crane could be?

2. Were cranes like this self-prolled, and if so, how? (gears to the wheels in a similar fashion to a shay, minus the vertical rods?)

3. Were tenders interchangeable, hence the different number?

Any other info would be helpful and greatly appreciated, thanks!

The locomotive crane shown in the link is most likely
Ohio #3916 50 tons Steam 09-27-30
New York Central RR Collinwood, OH

The NYC had at least 11 Ohio cranes. All but the one above were in the 20-25 ton size. As "locomotive crane" implies they were self propelled. Most locomotive cranes had gear drive to the two inboard axils. Tenders were not usually used with cranes.

Many of those cranes were self propelled. A vertical shaft ran through the center of the large bearing/gear that connected the cab to the frame. Then some gearing (bevel gears) powered a shaft or two that connected to the truck axles with drive shafts and universal joints.

Not very efficient or fast. The cranes where limited to maybe 5 mph. Mostly able to move back and forth around a wreck site and pull a few cars along.

The cranes were usually equipped with a "boom tender" car (usually a flat car or gondola, sometimes an old worn out passenger car with half of the upper structure removed). These allowed the crane to be moved "over the road" quickly and kept the boom from swinging out onto adjacent tracks.

Most RR rule books had special speed limits for wrecking derricks, they had to go extra slow (15 mph) if the boom was "leading" (pointing in the direction of travel) versus "trailing" (pointed away from the direction of travel) (30 mph).

Very different from a steam locomotive tender.

There was usually an assortment of old one of a kind re purposed railroad cars in a wreck train. Some flat cars with ready made panel track, some spare freight car trucks to re rail cars, a couple of box cars or baggage cars with jacks, lanterns, chains, slings, wrenches, cutting torches, etc. And sometimes a diner to feed the crews.

And some locomotive cranes were semi-permanently assigned to shop areas were they were used to move car parts around, or sometimes to empty out ash pits at engine servicing areas.

That model crane you're referring to has no u joints. The drive axles would be driven by a sliding straight-cut gear driving a wider gear on each of the two inner axles similar to most Steam and Diesel wreckers. This allows the trucks to swing back and forth around sharp curves and still be engaged to the narrower sliding gear . The sliding Drive gears would be cranked out of the way to allow the crane to be pulled by train .Some early diesel mechanical locomotive cranes have drive shafts with u-joints because of wider spaced trucks. Wreckers normally had a travel speed of not more than 3 miles an hour on their own .Most steam locomotive cranes would be able to get up into the teens for travel speed on their own .Some of Industrial Brownhoist straight steam piledrivers could hit 20 mph. Some locomotive cranes would have a chain drive from the power axle to the outside axle giving it four axle drive. Some Crane Companies used side rods on the trucks instead of chains for the same purpose. Orton's six axle diesel 250 ton wreckers were designed to be transported in a train at 45 miles an hour. The American hoist and Derrick 250-ton Wreckers were designed for 70 miles an hour in train . Last time that I looked in the UP Special Instructions booklet for moving the American wreckers ,they were good for 60 mph in train.