Does anyone have access to detail drawings of a 250 Ton Bucyrus-Erie crane?
I have some but at this time I am looking for detail drawings of the mechanism
that transmit power to the trucks. I have checked with the California State Railroad Museum
and the Union Pacific Museum.
The Bucyrus-Erie archives are now the property of Caterpillar and they do not seem to want to
release any drawings

Weren't the diesel-electric versions equipped with a traction motor?

A side note: I once worked at a place that did contract work with the Union Pacific rebuilding their fleet of "Burro" cranes. We'd strip them down to the bare bones and rebuild everything from the ground up.... even removed the huge cast iron counterweight.

Detroit diesels for the power plant, which drove the 2 stage air compressor, electromagnet generator and the transmission for propulsion and cable drums.

All power for traction went straight down through the center pivot to a crude right angle gearbox underneath the body.

The Burros arrived at the shop on flatcars and would be unloaded by employees of the shop. What was exciting was watching them reload them after overhaul. More often than not, instead of using an available winch cable on the front of the Burro to pull itself back up the ramp onto the flatcar, some of the more adventurous employees would drive them up the ramp. They had to get back and get a run at the ramp, because if you just tried to drive it up the ramp, the wheels would slip and you'd lose traction and have to go back down the ramp onto flat rail. The difficult part of getting a run at the ramp was that as you flew up the ramp and onto the flatcar, you only had basically 50 foot to get this speeding contraption stopped before you ran off the other end of the car.
It's a good thing they had good brakes!!!!!

Try IPS Cranes in St. Paul.
http://www.ipscranes.com/?gclid=EAIaIQo ... gLWTPD_BwE

Bob Reedy, before he passed a few years back, did a write up in Live Steam magazine about a 1.6" scale steam wrecker. I believe it was a B.E. 250 ton. He had some good drawings of all the internals. Might want to contact Village Press or see if you can find those copies elswhere.

B-E built 31 250-ton wreckers, 29 steam and two diesel electric. I would be glad to provide a list if you PM me.

Not how you want to see your 250 Ton Wreck Crane

Next time set the outriggers first.

I don't know if the Wreckmaster retained his position.

Interesting. For the crane guys: A 250T weighs in around 190+ tons. Ya got the the boom turned maybe at 1:00 toward the right with the drag line hooked to something out of frame. How the heck do you tip over to the left?

That is a very interesting photo. There seems to be no evidence of the outside rail "rolling over" as one would expect if the crane was over loaded on the cranes "left" side. And none of the normal crane support cars seem to be in evidence.

No evidence of a "wreck" around the crane, no escaped wheel sets, no busted up boxcars, disassembled trucks, smashed car ends....

It does look like a derailed gondola in the right side of the photo, but no track damage at all. If they where trying to drag that gondola back towards the crane its hard to see how the crane could flip over to the left away from the gondola....

The line from the top of the boom exiting stage right is not heavy enough to make any substantial "lift".

I am wondering if the crew transporting the crane to a location it was needed exceeded the MAS and the crane tipped over on the curve. Then the crane operator was trying to right the crane back onto the tracks with a cable from the top of the boom to something stationary ?

Almost smells like a Photoshop hit job... Almost looks like a scene from a Model Railroad where things "wreck" all the time with no damage to the track structure.

In as much as I took the picture myself in 1962 near Kent, Ohio I can guarantee that the photo is not photoshopped.

I believe this was the Willard, OH wreck crane. The New Castle wreck crane was also on the scene. I had to leave the scene before the turned over crane could be rerailed.

I hope he’s not trying to right the crane by yanking on the boom.

Another question: What’s the number on the crane that tipped? I can’t make it out in the image. I believe our X216 was based out of New Castle, then Willard before retirement. It’s an IB diesel.

Ok, now I get it.

Looks like they cleaned things up with another crane and relaid the rails and ties under the tipped crane before the first picture was taken. That makes sense. Whatever caused the crane to tip seems to have been cleaned up already.

Thanks for the additional photo's

Cheers, Kevin.

I don't know what happened either, but I find that scenario doubtful. First of all, if I show up with my section gang and you tell me to build track under that thing leaning at that angle, I'll reply "You do it! I'll watch". (With a few expletives added for emphasis.) It also looks way too neat and tidy and clean for track that's just be replaced. I doubt they'd dress off the ballast so nicely in such a situation. No, I suspect it somehow managed to roll clear without damage.

Reminds me of this photo. No, that's NOT an HO train or Photoshop. We had a tornado and it rolled these cars over. They were not in motion at the time. Yes, I know, freight car trucks don't stay attached like that. But they did... All I can guess is that it happened quickly and the side force held the pins in place?



http://www.oil-electric.com/2013/10/blo ... lment.html