Large Scale Central

Jim, the New Guy, Checking In to say "Hello" and tell some Stori

General Discussion
#81

So I talked with the Museum’s President and he agave me the OK to use some of the 85# rail we had a Rion Yard and told me where the joint bars and track bolts were. I talked with one of the Bridge Builders who’s home base was only about 40 miles away and he offered to send over a boom truck and a flat bed and a bunch of guys the next Saturday. I talked to the Sheriff about security and he put a deputy on the area 24/7. HA! HA! it turned out that the front end loader the scrappers were using was stolen so they all got locked up! HA! HA! I also had to work with two power companies to survey the route for low wires and with the State DOT for Oversize/overweight permits. We got great pre-move publicity from the local papers and everyone in the area wanted to help. So on Saturday we re-laid the track.

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#82

The next week we pre-dug little “ditches” for the gauge rods. We only had 10 available and needed 5 for under the crane so we made the move 50’ at a time, pulling gauge rods out from behind the crane and planting them in front of it.

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When we were in place, Larry set the boom down on top of the rock pile. We were now where just about anyone could get to it and we were worride about kids and vandalism.

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Here are two short videos. that last bit we took a chance and moved on without gauge rods and it worked. http://youtu.be/xDaPV9kP4pM http://youtu.be/AeVyoP4SqtE And in case you were wondering what the high school kids in the area do in the summer, here you go. http://youtu.be/z6t1ReNZWAg

#83

Ha…
I thought we were crazy when we were kids :smiley:
We used to do the same in old gravel pits.
Ralph

#84

So then Moving Day finally arrived. Actually it took them four days. I was impressed with the movers! Stuff showed up on trucks that were shuttling back and forth to their yard just in time. They put 4, 8 wheel sets in front of the crane and 4 more behind it and hooked everything together with giant steel beams. The wheel sets had built in hydraulic lifts and they put two hydraulic power units up on the crane deck and hooked everything together. When they were ready, the guy running the hydraulic power units called down to us and said “Watch This!” He pulled a lever and in 30 seconds the whole crane lifted up and the wheels were clearing the rails by 6". The photos speak for themselves and there are a bunch of them…

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#85

As soon as they pulled the crane out of the quarry, they had to make a hard left turn and then cross a small concrete bridge that was not rated for the total weight. So they brought in pre-made,steel reinforcing sections and laid them on top on the bridge.

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#86

Where is the Brandt unit on that pig?

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#87

Once everything was ready it was time to move. We had 8 Deputy Sheriffs supporting us. Two cars behind and 6 ahead. The rig took up both lanes of the old country roads we were traveling on. As soon as they crossed the bridge they had to go up a bit steep hill. They had one big Autocar Tractor pulling and a second one pushing. The two front end loaders were hooked onto the sides with chains and slowly but surely, up the hill they went.

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Here’s the Video. Note that everything jerks to a stop. http://youtu.be/7lYzSsQLyXA It turned out that the 4, 1’ bolts holding the pintle hook on the back of the lead Autocar failed.

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So the switched the lead and trail Autocars and continued on.

#88

13 miles later the crane arrived at Rion Yard and was aligned above the North Main Line.

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Before they lowered it onto the rails we carefully checked each of the cranes journal boxes to make sure everything was in place. It was, so they lowered in onto the rails and started disassembling everything.

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#89

Interesting move Jim. You didn’t tell us Ric was with you on the move

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but we see his coffee cup was left

#90

So now Larry and I are “Heroes!” The only piece of equipment from the original R&R RR has come home! The entire “In Crowd” slithered out from under their rocks and started to come up with all inds of great things that could be done with the crane. Of course, none of them offered to help. But I did talk the Board into buying us a reconditioned and certified boom for only $8K delivered. Larry and I had been in contact with the manufacturer since the beginning and they had a used boom that would fit. they cleaned it up, painted it and shipped it down to the Museum. I had supplied them with all of the critical measurements but apparently they"knew it would fit" and never actually checked. When it arrived, it didn’t fit! It was their mistake so they refunded out money and eventually picked it up. In the meantime we re-installed the original boom. The crane was rated at a 25 ton lift at a radius of 12’ meaning the boom was pretty close to vertical. At a40radius, the lift capacity was only 4 tons. The crane had no outriggers but it did have locks on the trucks to stabilize it. We wanted to move the crane to the Museum’s main station and storage area at Rockton. But we weren’t allow to because it was too ugly and we would make a mess working on it. So it was parked on a siding at the 3.0 mile post and we were forbidden to move it because it did not have FRA Certification. That was fine with us as we had a place to work where no body would bother us. So we pressure washed, scraped and cleaned it and put on a coat of primer. One of our buddies in the “Out Croud” scrounged up a FRA Certified, 85’ flat car, equipped with roller bearings and we got that moved in.

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#91

Then one day someone left the east switch of our siding aligned for the siding and the tourist train almost ran into the siding. Luckily the Engineer spotted the misaligned switch and stopped in time.

Larry and I were accused of “Roaring Up & Down the Main Line” without permission. The “In Crowd” visited the site and determined that there was not enough rust on the rails which proved that we had been moving it around. Some of them said they had witnesses who saw us running it on the main line.

The facts were that most of the air system was disassembled and we were fixing the leaks one at a time. Even with the engine running it was impossible to generate any air pressure for the controls or brakes.

Larry got so upset that he gave up and became inactive. At the same time my wife announced that she was ready to move to Florida so I gave up on it too.

Several self appointed experts have been working on it since then but they could never start the engine and may have ruined the main engine.

So it sits…

There have been some leadership changes at the Museum (finally) and Larry and I have been asked to start working on it again and we are going to this fall when it cools down a bit.

#92

Jim,
Sounds like our local Rail heritage club.
They have opinion differences as to what to restore, so one or two “In Crowd” work on different things, and nothing gets finished.
And meanwhile, they are growing old and dying off.

#93

John,

Priceless history is lost everyday as the older members of our society die off. Their sons and daughters show up to clean out their homes and all of the old photos, books, and journals are set out for the garbage men to pick up.

I am active her with two county historical society organizations and there are no young people in either one.

#94

Hey Jim,

Thanks for this great article/history lesson. I couldn’t wait to get on the site everyday and see what else you had written.

Like John said above it’s really sad that all of our railroad history is disappearing. We have so much railroad history in the Coeur d’ Alene/Spokane area and most of the local museums are more about fighting with each other then preserving history for generations to come. Our local garden railroad club is the same way in that we have no young people coming in that we can teach and take over as we all get older and limited in what we can do.

Looking forward to hearing and seeing what progress you and Larry make on the old crane.

Chuck

#95

Welcome aboard! Nice pics, that speeder looks like fun. I’ve seen whole caravans of privately owned speeders on the old San Diego & Arizona tracks through Carrizo Gorge.