This is an earlier prototype of an Industrial Brownhoist big hook crane I made. There was many issues with this prototype version and the build quality and finish was OK but not so great. It is fully functional. The boom and hoist can be adjusted with a key. Please excuse these overexposed pictures. I had to use a low shutter speed on all of the images to get any details to show up in black color scheme. The rear door setup is incorrect (it should be more towards the rear) as I created the CAD geometry for a UP X250 crane built in 1967. Also there should be 3 sets of pulleys on each side. But design constraints for this type of rapid prototyping only allowed me to squeeze in two sets of pulleys on each side. The actual crane itself had two 6 cylinder diesel engines at 140 hp each and a transfer case with mechanical drive that could propel the crane up to 3 MPH. This 45210 Conrail rig is painted and decaled in the original 1976 color scheme (different then whats seen at the PA museum today). It was originally built for the Erie Lackawanna back in 1954. Thanks, Jon
OMG, That is amazing, difficult to believe that is Z scale and functional... Do you plan to make more or sell? I would love to get one. Kim
That is outstanding work. I think it's safe to say that there are several of us who would love to get our hands on one. Especially one painted /decaled for the original Erie Lackawanna Markings. David
Thanks for all the kind words everybody. I appreciate that. I had a lot of fun designing and finishing this model. Kim, I was going to make it a kit and I had the kit version all ready to go. But SHapeways rejected the geometry so I can never get the kit to print out. Frustrating even though the failed geometry can be seen right here in this model that printed out with no problems what so ever... That's one of the many problems with Shapeways. Don't get me wrong, they are a very affordable service. But since they have gotten bigger, they've gotten sloppy and more careless. So much so they had to change their design constraints for this printing process because many people are getting broken parts that were not an issue before. But I have found another vender that does a superior job using the same priting process. SO there is hope yet. But first I have to finish a fully functioning Ohio crane. I'll post pictures of that prototype soon. David, funny you mention that, I really do like the original Erie Lackawanna color scheme and it would be easy to do. But finding the decals might not be so easy. And that's where I'm scratching my head if I sell this model as a complete model, what road name do I offer? There are so many that used this crane. So which one would be the most popular that people would buy? I have not figured that one out yet. I could go just black with a sliver top and no road name or even all black. That way someone with PRR layout would not have to buy a Conrail rig that would stick out like a soar thumb if they want this crane on their layout. But I'm more then open for suggestions on how to approach this. Thanks, -Jon
