Only two more hoppers to re-rail at Lyons Hump in 1951 - These derricks were used on the non-mainline trackages on account of their limited capacity - 100 tonners vs the 250 ton Big Hooks located at major terminals such as Indianapolis, Elkhart, Toledo, Cleveland, etc.
All of those rail derricks have fascinated me for years. As a kid looking at the Lionel catalog I wanted one. Unfortunately I owned Marx trains. At Railfair 99 in Sacramento they had an old steam powered one actually operating. Late in the fair a diesel derailed in the yard and they used it to re-rail the machine. Thanks for posting that, Roger. :tb-biggrin:
When I was a little kid and I first joined the Cub Scouts, one of my den buddies' dad was a crewman on a PRR wreck train crew. I lost track of Jimmy for a long time, but he showed up again when I was a young,single guy just out of the Army and Jimmy got me interested in his model RR club. I belonged to it for a couple of years in the late 60's early 70's. Went foamtographing with him a few times. He showed me some neat,albeit,taboo areas to take pix. Cant do that any more these days. Lost track of him again shortly after joining the model RR club for the reason that most of us have suspended the hobby, women,marriage and family. He was,naturally, a BIG PRR fan! Thanks for the memory provoking photo Roger! CT
