I have always wanted one and my RR certainly needs one to rescue all the derailments but I had to wait for my skills to catch up with my aspirations.

I have been working many hours to make this dream come true and I’m rather pleased how it came out. There are still some details to do but it is done for now. (on to the build challenge!)

The boom goes up and down by using an allen wrench and both hooks raise and lower. The red outriggers pull out.

I am very happy about how this came out and it will be a fine addition to the MOW rescue roster when trains start running again in the Spring.

Purty nifty. I like it! Good job.

Excellent!

Great looking train, Todd. Now where is the build log. We all want to see how you built the darn thing so we can steal borrow your ideas (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Nice work Todd. Looks like you set a personal high bar. (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

this is beautiful!

overhelming work!

Looks like there were several features to take some time noodling out. Cool.

Thanks guys, I’m glad you like it. It was a ridiculous time of trial and error and “noodling” to get it to work.

Everything is scratched except the 3 axle trucks. The rest is made out of wood, plastic wood, plexi glass, styrene, brass rod, stacked fender washers for the pulleys, fishing line and the hooks are from key clips. I drew inspiration from google images of cranes and scaled it to a Bachmann figure.

Here is a photo from when it was being pieced together.

Very cool. I would never have guessed it was wood without the build photo. You did a great job getting a smooth finish. I also like the working outriggers. I had a USA crane for a while and got rid of it because without outriggers I couldn’t stage a believable photo. I’m pretty sure it’s living in Cheektowaga, NY now at the Diesel Dude’s place.

I’m with Jon, I would have sworn it was built out of styrene. The in progress photo makes it even more impressive. How do you operate the hooks?

Jon the end outriggers only slide out about 1 inch due to the truck mounted couplers having to swing for tight track, the center ones about 2".

Dan if you look at the third photo you will see bolt heads sticking out. Three of these operate the winches to raise and lower the boom and hooks using as allen wrench.

The fly fishing line, 80 pound test I think it is actually works through the pulleys to lift the boom. Figuring out how to rig those took a bit of trial and error. I’m really proud of solving that problem and another was to create a hinge for the roof section that lifts as the boom lifts. I did that with a brass rod inserted into a brass tube that was glued to the roof section.

I will have to take and post a photo of the boom lifted.

Now that you point them out, I see the allen head bolts. Thanks for the explanation. Would love to see more photos. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Very cool project! Nicely presented. I think you really caught the flavor of what you were trying to create.

Very cool, nicely done. Wish this came with a building log (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Nice job Todd! Cranes make interesting models!

Thanks again guys.

Here is another photo from when the crane was being pieced together. You can see the base is made from a solid piece of plastic wood like Azac sandwiched between 2 pieces of plexi to give it the 'I" beam steel look. The crane spins on a single bolt and it sits on 2 folgers coffee can lids to give the appearance of the ring gear.

In this photo you can see that I originally planned to use a roof from a Bachmann caboose but cutting in the section that would be hinged was a problem so I built another roof using wood pieces and quarter round molding.

Coffee can lids, huh, I would have never thought of that. But they do provide the look you were trying to achieve. You know, these little glimpses into the construction just makes us want more, so, keep feeding us. We have a very healthy appetite.

Dan Hilyer said:

Coffee can lids, huh, I would have never thought of that. But they do provide the look you were trying to achieve. You know, these little glimpses into the construction just makes us want more, so, keep feeding us. We have a very healthy appetite.

Thanks Dan. I really enjoy recycling stuff for the RR like these lids or roaming the aisles at the hardware store looking for items to use. One of the make or break things on this crane was how to build convincing hooks that will capture the theme and be believable. I thought about making them from sculpey clay or using a “S” hook of some sort but I was able to find small metal pulleys and the hook itself is from a plastic key chain (dog leash clip) that I hacked up and glued back together then painted red.

Outstanding work, and some nice engineering to bring everything together!