While we were on Rocky Mountain Race Week a couple of weeks ago, we passed a train derailment that had happened in the not too distant past. The tracks were repaired, and some of the train wreckage was cleaned up and moved out of the way of other train traffic, but seeing these train cars on their sides in the dirt made you really wonder how the heck they would get these things out of there. We realized that the train cars that were on site still were laying on their sides and had no “trucks” aka wheels and axles and suspension, under them. They bolt on sort of like the trucks on a skateboard, and weigh a jillion pounds, so we’re sure they are pretty valuable.
Because the internet is always listening, as soon as I went on YouTube the next day there were some train videos in my feed. I occasionally look at something railroad related, but this was about derailments and locomotive lifts which caught my attention.
I know guys that work on locomotives and have heard them talking about how much they weigh and it must take one heck of a crane to lift and move these locomotives, but how do they get it out to the site? Well, it’s not the kind of crane you think. In fact, the equipment used is more like a bulldozer, a forklift, and a boom truck had a baby. Watch and you’ll see.
