The Big Hook

Reading Railroad crane # 90901, a 1956 product of Industrial Brownhoist. Purchased for $211,792.61, the crane is one of a pair bought by the railroad to salvage the Reading's big T-1 locomotives. The 191 ton, self-propelled crane has a lifting capacity of 500,000 pounds, easily capable of lifting the largest steam locomotives on the railroad. It's powered by two diesel engines in the rear of the crane, note the rooftop mufflers. For safety, there's outriggers in the middle, front and rear of the crane that could be extended  to brace the crane when it was lifting a heavy load. Additionally there's a pair of brackets front and rear that could clamp onto the rails and further support the crane and it's load. The crane on the tip of the boom is the whip hoist the smallest, the middle and closer hooks progressively higher capacity. Inside the thing is a very tight fit, the interior filled with the two diesels and the gears of the hoist equipment. (You need a jar of Vasoline and a shoehorn to get inside). The wheels were originally fiction bearings, (like the hopper car to the left), but were converted to rolling bearings by the railroad, (believe me, as heavy as the thing is, it rolls easily when it gets going) The idle car in front was made the Reading's shop forces, indeed the inside of the storage lockers say ING where the steel was cut off a old box car. This is one of a half dozen pieces of equipment that make up the Reading Railroad Relief Train at the Reading Railroad Museum in Hamburg, PA. Find out more at readingrailroad.org.