Western Railroad Discussion > Mechanical Department hirail equipment

The thread last night about MOW hirail equipment ( http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,1725072 ) inspired me to start a similar one about the Mechanical Department, so here are a few of my favorites. The Isringhausen brutes are 2 out of the 6 built. 1926 rarely sees the outside world and stays inside the roundhouse at Whitefish; 1839 sits outside near the carshop in Springfield, MO most of the time. There is one at Mandan I have photos of, and I hear of one in Seattle. I've also heard Arizona and Texas are where the other two are at, but that information may not be reliable. The six Isringhausens were the first hirail brutes.

13161 is a wheel truck with some history with me. When I first met it, it was stationed at Cuba Mo. When the carshop started covering that area from other points, I hear the truck moved to Springfield for a short time, but I didn't see it there. Then one day in Minot ND they had an extra truck on the list. The next year it was gone, but a couple of months later, it was working out of Amarillo when I went there. A year later, it was a Lubbock truck, where it has been for a couple of years now. It's a 1994 but it's only got a little over 230,000 miles. Unfortunately it's showing some wear that may end up taking it out of service before long.

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Great group of machines . . luv that stuff ! 'Dogh

That 1926 is a classic... love the big sky blue paint and Rocky on the crane operator's cab. Any idea if that is the original GN paint? If so it's amazingly well preserved for 38+ years old.

The Western America Rail Museum at Barstow has two mechanical department vehicles on display, a Cline wheel truck with short boom for field car repairs (circa 1960?) and a brute crane 125 ton capacity hi-rail crane. The car department at Barstow replaced their brute with a 150-ton Isringhausen crane about 7 years ago and donated the older crane to the museum. This equipment is part of an interesting display that is open to the public all the time (not fenced). The displays inside include a lot of tools and equipment used by workmen on the railroad not usually found in museums.


TIOGA PASS

BN_FAN Wrote:
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> That 1926 is a classic... love the big sky blue
> paint and Rocky on the crane operator's cab. Any
> idea if that is the original GN paint? If so it's
> amazingly well preserved for 38+ years old.


Certainly not original GN paint, but it is original GN pride. That unit was manufactured in 1983 and I think it was originally white and red.

The Mechanical Dept. crane in Seattle is a Mantis, which I understand is a larger version of the original Isringhausen Brute and produced by SpanDeck.

http://www.mantiscranes.com/crane30011.php

This is the Seattle Mantis. Be patient while it loads:
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/bn_mantis1.jpg