Canadian Railroads > Fix-it Friday - CN Hook 50028 on Site and at Rest

When things go wrong, someone and something's got to clean up the mess.
1. On Friday, February 4, 1977, CN crane 50028 is at Bells Junction, just west of Ottawa in Bells Corners, working on the cleanup of a derailment involving an EB freight. My family alerted me to this (it made the local morning news on the radio) before I headed off to my morning lab at Carleton U. I hustled home, then out to the site for the afternoon, and got a lot of photos in nice light. No way you'd be allowed this close nowadays. The livery is stunning, really, a great corporate image.
2. A trip to Taschereau Yard in Montréal, with Glenn Courtenay and I escorted by Pierre Patenaude, netted this photo of 50028 on July 9, 1989. About the only change I can detect is the lights on the boom, and maybe the colour of the ladders (unless it's just worn through to primer or some previous generation of paint).
Fred

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My shot of 50022 shows it pretty much identical to this unit!

feclark Wrote:
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>About the only change I can detect is the
> lights on the boom, and maybe the colour of the
> ladders (unless it's just worn through to primer
> or some previous generation of paint).
 
I loved the new look CN applied to their "hooks"  I wasn't lucky enough to catch many CN wreckers that were not boxed in..sigh.  I do think the ladders were repainted.  The colour of the numbers as well as the location of those numbers are different.   The font was also larger in your 1989 photo.

CN 50028 was a 160 ton Industrial-Brownhoist built in 1922 as GTR 95061, serial #4251.

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON



 

moonliter Wrote:
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> feclark Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >About the only change I can detect is the
> > lights on the boom, and maybe the colour of the
> > ladders (unless it's just worn through to
> primer
> > or some previous generation of paint).
>  
> I loved the new look CN applied to their "hooks" 
> I wasn't lucky enough to catch many CN wreckers
> that were not boxed in..sigh.  I do think the
> ladders were repainted.  The colour of the
> numbers as well as the location of those numbers
> are different.   The font was also larger in
> your 1989 photo.
>
> CN 50028 was a 160 ton Industrial-Brownhoist built
> in 1922 as GTR 95061, serial #4251.
>
> Gerry Gaugl
> Ottawa ON
>
>
>
>  

How did I miss the colour of the lettering? Thanks.
Fred

The boom tip sheave guards and the boom tip stripes are also different. :-)  Great pics!

poshell Wrote:
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> The boom tip sheave guards and the boom tip
> stripes are also different. :-)  Great pics!

Ah, yes. Do you have any insight as to why subtle changes like this happened? I assume improved visibility of some kind, but I've always been of the impression if you don't see the boom coming at you, the difference in a bit of paint isn't going to register with you.
Fred

Just back from a trip on VIA 1 The Canadian yesterday and getting caught up on recent posts.
Paint colour is not likely to help much if you are about to get whacked with a crane boom 🤣
Work Equipment cranes, like wreckers in the Equipment Dept. often received minor repairs, changes, and upgrades between major repairs and overhauls.
I'm guessing the boom tip and sheave guard repaint noticed in the above pics was likely made after a repair or modification.
Grab irons, ladders, cable yokes, hook blocks, to name a few, often get 'touched up' when the machines are idle.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/25 15:29 by poshell.