Derrick car

[tstage]

I have a question for you experts out there. Can you tell me the purpose and use of a "derrick car"? I saw a Walthers version in my LHS a couple of weeks ago and was intrigued. (It basically looks like a crane on the back of a flat bed.)

Did they ever make one with a clamshell (e.g. for scooping up coal)? Or, was it used primarily as a crane? What was the purpose for the low profile wall? (I would assume it was for keeping "something" from rolling off the platform.) I tried to do a quick search but didn't really come up with any useful information. Thought I could get a better response from you all.

Thanks for your help! [:)]

Tom

[Jetrock]

Derricks were used for lifting heavy things into place--like, for example, cars and engines that derailed. Lacking a giant hand from the sky to set them back on the track, derricks were most useful for this purpose. I'm not sure what you mean by the "low profile wall" unless you mean the low wall found on the idler car (a little caboose body on a flatcar) that is used with the derrick car (because the derrick's boom sticks out farther than the end of the car, and thus can't be coupled directly to a regular-height car or locomotive from that end.) That flat area could be used to store things the derrick would lift, or to store the derrick's fittings and equipment.

I'm sure clamshells were used with derrick cars for various digging purposes--dumping riprap or ballast, moving coal, clearing dirt, etcetera. But generally they were for lifting heavy things on or near the line.

[tstage]

Jetrock,

Thanks for the explanation. That's what I sort of thought.

The low profile wall I was referring to might be wooden planks - perhaps, 2 or 3, 2 x 8 or 2 x 10 planks - stacked on their sides to form a shallow "box" on one end of the car. (If you have ever seen the Tichy 40' gondola, the "box" would be about half that size.)

Tom

[jsoderq]

Actually you are not talking about the same thing. The heavy lifting cranes were very large equipment used for lifting wrecks etc usually steam or diesel powered lifting capacity up to a couple hundred tons. The derrick car was usually homebilt - a lifting boom on an old flat car - used to lift rails, buckets of spikes etc for track crews. They had very limited lifting capacity. The wood racks were indeed to keep things from rolling off. Clamshells were not used on the large cranes as the booms were not set up that way. Railroad clamshells were most often "Burro" cranes - often selfpropelled and riding right on the rails. Some railroads used regular clamshell equipment mounted on a flat or in a gondola.