I just bought 2 of the new First Gear Side Booms on Ebay and now I'm looking for information on the prototype machines. I'm mainly interested in things like lifting capacity and years produced. Looking at photos of Hulchers machines it seems their machines are a larger type. if anyone knows where I can find some prototype information and possibly some pictures I would really appreciate it!
http://www.firstgearonline.com/category.cfm?catID=2233
I can't help you with pictures but I did dig up some general information which may be of help to you.
TD-25 general info
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
For a second there I thought that title said "HO Scale Sideburns", I was gonna step in with an amazing super detailing answer with a seventies Elvis twist.....
Sorry to drudge up an old post but I just got the hang of the photo posting thing! I thought someone might wonder what these things look like now that I've had them awhile and have had the time to modify them a bit. Enjoy!
Acetelyne tanks were made from bits of plastic and mounted on the hood side.
Here one of the models is lifting a freight car truck.
Here are both cranes ready for the next wreck!
A way to weather treads that I picked up from modelling military vehicles is to paint the tracks combinations of dirt colors, add small touches of rust in spots that wouldn't be bending or chafing, and finally highlight the edges and any areas that constantly rub or are abraded with a pencil. Finish off with a spray of Dullcote.
The graphite does a good job of simulating bare steel, but it's tedious.
I really like the paint job Boomer Red did on his models. Mine are still fresh as new. Does somebody know how these machines were brought to the wreck site ? The boom seems too high to clear bridges and wires.
Martin
Québec City
On some the boom is removed and carried on a flat bed truck. On others the boom hinges and folds in half. Hulchers in central Pa move the cats on over the road low boy trailers.
These aren't HO Scale in the photo, but I thought you might dig the action. One Santa Fe train tried to occupy the space of another on 3/30/88 in East Flagstaff, Arizona. The resultant mess took a couple of days to clean up. An earthen ramp was built from this field up to the level of the track. When the locomotives were to be rerailed two "Sidewinders" per side of the locomotive were used to pick it up and carry it up the ramp and back to the rail.
Around these parts R J Corman uses sidewinder Cats delivered to a wreck site on lowboy trailers for derailment work.
Here is another idea for you. Get a big bucket loader like this Cat 988 in the photo and use it to unload panel track from a flat car. You can see the cables used to hold the track on the backside of the loader's bucket.
I've made a few more changes and taken a few more photos.
I know this is a little off subject but I have a "wrecking crane and boom car' HO gauge from the early to mid 1960s still in box as well as 7 other cars (tankers and boxcars) and left and right atlas 'snapswitch'es that I am trying to find a value on. All are in original boxes and all from early to mid 1960s. With the exception of the Atlas switches they are all made by AHM (American Hobby Manufacturers, Philadelphia34, Pennsylvania).
Can any of you direct me to a site where I can look up their values? or maybe direct me to the proper thread to ask this question?
Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.
Loco wrote:Very well done. I also bought one - has the U.P. logo on it. Love the add on tanks, mind if I steel that?!?! Now we need to get a driver in the seat!
I stole that from pictures I've seen of the prototype machines so feel free! In fact the idea for the red paint came from pictures I've seen of R.J. Corman machines. One thing I have done that you might be interested in is modifying the boom so it can be raised to a higher angle. To do this you'll have to remove the small cross bar (covered by the skid plate in the first photo) and grind down the bump stops at the base of the boom on either side. I did this with a Dremel but hand tools could be used as well. Just be careful when grinding these small bumps so you don't remove too much material, otherwise the boom will lean over the operator. It's best to remove a small bit of material then check the angle and remove a bit more if needed.
knothead wrote: I know this is a little off subject but I have a "wrecking crane and boom car' HO gauge from the early to mid 1960s still in box as well as 7 other cars (tankers and boxcars) and left and right atlas 'snapswitch'es that I am trying to find a value on. All are in original boxes and all from early to mid 1960s. With the exception of the Atlas switches they are all made by AHM (American Hobby Manufacturers, Philadelphia34, Pennsylvania).Can any of you direct me to a site where I can look up their values? or maybe direct me to the proper thread to ask this question?Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.
This site may be some help. As far as the "wrecking crane and boom car" I bought one of these sets off Ebay a while ago and they were going for around $15-$25 I think.
http://ho-scaletrains.net/ahmhoscaletrainscollectorsresource/index.html
A side boom can generally pick up its own weight, if it tries to pick up something heavier than itself it and the boom is more than a a yard or two extended, will tip over. the counter weights are on hydraulic arms so it can swing the counterweights out further as it picks up heavier equipment or the boom has to be swund out further. If it has to reach the boom out further it picks up less, the more vertical the boom, the more it can pick up.
You can put sidebooms on diagonally opposite corners of a car and the pair can pick it up and "walk" away with it.
For yard work they have "padded" cats with rubber fillers between the treads. they won't tear up track or roads as much but are not as good on open or soft ground. So if its a muddly field you want "steel" cats and if its in a yard or multiple track you might want padded cats. A "division" is typically 2 cats and a front end loader. The counter weights and booms travel on a separate flat bed, the front end loader is often use to put the booms and counter weights on the cats. A "small" derailment might require one division, a large derailment might require 2 or more divisions. Some really big ones (a coal train runs into the rear of another train and a train on the other main track hits the debris and derails) may require multiple divisions from multiple companies.
Also in a division may be a lead pickup truck, a tool and block truck, a flat bed for each peice of equipment and one or two flats for the booms and counterweights. Some states require a following pickup to flag the cats as wide loads. They may also have a hazmat response truck or a food truck.
Dave H.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Boomer Red wrote: knothead wrote: I know this is a little off subject but I have a "wrecking crane and boom car' HO gauge from the early to mid 1960s still in box as well as 7 other cars (tankers and boxcars) and left and right atlas 'snapswitch'es that I am trying to find a value on. All are in original boxes and all from early to mid 1960s. With the exception of the Atlas switches they are all made by AHM (American Hobby Manufacturers, Philadelphia34, Pennsylvania).Can any of you direct me to a site where I can look up their values? or maybe direct me to the proper thread to ask this question?Thank you in advance for any help you can give me. This site may be some help. As far as the "wrecking crane and boom car" I bought one of these sets off Ebay a while ago and they were going for around $15-$25 I think.http://ho-scaletrains.net/ahmhoscaletrainscollectorsresource/index.html
Thank you
I found a lot of them on that ahm site but there are no values listed there
I have bumped this several years old thread, as this month's (May 2012) RailPace (yes, I still read it, the pictures are usually pretty interesting and it makes great...private room reading material) had not one but 2 railroad wreck recovery images, side-booms featuring prominently in both (sidebooms are rather cool in rail recovery - here's a neat Video that wasn't available when the thread was first created).
Searching for HO scale side-booms (aka Pipelayers) brings up the First Gear International that started the whole thread, usually w/ a discontinued or out-of-stock notation appended. I think the First Gear model is a IH TD-25C, produced from the late 1960s till the late1970s. It does look nice, but it seems that most Side Booms in wreck service in the US are Cats (572, 583, and 587) nowadays (I can not vouch for Pipe-laying service, which seems to be the service the majority of sidebooms are used for). The Cat 572 seems as old as or older than the IH model, but the 583 and 587 seems newer. This seems the state of the art in North American side booms except it doesn't mention Komsatu (D355?)
Unfortunately, the Norscott Cat 572 Side Boom mentioned in the thread was released in 1:50 (near O scale), and does not seem to have been released in HO scale. There is sort of a coversion kit offered by Custom Finishing, but that looks even older than the First Gear side boom equipment.
So, my questions:1) Did Norscot or anyone else release a modern Cat Side Boom in HO scale, and I just missed it2) Has anyone adapted a Cat HO model to a modern side boom?3) What is the current-most common side-boom use in rail recovery nowadays, anyway?4) Why do som many sidebooms/pipelayers have no cabs anyway? Besides the roll-over protection, you'd think that a machine where large steel cables stretch under heavy loads over the lower half of an operators body would be the poster-child for protection of a cab