I have often wondered why there were no big hooks (wrecking cranes) on the railroads in Puerto Rico. In my years of going through the newspapers there, looking through Puerto Rico Illustrado and collecting photographs, there certainly were enough wrecks to warrant at least one on the coastal system. When the P&G Plymouth #6 derailed and went down an embankment back in the late 1970s, a large truck crane was brought to the site. There was a fairly serious derailment of two ATdePR Plymouths near Naguabo, but again two truck cranes got them back on the tracks. Trucks, trucks, trucks. But what did they do when there were no trucks??? OXEN???? Possibly steam tractors??? I guess it is my BAD that I never bothered to ask any one over the years. Anybody out there ever see a wreck crane, or ever know about one existing in PR? Roger Aponte snapped a picture of some sort of homemade rig at Aguirre in the last days of railroading on the P&G. It looks like it might have the strength to lift an outhouse (latrina) without capsizing! Or, did it lift the cab of ex-P&G Plymouth #11 onto that flatcar?? Anyway, I am attaching a few pictures I took of my favorite big hook (steam powered, no less) on the Delaware & Hudson Railroad in northeastern Pennsylvania. This was quite the machine to see in operation, and was rated at 250 tons lifting capacity. After the wreck was cleaned up (black & white photo), it was taken to a siding nearby, and I got to climb up in it and look around. They even turned it so I could get a better shot of it when I got down.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 20:51:44 +0000
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