I bought a Lionel TMCC PRR 250 ton wrecker about a year ago. Since then I have been searching for the matching boom car or tender in the PRR livery to go with it.
The car isn’t cheap, as it is a sound car. I have seen plenty of other railroad names but the PRR version was impossible to find.
I lucked out when I found one on an eBay auction as it just started. I contacted the owner and made an made an offer he couldn’t refuse. Two days later, it arrived in the mail.
This was one of my “had to haves” so it made my day when I snagged it.
Congratulations on finally locating that nice looking and elusive PRR unit. I enjoy hearing the foreman say; "the big-hook is on the job" or "that was a good job, let's take a break". Fun stuff...
I purchased the Legacy DT&I one from a big dealer at a train show last year on a whim. Mostly the price was too good to pass up. It's definitely become one of my favorite pieces and is definitely a crowd pleaser when I run it on the club layout at train shows. I need to take some time and rig up some more fun things to pick up with it, but for now I mostly just pick up a freight car truck and move it around.
Tom, congratulations! Great looking and the perfect engine to pull it too.
I don't have one, but everyone says it is the best operating item that was ever made. Not only fun to operate, but can be used in a very prototypical fashion as well.
Thanks Ed. The cars you have will work! My OCD stipulated that I find the sound car that goes with the crane...lol
I haven’t powered it up yet, so I am not sure what sounds it makes yet.
I have 2 of the MTH PRR 250 ton cranes. It seems MTH never made boom tenders for them. The one set I have supplies a flat car with wheels to place under the boom. Not a bad idea, but you need to raise the boom so it doesn’t hit the wheels when it is going along.
The sounds are the crew talking and the crane operating sounds. They're synchronized to the crane movement, you set both the crane and the boom car to the same TMCC address.
Interesting. I worked for a wreck outfit part time in the early 80’s. We used D9 “sidewinders” to pick up cars and locomotives. We had a few crane trucks too.
The big difference was we used hand signals to communicate with the crane operators. We never spoke while moving the rig. The only time you yelled was when someone was in danger of being squashed.
In the old days when railroads used their own wreckers, the wreck master used hand signals or if it was night time, the wreck master used a green lantern. The crane operator would only take directions from the wreck master and ignore everyone else unless it was an emergency...
Yep I remember boom up you pointed up, boom down pointed down.
Line up you pointed your finger up while twirling it, down just the opposite.
Boom left or right you pointed left or right.
It has been a long time for me, we had a RR crane 60 ton.
And a 1938 Burro on wheels.
A beast to operate as nothing worked right. :smokin:
While I agree that it's probably not "real world", they didn't have the technology to have an O-gauge sized figure giving hand signals, so the voice was used.
I like the idea of just the crane sounds, that would have been cool. I "wonder" if the Legacy model allows you to turn down the voice. Not much in the manual, but the "Activate Crew Talk" button gives you hope.
Lots of play value in these cranes. I have a TMCC NYC version.
The outriggers are a problem in that they pop out on their own. I even replaced a few trying to fix it but new ones do the same thing. Mine will stay parked on a siding most of the time.
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