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QUESTION:I'd appreciate help on a difficult problem. I am modeling a Santa Fe work
train. SF typically used a burro crane on a flat car (with rails spiked to
the deck) coupled between a set of air dump cars to do routine right of way
maintenance tasks such as ditching.
Custom Finishing makes a very nice Burro (which I have about half done), but
there is no "shovel" style bucket (ya' know, the square type of thing that
has a drop door at the bottom). Also, Custom Finishing's burro has a very
nice etched brass truss-style crane beam (I'm assuming that's what it's
called, but not sure of terminology - anyway, I mean the long part that
sticks out from and is hinged to the bottom of the cab).
The Burro in the photos appears to have a solid (not truss) crane beam,
another solid beam pivoted within the first for the movable portion that
carries the shovel bucket, which itself has a hinged bottom allowing it to
drop the load. The beams wouldn't be too hard to scratchbuild, but the
shovel bucket is really tough.
I've been through the Walthers catalog and found nothing that looks like the
kind of shovel bucket on the Burro. There are two Kibri cranes a bit like
it (tracked excavator and LC shovel), but I hate to shell out $40-50 just
for a bucket. I also looked at the Woodland Scenics Insley crane, but the
bucket is small and turned the wrong direction. CF makes a nice clamshell
bucket, but it doesn't appear this was used in normal work train service.
I've heard of a Vintage Vehicles kit for a steam shovel that cost about $5,
but haven't seen any in years. It had a nice bucket and the rest of the
mechanism looked a lot like the Burro crane arrangement used by the SF.
So questions:
Does anyone know of any HO kits with buckets that might work?
Do you know of any other vehicles with a bucket and crane arm that might do
it, even "toys"?
Did any of the Burros with the bucket loader use a truss-style crane beam,
rather than solid, with the bucket?
Were there other kinds of crane beams and buckets used on Burros, so that I
could reasonably "cross kit" this with the Woodland Scenics bucket, or use
the clamshell bucket?
ANSWER: What you are probably referring to is a Burro crane set up as a ditcher. It
would be used to clear the ditches along the right of way. I haven't seen such
an arrangement yet.
I do have a white metal model of a steam powered American ditcher, the kit was
made by Rio Grande Models some time ago. Looking at the sides of the boom,
they are solid, but have latticework joining them together. This kit is
relatively expensive (probably $35-50) and has been around for many years. I
also have the Custom Finishing Burro crane that I intend to assemble
eventually. I cannot tell from the kit parts in the bag if the Rio Grande boom
would fit. The boom is about 7/8" wide at the base, maybe you can check your
kit.
I bought the Custom Finishing etched brass clamshell bucket for my kit.
I also have an unbuilt Vintage Vehicles steam crane, but have no idea whether
the boom on this would fit either. I understand this kit is no longer
produced. When it was available it was more than $5.00, I think it was around
$15.00. The packaging and assembly instructions are identical to Jordan
Products vehicle kits, but I never heard why the separate firm name was used.
Many years ago I needed a part from a Jordan vehicle kit and wrote the firm to
check the availability. They sent me the part by return mail at no charge. So
maybe a note to them asking re parts for the crane might be an idea.
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