All of us know that Mark Secco, a long time IRM member and now
retired, has devoted his life to cranes and heavy lifting. Both
professionally and at IRM. His efforts were key to the recent use of
our operational BIG HOOK in making a wheels swap on one of our
cabooses. This is posted under a new category, HEAVY LIFT DEPARTMENT,
although there is no such official department at IRM. It was Mark's
suggestion for this heading. He has submitted the following report:
We
have received a new crane made by OHIO and it was donated by the Union
Pacific following use at Sterling Illinois. Reporting marks are CNW
262051. Although retired, Mark was designated by the UP as overseer and
coordinator for the necessary moves to bring the crane to IRM. Mark
first did an inspection of the unit, checking bearings and tie downs,
monitoring mechanical items during the trip, and coordinated the moves
of the crews, dispatcher, and corridor manager.
Once the crane is
up and operational at IRM Mark hopes to reduce crane rental costs at IRM
when such equipment is needed on site. Both the new OHIO crane and our
Bucyrus Erie CNW 6363 wrecker may be used singly or together as needed
by the projects.
Here are some pics supplied by Mark of the crane being moved to IRM.
Work train crew being changed out at Cortland mp 56 on the Geneva Sub. Mark job
briefing new crew on speed restriction of 20 mph for Ohio crane over control
points. Most of the control points are too rough for 30 mph which is the
crane's normal maximum speed in train.
Mark reminiscing with conductor Ihor, one of his former conductors who
brought the work train from Sterling to Cortland.
Other news in the crane venue:
Mike Alterio and Terry Elliott installed a new steel door and
strengthened the doorway with new angle iron on our CNW 6363 crane.
Comments
Mon, 09-08-2025 08:22
Good job on the Burlington Nortern 9976. OK.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:56
No new news that I have heard of thus far.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:53
I'll also be doing another update on it soon. Keep en eye out for that.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:47
A little work was done to it for Diesel Days this year. You'll see photos floating around for the temporary short term job that was done to make it [...]
Wed, 08-06-2025 13:01
Is steam car CN 15444 going to be coming to museum several times it was to be moved to muesum
Sat, 07-19-2025 18:56
Yeah, sadly it's still there as of 7/19/2025
Thu, 06-12-2025 19:14
Its been 14 years guys, where is the unit? Like really? Did you guys misplace it? Or are repairs taking that long? At this point be might we will have [...]
Wed, 04-09-2025 17:40
Jamie Thanks for the update. She's gonna shine like every thing else you guys do! Smeds
Thu, 03-06-2025 16:28
Yes, there is a wye. Those two have been MU'ed on diesel days a year or two ago.
Wed, 03-05-2025 14:04
7009 number boards look good. Is there a way to turn a locomotive around at IRM? In case you ever had a mind to connect 7009 and 6847?
Fri, 03-29-2024 21:26
We're slackers and spend more time working on the equipment in the shop than keeping all you readers updated. We'll work on it, but I'm sure updates [...]
Thu, 03-14-2024 08:02
What happened to the Department Blog? It's been over 2 years and I still regularly check for updates, but nothing comes...