Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Unfortunately, I was not at the museum when the Mt. Harvard was unloaded.  These  pictures of the unloading were taken by Bob Olsen and sent to me to be used on this blog.  Thanks Bob for letting me use your pictures. The 190 ton crane was  supplied by the company called CRANE LIFTS from Janesville, Wisconsin.     Thanks to Mike, Mitch and Kathy McCutchin for all their expertise.  Thanks also to Marv Bult of ROSE CARTAGE SERVICE for his advise and knowledge of trucking the Mt. Harvard.   

    I would to again THANK everyone who was involved with the  lifting, transportation, loading and unloading of the Mt. Harvard.  My sincere thanks to both Crane Lifts and Rose Cartage Service for expert knowledge and assistance.   I would also like to thank all of you for your continued support of this project.  Unfortunately, what we budgeted for the project both lifting, loading,  transporting and unloading at both ends has fallen far short of the actually funds  needed to do the job.    Due to unforeseen  developments at the Mid Continent RR Museum we had to spend an extra day lifting and loading the Mt, Harvard.  At the approximate  cost of $5,000 per day per crane we  accrued  a larger expense for the entire project.  The trucking of the Mt. Harvard has also cost us more than we budgeted.  That translates into more money being spent then we planned for.  Therefore,  we are now in the red for about $14,000 and this must be paid back to the museum before any restoration plans can begin.   You can see our dilemma.   At one point we said we could have this car in limited service by 2016.   Unless, some large donations come in, our Mt. Harvard WILL NOT be in service anytime soon.   Please consider donating to the fund to help us erase this large deficit and then to continue our restoration plans.    Thanks again to everyone who gave me kind words of encouragement through out this large project.      Roger  Kramer