Rare Critter at Work: Model 40 Burro Rebuilds a Crossing

Описание: In the summer of 2020 I had the opportunity to see a Model 40 Burro Crane, one of the last of its kind, replacing a railroad crossing in Barrington IL.

Filmed over two weeks, you’ll see an incredibly rare look at an antique Burro Crane in the hands of an expert operator; lifting concrete panels and chunks of roadway, traveling at speed, and shoving with all its might against two to three train cars.

_________________________________________

This video contains eight separate days, which you can watch one or two at a time (I wanted to keep everything together instead of uploading 8 separate videos). When YouTube is working correctly, you can click on the times below to automatically start the video at the beginning of the selected day:
0:00 - Start
1:22 - Day 0 - Journey to Barrington
12:26 - Day 1 - Road Removal
55:21 - Day 2 - Replacing Track 2
1:12:30 - Day 3 - Replacing Track 1
1:47:08 - Day 4 - Getting the New Crossing
2:27:38 - Day 5 - Double Runaround
2:49:00 - Day 6 - New Road
3:28:06 - Day 7 - Returning the Ballast Hoppers

Think of this like chasing an antique steam engine, but more exciting. There are even fewer of them in operation, they're doing work instead of showing off, they don't announce where they'll be and when so it's more of a challenge, they lift and move things with the crane boom, and it's neat to see the small crane struggle to move freight cars that are bigger than itself.

Model 40 Burro Cranes went into production at the end of WWII and in the following decades were commonplace on railroads across North America. Some say the last Model 40 Burro Crane rolled out of the factory as late as the 1990's. Since then, few have survived into modern day and they seem to be mostly forgotten about. The short videos linked below are the only 'modern' footage I've been able to find of one doing more than rolling along with a flatcar:
   • Bealville Track Maintenance Cranes  
   • SP 8251 At Bealville Part II