Nearing the end of a complete rebuild, Milwaukee Road #261 is placed back onto its wheels. That's nearly 400,000 pounds hanging from those two cranes. What better to do on a day when it's 13 degrees outside? [video=youtube;W4cXO9ER1tI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4cXO9ER1tI[/video]
And that's how its done in this day and time. No overhead steam shop crane like the UP has in Cheyenne. Someone was sure shivering in the cold. Wow, thanks for sharing.
The guys at Vic's Crane & Heavy Haul are great to work with. Evev as cold as it is, after a lunch break, a lot of the guys are still working on the engine. We'll be back at it tomorrow too. Thanks for posting the pics.
I wish I had some sort of skill to offer that would be of use to you guys, but I don't see much need for computer skills down there...
Thanks for capturing this on film, Tracy. Truly a landmark event in the rebuilding of 261. Great idea to have all the rods on so the wheels don't have to be rotated to install them later! Hey, Brent, glad to see you posting on here. And we were only about 12 degrees warmer in Portland with both 4449 and 700 out running this weekend. :tb-biggrin:
This was at the 261 shop, near the intersection of Hennepin Ave and Harrison St. I found out from a message on the TwinCityRails Yahoo group...
It was amazing to watch, seeing that much weight suspended in the air. I missed it when they lifted it off the wheels, so I made sure to get down there when I found out this was happening.
Nice, ty for the inf. I'll have to remember to join that page. That would have only been about a 20 min. drive for me.
