Athearn 75424 HO 200-Ton Crane and Boom Car Illinois Central #100417 / #100546

MODEL FEATURES:
• Rotating boom
• Boom and Blocks raise and lower
• Flat car with boom support arms
• Machined metal wheels with RP25 contours
• Weighted for optimum performance
• Body-mounted McHenry® operating scale knuckle couplers
• Highly-detailed, injection-molded body
• Painted and printed for realistic decoration
• Minimum radius: 18”

PROTOTYPE AND BACKGROUND INFO:
The first railroad cranes relied on locomotives for positioning around the
work site. Big cranes required water tenders to power their steam boilers
to operate and rotate the boom before being converted to diesel in the
late 1970’s and 1980’s. Some cranes were constructed as diesel towards
the end of the steam era. Standard pulling operations for a 200 ton crane
required at least 5 idler cars between the locomotive and the crane when
in transit from one location to another. This was for more braking power,
as these cranes were often just as heavy, or perhaps heavier, than a
single locomotive of the time.