A few years ago I found this crane near Buick. It's located at the end of track on the Lead Line, just south of wye that leads into the mine. I'm trying to figure out what its purpose was. My guess is that it served to transfer material from trucks to railcars (gondolas seem likely), but I have no idea what kind of material. The crane had a 12 ton capacity and could travel down the rails to load a number of cars. The three hooks hanging down give the appearance of being able to pick up a container at three points off of a truck, move it over a car, tip it up, and dump it out. My attempts to learn more from Doe Run employees working at the Buick mine did not reveal more information. I am hoping someone on here has an idea how this was used. I'm interested in kitbashing a model of the crane, but I really don't how to use it on a layout since I don't know how the prototype was used! I appreciate any information that you have!
This is just a thought, I can remember, the big boys, at one time talking about the gon's of lead comming off the lead line. They were saying, that at some point, they would have to cover the loads. This may have been a crane to install the top's on the gon's or some other type car. I really don't know how that ever turned out. At one time lead, commanded a pretty hefty price, then seemed like the bottom fell out of the market. Just a good guess.
