Walther's has produced an American Crane in HO scale and evidently has a new run in stock. One of the color schemes is yellow with data only. Years ago Tony LaLumia (Friscotony) and I spent an afternoon in the cab of one of the Frisco's while it replaced a girder bridge here in Wichita. I have several slides of the process taken from te cab that I intend to locate when I have time. Now for the question. How close is this model to the ones the Frisco owned? http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/920-105005 Thanks in advance.
I was assigned to the DL-920, back in the mid 70's The model is fairly good, it more represents a "Ohio" than a American. The cab is different and may have been a option to order. Frisco shortened the boom also. The DL-919 is in one of the books, not sure which one. The Bridge Dept., had a different type. Not sure about that one. William Jackson They are still very nice, I will get one with DCC. The Boom, was shortened so that it was not too high, when centered on a 40 or 50' flat car. The DL-920 was SLSF 99072, The DL-919 was SLSF 99071 If you look in my albums, I added a photo, that might help with the decals, This model is from the mid 70's so it is not much from todays standards
The Walther's models are dead ringers for the American mobile clamshell bucket cranes that Marquette Cement had in Cape Girardeau. There will be two on my layout, one in badly cement-dust weathered black (almost grey http://www.frisco.org/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=9298&d=1257217932) and the other will be a badly cement-dust weathered red (almost pink/white). I plan to install some type of sound decoder in them (it will be very tight).
Keith, a sound decoder would have me real interested. Keep us posted. The photo you posted is as you say very close. No doubt there are several different models of cranes. The Frisco Bridge crane, although I don't know the type, looked more like the one in your photo. William Jackson I looked at the DL-919, its in Molo's Book, its like the one I ran. Frisco, bought two of them for online scrap. Rail, Frog's and Plates
I posted photos of one of the ex frisco American cranes here: http://www.frisco.org/vb/showthread.php?1309-Maintenance-of-Way&p=8822#post8822 There are additional photos of Frisco American cranes in two posts that follow. Paul
Paul, nice shots of the BN crane. It is not one that I have seen before. It has a different type boom winch on the top. The front window though is made for the operator to be able to view the boom raised high. Looks like a higher ton rating. Be nice to know the history of that one. William Jackson
It was frisco 99070 In another post in the thread, I listed the BN numbers for SLSF 99070-99072: http://www.frisco.org/vb/showthread.php?1309-Maintenance-of-Way&p=11537#post11537 Paul
Ok, Paul that was the DL-918. It looks quite a lot different than when I seen them in the mid 70's. I did make a mistake in my eariler post. There was three of that type bought by Frisco. The three divisions each had one, and sometimes worked about anywhere. The one that worked the Southwest Division, I did not see it much. William Jackson
I just noticed this photo in craigh's album: http://www.frisco.org/vb/album.php?albumid=47&attachmentid=13012 This is closer to the walthers model. Paul
Another good photo. It really would not take much to make some changes to the Walthers model, if someone wanted to make it look more Frisco. It would be neat to have a sound decoder in it. William Jackson I got to looking, and the photo on page 114 of Molo's book shows the Bridge Pile Driver, its highlighting the tender car, but the crane cab is also shown.
The Walthers model is a much lighter machine (25 ton) than the most all of the ones that I have seen attributed to Frisco's usage (50+ ton). I believe John Chambers had a slide in his presentation during the first meet in Pittsburg that shows a Frisco unit that comes very close to the model, but that one is the only one owned by the Frisco that I have seen being as light of a unit as the model. Tom, based on my dad's input, the model represents an American Crane produced in the early fifties.
