Ma & Pa Railroad Heritage Village
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Preservers of the Historic Ma & Pa Railroad

Ma & Pa Railroad - The Move - continued...

More moves of the EMD SW9 #82 back to the Ma & Pa mainline

The journey of Ma & Pa locomotive No. 82 to Muddy Creek Forks continues...

With spreader bars and heavy cables the cranes lifted the body of the locomotive free of its trucks...

Spreader bars and heavy cables

photo by George W. Fitch, Jr.

...and lowered it very gently onto the blocking. The trailer settled very noticeably under the weight.

Lowering No. 82 very gently

photo by George W. Fitch, Jr.

The locomotive trucks were loaded onto two separate flatbed trailers to move separately over the road.

Loading trucks onto the flatbed trailers

photo by George W.Fitch, Jr.

The trailer, with locomotive on board, was a 19-axle monster stretching 210 feet long. Note the man on the platform at the rear end of the rig with hydraulic controls to independently steer the rear set of wheels.

The 19 axle monster

On the morning of May 24, after a series of frustrating permit delays, the truck finally pulled onto the road and headed for High Rock.

Moving out on the road to High Rock

All was going smoothly as No. 82 pulled into Red Lion. Note the second tractor connected as a pusher at the rear of the 19-axle rig.

Coming into the center of Red Lion

As the trailer made the turn from PA Route 24 to Route 74 in the center of Red Lion, the stack of No. 82 caught on an overhanging sign. For a few minutes all traffic was blocked as the truck crew lowered the bed of the trailer to nearly scrape the pavement allowing the locomotive to just slip by.

In the center of Red Lion

No. 82 cast a ghostly image through the rain and mist on Muddy Creek Forks Road as it approached the turn to High Rock.

Approaching High Rock

The intersection at High Rock Road was the tightest turn on the route. Here the bed of the trailer was lifted to its highest position, three feet above the road surface, in an attempt to clear the bank on the inside of the turn. It was not quite enough. The trailer scalped the sod from an area about two feet wide and fifteen feet long.

The intersection at High Rock road

all photos unless otherwise noted are by Craig Sansonetti

» More pictures on the move of Engine #82