Preservers of the Historic Ma & Pa Railroad
Preservers of the Historic Ma & Pa Railroad
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...
photo by George W. Fitch, Jr.
...and lowered it very gently onto the blocking. The trailer settled very noticeably under the weight.
photo by George W. Fitch, Jr.
The locomotive trucks were loaded onto two separate flatbed trailers to move separately over the road.
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.
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.
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.
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.
No. 82 cast a ghostly image through the rain and mist on Muddy Creek Forks Road as it approached the turn to 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.
all photos unless otherwise noted are by Craig Sansonetti