Big Hook: A very useful engine. Wreckmaster John Henry watches as this Nevada Northern wrecking crew rigs a derailed hopper for a lift back onto the iron in the East Ely Yard. Nevada Northern's 100-ton Wrecking Crane A is indeed one of the most useful engines that a railway can own. Able to readily travel anywhere on the line, it can be set up by a crew of 6 in about 45 minutes, and can make short work of minor derailments, such as the one staged here for demonstration purposes. When in actual operation, two crew members act as riggers, while three others man the cab and one directs the operation. Two of the three in the cab operate the controls that rotate the turret, adjust the elevation on the boom and raise and lower the hoist. A third cab crew member is the all-important engineer, who handles the key tasks of maintaining steam pressure and watching the water level in the crane's vertical boiler. There is nothing high-tech about this critter. She was built in 1907 and the controls consist of big levers and cranks, scattered around in a very tight cab space. The crew has to really watch where they put their body parts, as there is a lot of moving machinery with no safety covers or guards. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration or "OSHA" was still decades away when this baby was built.
