Highlights

The ore jenny is a small car. It is only 25' long and a mere 9' 2" tall, weighing about 43,000 lbs.

The trucking company we contacted for this move was Daily Express. The trailer they suggested was the same lowboy with rails that is used to move Thomas the Tank. As it turns out, Thomas is about the same size as an ore jenny.

One requirement for this type of railcar loading and unloading is that at least 150' of rail must be level with the ground so that the truck can maneuver and line itself up over the rails to roll the car on and off.


  




Project PRR 15555 G38


When a Class 1 railroad sells a railcar, they want the car off their property quickly. Usually that means 30 days.

In this case, the timeframe was even shorter. The site where this ore jenny sat, a former PRR facility at Holidaysburg, had been sold, and many of the the surplus cars stored there were being moved to Altoona and processed for scrap. So we needed to move fast to keep this car from being cut up.

The move was set for December 18th. Why not add one more thing to the holiday to-do list?

During the move, only one complication arose: we needed a way to remove the loading ramp from the lowboy trailer. Fortunately, a backhoe was available, and everything went smoothly.

Special thanks go to Pat McKinney, MW foreman for NS and a PRR expert. He suggested the perfect place to load the jenny and made sure we contacted the right people to ensure our safety while loading the car in the busy Rose Yard.

Click on any picture for larger image.