Maintenance Equipment

nee Canadian Pacific
Arrived Danbury 1996
Purchased by Danbury Railway Museum
Manufactured by Woodings Railcar Limited, Lancaster, Ontario, Canada

Also known as track cars or motor cars, speeders were used by railroads to transport workmen and supplies for maintenance. They were also used by inspectors checking the right-of-way.

ex Metro-North
nee New York Central
Arrived Danbury 10/24/1995
Donated by Metro-North
Built 1947 by Burro Co.

CB3004 was ordered from the Burro Company by the New York Central on January 29, 1947. It is now painted yellow with Museum markings. The original 6-cyl Waukesha engine has been replaced with a 3-cyl Detroit diesel. The Burro cranes are used in track work for lifting ties, switches, frogs, diamonds, rails and other heavy objects.

Assigned by its owner, Dapco, to the Union Pacific Railroad
Donated by DAPCO

The Dapco High-Railer DC-7 has a Union City Body Company step-van body (similar to a bread delivery truck) on a Chevrolet chassis. It is equipped with railroad wheels and performs a function similar to the Sperry Rail Detector Car #135.

ex Metro-North #001
exx Penn Central #50021
nee Grand Central Terminal #GCT-1
Arrived Danbury 7/14/1998
Leased from Metro-North
Built 1914 by Industrial Crane Works of Bay City, Michigan

Built as Crane #2281, it is 90 feet long and capable of lifting 100 tons. Grand Central Terminal Co. was owned 58.057% by the New York Central and 41.943% by the New Haven. This unit was built specifically for the tunnels in and around Grand Central Terminal and has lifting booms at each end such that it doesn't matter in which direction it is headed into a tunnel - it will be in a position to work at re-railing cars. It is powered electrically from the third rail in the tunnels; nevertheless, it requires a large number of sizeable storage batteries which are ganged up in series in the ceiling of the wrecker to provide constant power. For a time toward the end of its working days the crane was known as the "Wellington" in honor of Ed Wellington Whitney, the longtime wreckmaster in Metro-North's White Plains yards. Of the three that were built, this is the only one that remains.

Privately owned

Fairmont Railway Motors started to build gasoline powered vehicles in 1911. This vehicle was built to replace a hand car. It was used to carry men and maintenance equipment to job sites along the right-of-way. Fairmont Motors was purchased in 1979 and is now part of Harsco Track Technologies.

On loan to DRM
Built 1930's by the Northwestern Motor Company of Eau Claire, WI

This track motor car replaced the hand operated cars and is powered by a single cylinder 8-13 hp water cooled gas engine. It has a steel frame and could seat eight maintenance-of-way workers. The speeder was built for mainline and branch line service to transport bridge crews, paint crews, signal maintainers, and track maintenance crews. It could tow a trailer, such as the DRMX 0401. Since the late 1960's, speeders have been phased out in favor of "hi-railers" (highway trucks equipped with railroad wheels and which are driven by the vehicle's conventional wheels).

ex Conrail #80007
exx Penn Central
nee Pennsylvania #999951
Arrived Danbury 11/18/1998
Purchased from Conrail for scrap value
Built 1909 by the Pennsylvania Railroad, Altoona, PA

This 30,000 lb. car was used to calibrate scales that weighed freight cars. Later test weight cars went to 80,000 lbs, and today's scales are computerized.

ex Sperry #135
nee Seaboard Airline Railroad #2023
Arrived Danbury May 2004
Donated by Sperry Rail Service
Built 1928 by St. Louis Car Company

This car was built as a combination baggage/self-propelled railcar, sometimes called a "doodlebug". Seaboard used the car from Atlanta to Macon and Savannah, GA. Sperry acquired the car in 1945, and converted it to a rail flaw detector car. It was cut back 14' and modified to suit Sperry's purposes. It carried a crew of four (driver, two technicians, and a cook) who could live on board the car. Sperry #135 was operational until 2003, and in its life, tested some 250,000 miles of track, finding in excess of 20,000 defects. The car is fully equipped for travel to distant inspection sites and includes a kitchen, four bunks, a shower & a toilet.