*SET TO 4K FOR BEST VIEWING QUALITY*
Filmed 8/4
Starting the late morning with a drive towards Painesville on August 4th, 2023, the Painesville Railroad Museum needs a CSX Boxcar transported onto their property. They can’t use the mainline, so they will have to use another mode of transportation. Coming up, you will see how these boys called for the task at interstate towing to get the job done.
The Depot that this boxcar in question is being transported to is the Painesville railroad museum. The Painesville Depot was opened in 1893 under the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Line. The entire building cost was $18,075.00, which with inflation, would be around 613 thousand dollars today.
The route the truck would have to take for the oversized load would be a tough one. In order to get to the museum safely, they will have to cross under CSX’S 14-foot-high underpass. However, the load is 13 feet 9 inches. One wrong move and this transport would be a disaster. Before they would arrive at the underpass, the crew already encountered some trouble. A truck was parked illegally on the wrong side of the road, so they would have to get a tow truck to move it away before they could tackle the rest of the move.
Walking to the intersection of North Saint Claire and Chester St, the incredibly skilled workers have barely enough room to slip by. They had to be very precise to not hit the telephone pole. The boxcar was literally inches away from the pole and had to get the end of the lowboy picked up and swung out to complete the turn.
Here they are, completing the turn. This is almost the “home stretch” but they still had to tackle the low bridge awaiting them
Here, we get a closer look at this bridge. At only 14 feet high, this will be an extremely rough and tight fit.
First, the police escort will pull through and block off any incoming traffic. They can't have anybody trying to get by during this.
Once part of the trailer has made it under the bridge, they have to dump the air suspension to get it as close to the ground as possible. As you can see, there are mere inches between the bridge and the fragile
With the boxcar successfully moved under, you can see just how low the trailer is. It is scraping the roadway picking up loose debris.
With the boxcar out of the roadways, they will back up into position. This clip was provided by my friend Anthony at Northern Ohio Railfanning Productions. You should definitely check out his video and channel.
Now, the crew must perform precise measurements to make sure the trucks are aligned correctly with the boxcar. When this is up in the air, it'll be very difficult to adjust the trucks.
Soon after, the cranes that will carry the boxcar move into position.
Now, they begin to back up the boxcar. One of the workers is holding an orange pole that is insulated. This is to lift the wire up so the boxcar won’t snap off.
For a while, a whole lot of nothing was happening to the naked eye. I did find a little bit of history on this boxcar. It was built in June of 1977 for the C&O and served that railroad until it fell into the hands of CSX. CSX operated this boxcar until 2014 where it was finally retired and donated to a private owner, who then donated it to the PRRM.
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Andrew
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