Peninsula Crane Lifts Engine Locomotive as Part of Restoration Project in Niles Canyon

"What started out as a cosmetic restoration now looks like it may be a full blown restoration of an operating locomotive."

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A major indicator of success for U.S. railroad companies in the 1960s was determined by how much and how fast goods could travel and at the time, locomotive horsepower was the simple solution. General Motors' GP20 for example was being built by their Electro-Motive Division and boasted a horsepower of 2,000 with a single large V16 diesel engine driving electric traction motors, typical for U.S. design.

As the 1950s ended, the Southern Pacific and Denver & Rio Grande Western railroads had seen the writing on the wall and opted for support from a different route, German maker Krauss-Maffei who was capable of producing a geared diesel-hydraulic locomotive with compact twin Maybach V16 engines, putting out an unheard of 4,000 gross hp. "This was the most powerful locomotive of its day," as Rich Alexander, station agent for the Pacific Locomotive Association, Inc., puts it.

But the maintenance-intensive German ML 4000 C’C’ as the model was called, ceased production in 1969 with only 15 units sold into the U.S. By 1969, all but SP 9010 had been written off and scrapped.

Southern Pacific removed the gearing from SP 9010, and the leftover #9010 locomotive was then turned into an unpowered camera platform for an advanced locomotive training simulator. It would not be until June of 2010, forty years later, that an original KM geared three-axle power truck was recovered on a mobile track maintenance machine sitting in a railyard in Paris, France.

Then, in May 2016, with the assistance of (2) Link-Belt ATC-3275 275-ton all-terrain cranes, the locomotive was lifted and placed back on an original geared Krauss-Maffei power truck. "We spent three years of negotiations securing those trucks from an owner in France. What started out as a cosmetic restoration now looks like it may be a full blown restoration of an operating locomotive," said Alexander.

Peninsula Crane and Rigging of San Jose, California operated the cranes needed to maneuver the 212,000 lb. locomotive chassis and the 43,000 lb. geared truck. "These big locomotive moves like this are always something to behold. We've been working with Niles Canyon for several years intermittently on this project and we're just as excited to see the finished product as anyone else," said Stan Alger, vice president Peninsula Cranes.