Comments on: Inspired from an earlier post, I decided to dig through my collection to find this old 200 ton Crane (CP 414479) and Idler (CP 412730). At the time it had been sitting in Thunder Bay for sometime in the “mini-rips” (C-yard) where light repairs were done on cars before CP closed it and moved the operation to their main Thunder Bay shops in 2008. Up for sale by CP, little did I know at the time a local scrap yard had purchased it. Within a couple weeks of taking this photo a yard crew grabbed the old hook and took it to the winning bidder, Lakehead Scrap. On a sidenote, the tracks in the “mini-rips” in C-Yard appear they will be sent to scrap yard. Although for the past few years its been used only to store OCS equipment and bad order coal cars in October 2012 the junction switch which led to the small stub yard were locked and OOS (Out of Service).

By: Paul O'Shell

Paul O'Shell — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 23:00:17 +0000

No photo, but a great narrative …

I received this memo from my friend Wayne W. Wareham with whom I worked with for several years while he was in charge of CP’s wrecking outfits in Sudbury and Thunder Bay …

June 22, 2011

Last Trip for Canadian Pacific`s Z 200/250 Wrecker Crane 414479

Locomotive CP 5875 with Engineman Don Cronk and Conductor Michael Holowaly coupled onto the Crane in Thunder Bay Yard and moved her through the yard and over the Jackknife Bridge to her final resting spot to be scrapped and recycled.

Under a watchful eye on the last trip, Train Master Sandra Phillips and Mechanical Supervisor Wayne Wareham made sure the wheels were free rolling and that the crane would negotiate the tight curve leading into the Jackknife Bridge.

Over the years, hundreds of Railroaders across Canada have their own stories and memories working with this Crane.

This Crane has seen and cleaned up hundreds of derailments and has remove/replaced over a 100 Bridge Spans on Canadian Pacific Lines.

This Crane also worked very hard at derailments on the Canadian National, Wisconsin Central, Algoma Central, Ontario Northland and Inco Railway Lines.

Hope you pass this on to anybody that you know that has worked with this Crane so that they can tell their story!

Wayne Wareham
CP Mechanical Services
Thunder Bay, ON

By: David Young

David Young — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 07:01:15 +0000

No unfortunately I didn’t have a camera to take a picture of this beast being dismantled.

By: poshell

poshell — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:51:16 +0000

David, that’s a great shot of this dinosaur waiting to make the journey to its final resting place. Do you have a photo of it at the scrappers?
This American 250 ton capacity wrecker was s/n L-3658, built new in 1966 and shipped to CP in November of that year. Interestingly, it was delivered with a 200 ton main hook block.
When built, it had a Caterpillar D-343A diesel engine rated at 289 hp @ 2000 rpm. Mechanical traction gave it a 3.5 mph self-propelled travel speed.
As each year passes, the list of in-service wrecking cranes becomes shorter. Before long they will be extinct and only available for viewing in museums. History repeats itself!