One thing you have to give Lionel credit for is the desire to pack "play value" into their post-war train sets. Keeping in mind, we are talking about a completely different place in time when referring primarily to the 1950's. However, Lionel Trains had the gimmicks and gadgets to keep kids like me occupied for hours.

The Bucyrus Erie cranes are a good example. From visiting the Bucyrus International website, I learned the roots of the company date back to 1880 and that Bucyrus merged with the Erie Steam Shovel Company in 1927 to form Bucyrus Erie. The company is a legendary producer of heavy equipment, including these massive cranes for clearing derailments.

Of course when you are eight or ten, that doesn't really matter. What matters is that the crane car can pick up stuff and cart it around the layout. What else is really cool (when you're ten) is that if you crank the crane arm up high enough, and then lower the pulley low enough, when you speed around corners, the momentum will make the load swing out and you can knock out a bunch of enemy plastic toy soldiers. My Dad would just shake his head over this little phenomenon.

It appears crane cars came in a lot of freight sets, and were usually teamed with a basic gondola to form a working tandem. These early examples were all die-cast and had some real heft to them. They featured two cranks - one for the boom and one for the pulley and the string in both of these is probably 60 years old. I find it interesting that while these crane cars featured die cast construction, my #182 electromagnetic gantry crane had a plastic cab.

Crane cars were fun and added a lot of play value to having Lionel Trains. I will probably use one for a trackside scene on the Lionel Lines, as running them creates an overhang issue.