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Giant Operating Crane
-No.950
(1981-1992)
Introduced in 1981, this set was available as a separate
item and as part of the 1981 Steel Hauler (No.7323) train set. The Giant Operating Crane
is included in other train sets including, The Virginian (No.7424) in 1982; the Casey Jones
(No.7408) in 1983 thru 1985; and the Super Rail Master (No.7426) in 1984-85.
The Giant Operating
Crane remains in the TYCO line as a separate accessory from 1981 through 1992.
The components that make up
the Giant Operating Crane are all pieces of other TYCO items. The USS Steel crane is taken from TYCO's Crane
Car with Boom Tender Set (No.865). The blue frame that the crane sits on and its base is from TYCO's Piggyback
Loader/Unloader (No.903).
Two pieces of rolling stock were directly compatible and
sold with this accessory.
The blue Conrail bulkhead 50' flat car was commonly found in the set, when sold as a separate
item. The steel beams feature magnets to allow them to operate with the crane. This bulkhead flat car is also found lettered
for USS Steel, and cast in the same blue and black colors used for the Conrail version.
In train sets, often this
flat car was paired with a BN-Burlington Northern 40' gondola with culvert pipe (No.341-G). Though TYCO refers to them as
culvert pipe, I'd better describe them as barrels. Considering TYCO already offered a flat car with cement-colored culvert
pipe sections, it's confusing to call these yellow barrels culvert pipes. These yellow barrels had magnets in them to
work with the crane.
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