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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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