1913 Steam Derrick

This Denver & Salt Lake Railway 120 ton 2-hook Derrick is an extremely rare piece of equipment. Massive in size, it was used in the early 1900’s – 1970’s to handle the train wrecks in Grand County. We are restoring it to the original D&SL Railway #10300 appearance. We also have the Denver & Rio Grande Boom Car #3317.

The Derrick’s boiler is being worked on this summer so that it will be a fully operating piece of equipment by fall 2021. The boiler is 10′ tall, 5′ in diameter and weighs 6,000 pounds. The state boiler inspector says it looks very good and is doing a “UT” testing pattern now for integrity of its walls. With some luck, we might have the Derrick steamed up by Thanksgiving!

O Scale Model of the 1913 D&SL Steam Crane

MTH built an O scale model of the 1913 D&SL Steam Crane/Rio Grande crane that is available to the public to purchase through our museum. For a limited time, the model crane can be purchased online at the price of $105 plus shipping, for a total of $126. Click here to order one today!

Steam Derrick Restoration

If you would like to volunteer your time and/or donate to the project, we would be very grateful. To allocate your donation to this project specifically, please mention the 1913 Steam Derrick in the optional ‘Write a note’ section in the donation form.

Its Journey Here

We had to move the crane via 4 39’ track panels-pulling crane and boom car into position onto the museum grounds. This took an even bigger crane from Terry’s Crane in Salida to pick up our 255,000 lb. crane and turn it 90 degrees putting the crane on the panels so we could pull them with equipment – leap frogging the panels as we covered the 368 ft. to the museum. Call Dave Naples, museum director at 970-509-9894 if you have any questions or want to help.

In the News

Check out the articles written about the arrival of the 1913 Steam Derrick Crane:
• Grand Gazette: “1913 steam crane and boom car at Railroad Museum”
• Sky-Hi News: “Historic 1913 steam crane acquired by Granby’s railroad museum”