Cranemasters Innovation
- Winter 2025/2026
- Cranemasters
Seven Innovations from Cranemasters that Solve Your Toughest Recovery, Construction, and Maintenance Challenges.
As a leading innovator in rail services, Cranemasters’ purpose-built equipment, combined with highly skilled crews, enhances the safety and efficiency of tasks such as bridge span replacement, complex track panel installation and repair, load adjust and transfer, and routine maintenance. These same efficiencies have enabled Cranemasters to reduce railroad and industrial siding losses when responding to derailments or other emergencies.
Cranemasters 200 RS Super-Duty Crane
Unparalleled lifting capacity with 360° pick and carry versatility and dynamic envelope.
One example of innovation at its best is the highly capable Cranemasters 200 RS Super-Duty Crane. Cranemasters developed its specs and has continuously updated its design to handle today’s heavier locomotives, cars, and complex rail infrastructure projects.
It can lift 100 tons and walk in any direction. It can adjust its track widths and extend its boom to 54 feet for the most advantageous pick points and footing. The upper house can rotate 360 degrees with a full load. With an advanced hydraulic system and 600 horsepower, the Cranemasters 200 RS can perform any combination of these movements simultaneously. Cranemasters can also position a drag recovery winch rated at 140,000 pounds on the front or back of the crane during recovery or construction tasks.
The Cranemasters 200 RS Super-Duty Crawler Crane can work where other equipment can’t operate. These cranes can reach high and lift one end of the locomotive or car with just one crane from either side or one end. They are the most efficient equipment for derailments and track repair where there’s limited space, such as a bridge, tunnel, or narrow right-of-way.
With a high ground clearance, adjustable track width, and multi-directional capabilities, the Cranemasters 200 RS Super-Duty Crane can move over switch stands and other low-lying track structures without damaging them, making it ideal for installing heavy, complex track panels or heavy retarders. Composite bonded track pads provide optimal tractive effort while protecting railroad track components. With 210,000 pounds of tractive effort, it is mobile and nimble in adverse terrain conditions. On spud barges, it can even retrieve train cars and equipment from lakes and rivers.
Customers choose Cranemasters for our innovations in railroad technology. Like the 200 RS Super-Duty Crane that we purpose-built to lift and carry locomotives and cars from only one side, or one end, so we don’t block rail traffic on adjacent tracks. And, 200 RS Super-Duty Cranes arrive at highway speeds and are assembled in under 35 minutes in unrestricted set up areas. Every job is engineered like our equipment to advance safety, remove hazards, and deliver the best possible outcomes.
Conventional booms attached to sidebooms need two sides to lift rail cars.
The Cranemasters 200 RS Super-Duty Crane lifts and carries from only one side.
The Cranemasters 200 RS Super-Duty Crane is carried to job sites on our highway-ready rig.
While initially designed specifically for derailments, the versatility of this cutting-edge machinery has excelled in railroad construction and maintenance too. With a custom trailer for the 200 RS Super-Duty Crane, it can be deployed at highway speeds to the work site and is set up and ready to work in just 26 to 35 minutes in unrestricted areas.
A trackhoe can rotate to position things precisely. A sideboom can lift more than an excavator. Cranemasters 200 RS Heavy-Duty Crawler Crane delivers the best of both. It rotates for precise positioning and lifts far heavier structures than sidebooms, with its boom extending out to pick up heavy loads from a further distance.
Tank Car Saver
The Tank Car Saver is a custom-designed, patented innovation by Cranemasters. It’s the only equipment in the industry for lifting tank cars without damaging them. With a capacity of 180,000 pounds, the Tank Car Saver enables the safe handling of empty and loaded cars, including leaning cars.
Its radius arm wraps around the tank car to securely lock onto the chassis bolsters, the strongest frame points, and where the weight of the load needs to be supported. However, the arms do not contact the side of the tank car while it is hoisted up. When lifting, neither arm presses against the side of the railcar.
Secondly, the arms lock in place on both sides in a rigid configuration. Each arm is designed so that when the left side is pulled as the crane extends it out, the right side gets extended out the same amount. When one is pulled, the other one goes out at the same width. It keeps the lift point locked rigidly at the top, so the lifting point is directly above the car and its center of gravity, keeping the car suspended upright and level. It doesn’t matter whether the tank car is full, partially full, or empty. Tank cars, if not suspended correctly, can break loose, fall, and then roll away, which is especially problematic if they contain hazardous materials.
When other companies use the “two booms and a bucket” technique to pick up a tank car, its winches and hooks connect to the bolsters. As the tank car is lifted, the hook blocks and rigging push in on the outer housing of the tank, which is wider than the frame of the tank car. When the car is fully loaded, there’s a lot of weight and pressure crushing the sides of the tank car. Industry wide, that’s how tank cars are typically moved during derailments, as clearing the track is often the priority.
It’s expensive to repair tank cars when their outer skin, interior insulation, and tubing need to be repaired or replaced. With the Cranemasters Tank Car Saver, it’s possible to clear the tracks quickly, efficiently, and safely—a significant savings by avoiding costly repairs. Finally, when it’s time to store the Tank Car Saver, it folds up neatly into a compact size and is transported on its own dedicated trailer.
Lift Beams
Cranemasters’ purpose-built lift beams are designed to lift and install large, complex railroad track structures—such as multi-diamond assemblies or master/group retarders—without damage. Unlike making-do with standard beams, Cranemasters purpose-built beams minimize stress on track panels to minimize flexing when suspended.
The beams provide multiple pick points and lift from the most advantageous positions to keep structures level. Paired with Cranemasters’ 200 RS Super-Duty Crawler Cranes, we can handle wider, longer, and heavier panels—even moving multiple cranes and beams in unison working in narrow confines to place panels precisely within specs, preventing distortion, and reducing rail traffic curfew times.
Cranemasters maintains a range of beam sizes and can engineer custom lengths to match the demands of each job.
Traction Motor Dolly
Increase accuracy, save time, and improve safety during traction motor replacements.
When Cranemasters was looking for a better way to change out locomotive traction motors, they designed the Cranemasters Traction Motor Dolly. At first glance, it may appear to be an innocuous flat dolly with small railroad wheels, but it’s an innovative solution to a common problem during emergency and scheduled change-outs.
Giant electric locomotive traction motors wear out over time and require periodic replacement. Changing out the traction motor in the shop with a drop table is not always an option. On occasions, they seize up while the train is en route somewhere, sometimes where the right of way affords limited access to the locomotive from only one end or side. With the traction motor dolly, the end of the locomotive is lifted by a crane, allowing the traction motor dolly to be positioned beneath the traction motor. The locomotive is lowered onto the traction motor dolly. The crew detaches the traction motor from the locomotive’s truck frame, lifts the locomotive again, and pulls the dolly from beneath the train. They replace the old traction motor on the dolly with a new one, which will be positioned beneath the locomotive.
Traction motors with their railroad axles are heavy units with the weight distributed towards the top, where they mount to the locomotive. By itself, a detached traction motor will roll over, preventing the locomotive from being set on it. However, the traction motor dolly features a hydraulic system that allows for precise adjustment and positioning of the traction motor, ensuring it aligns perfectly with the attachment on the locomotive. It makes it easier and faster to change the traction motor, reducing the risk of injury during change-outs.
Moreover, the wheels of the traction motor dolly are designed to support the weight of a locomotive. It can support the locomotive on top of it and allow the locomotive to be moved even if the wheel cannot be turned. It is an expedient idler in the field beneath the seized-up traction motor so the locomotive can be moved slowly under its own power.
Hi-Rail Track Loading Vehicle (TLV)
Under the weight of locomotives and heavy rail cars, a weakness in the track may cause the rails to buckle, shift, or spread wider. While there’s a little latitude, the gauge needs to stay at or very close to the standard. A “wide gauge” is one of the most often used FRA derailment codes.
The tracks are not under full load during manual inspections. To complement manual track inspections and to detect flaws sooner and more reliably, Cranemasters utilizes its Hi-Rail TLV. The Cranemasters Hi-Rail TLV allows track geometry inspections without extensive manpower or lengthy track shutdowns. Its hydraulically loaded axle applies enough force and pressure to simulate actual train loads. Its algorithms identify any defects and incident risk in real time.
The precision or tolerance level for the inspection can be adjusted to accommodate the customer’s requirements, depending on the track’s speed limit, terrain, and other factors. If something is out of the tolerance level, the Cranemasters Hi-Rail TLV will spray paint the railroad track at the point where a problem has been detected. A track data recorder simultaneously documents the defect’s physical coordinates to help crews locate defects. Data can be downloaded and reports generated from the data to support track maintenance plans for correcting defects.
Cranemasters Hi-Rail TLV is the efficient way to conduct predictive maintenance. It eliminates human error from inspections and reliably detects defects while speeding the quality of track reports—which leads to less downtime and reduces the potential for derailments.
Trackhoe Winch
Cranemasters custom-designed and manufactured a mounting system and hydraulic traction-type recovery winch for its excavators—the first in the industry.
Moreover, the recovery winch can be attached to either end of the excavator, depending on job site needs, making these machines significantly more versatile than other similar models of equipment used in the rail industry.
Hi-Rail Crane
The Cranemasters CMD150R and CMD130R are not retrofitted with after-market parts, the quality of which can vary significantly.
Instead, Cranemasters incorporates Hi-Rail gear as part of the initial design and fabricates their own hi-rail assemblies specifically for the crane which improves handling and operational safety. It’s stable on the rail, handles well going through switches, and is easier to get on and off the rail.
The Base-Build can be optimized for your particular job needs and additional customizations to address your specific jobs, site challenges, and climate.
- The CMD150R and CMD130R are built like beasts by Cranemasters’ Design and Manufacturing.
- Massive steel fabrications are over-sized to handle the toughest jobs, year in and year out.
- The Cranemasters 150-ton Hi-Rail Recovery Crane is all hydraulic with fast and safe set-up.
- The crane is equipped with a 2-speed main winch and Load Moment Indication (LMI) system. The LMI displays the crane position, capacity and crane load indication.
- Powerful state-of-the-art hydraulics meet the most rigorous project demands.
- Performance-proven telescopic boom with highly compact dimensions mean the Cranemasters CMD150R and CMD130R can often get closer to a job.
- The operator’s cab is designed for comfort with custom ergonomic controls, integrated heating and air conditioning, and a seat built to Cranemasters’ specifications.
- Large access doors and spacious machinery compartments simplify preventative maintenance and service of the crane.
