Accident crane (NS 9741503)

In the 1950s, NS purchased two accident recovery cranes for derailment recovery operations. These cranes were stationed in Eindhoven and Utrecht. Together with a tool van, a crew van and a boom van (on which the crane’s boom rests), they formed two accident recovery trains. For this purpose, old block-type carriages and steel luggage carriages were converted into work carriages and painted brown. Transporting and assembling the crane was very time-consuming. Consequently, NS took the accident cranes out of service in 1991. Nowadays, NS outsources hoisting and lifting work to private companies.

The Railway Museum’s boom truck is built on a chassis based on old German goods wagons that were burnt out during the Second World War. These were left behind in Sluiskil after the war, which is why this rolling stock is also known as ‘Sluiskil stock’. The Railway Museum has one of the accident cranes in its collection; this has been loaned to the STAR museum railway.