Pile Driver

[Frogmore]

Anybody remember the old DAR pile driver? Was it home-built or a standard CP design? Steam-powered, it could move slowly under it's own power, but was usually moved as part of the consist of a work train. I last remember seeing this unit at work on the Allain River bridge, just west of the Annapolis Royal station, probably in the late 1940's or early 50's.

Doug

[Dan Conlin]

I was too young to remember seeing any interesting DAR MOW gear on the move.
However, the Canadian Science and Technology Museum has some photos in the Stepehens Collection of strange looking DAR MOW contraptions parked at Kentville in the 1930s including a big pile driver DAR No. 922. It looks to have been built on the frame of an old passenger car and had a massive wooden frame. There was also what looks to be a smaller pile driver which was mounted on a flat car, DAR No. 799. It was coupled next to a massive steam shovel with a round roof, also called a pit driller DAR No. 850.

Dan Conlin

[mountainrail]

I remember the DAR pile driver CPR 400002, which was in use in the late 50's - early 60's.

I'm not sure if it was the former DAR #922 or not. The frame and pile driving framework look the same, but the cab is slightly different, but could have been remodelled.

This unit was used at Truro in 1959 when the DAR constructed it's station and yard facilities.

In 1963 the pile driver was scrapped, but the frame was used to construct a "Burro Crane Transporter" #418135, which was a very long flatcar with rails on the deck and a set of ramps to load the Burro on the deck, where there was a coupler mounted to secure it. At the far end there was a support for the boom to rest on.

Jim O'Donnell

[stem]

We now have some photos and pages on pile drivers on the wiki.
http://www.dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?tit ... le_Drivers

I wonder which old tenders were saved to attach to these pile drivers?