SP 0-6-0 Wrote:
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> With the Amtrak 501 wreck, I imagine cleanup was done by contractors and rented cranes. It > used to be the railroad had its own skilled workers and wreckers to do the job. Railroads
> were more capable back then.

Did the railroads "back then" have cranes that had the capability of picking up a locomotive that landed well beyond the right-of-way, 20 feet lower than the railroad and 200-300 feet away?

I'm pretty sure that even "back then", the railroads would have needed help. What railroad owned heavy rubber-tired cranes for such a derailment? My local shortline uses rubber-tired cranes (and recently scrapped one of their two rail wheeled cranes), but they still lack the heavy hauling equipment to move the equipment away if the equipment couldn't be rerailed.