Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway Steam Wrecking Crane X-5 was built in 1908 by Industrial Works of Bay City, Michigan. It is a riveted steel, 75 ton capacity steam crane measuring 27.5 feet in length, with a 43 foot tender, and it burns oil for fuel. Bay City was home to Industrial Works, later Industrial Brownhoist, a complex that produced some of the world’s largest steam cranes, including cranes used to build the Panama Canal. The X-5 was one of the company’s smaller cranes, designed to lift up to 75 tons. It uses two lifting cables powered by a two cylinder steam engine. Steam comes from a vertical boiler heated by burning oil, and outriggers stabilize the machine during lifting and allow it to rotate 360 degrees. Wrecking cranes were used to clear train wrecks. Because they were not self propelled, they usually traveled as part of a train called an Auxiliary, which often included a diner and sleeping accommodations for railway car men and other workers involved in wreck cleanup. Train wrecks were once more common, but modern train control, improved training and inspection standards, and better manufacturing have eliminated many of the causes of rail accidents that were once common.