History of the Buried Car
On June 15, 1957, a new gold and white 1957 Plymouth Belvedere Sport Coupe was buried in a time capsule in downtown Tulsa, OK. The time capsule was part of Tulsa’s celebration of Oklahoma’s semi-centennial. The car was buried in front of the Tulsa County Courthouse.

As part of the “Tulsarama!” festivities, citizens of Tulsa were asked to guess what the population of Tulsa would be in the year 2007. The guesses were then recorded on microfilm and sealed in a steel container buried with the car. When the car and artifacts are excavated, the person whose guess is closest to Tulsa’s 2007 population is to be awarded the Belvedere. (www.buriedcar.com, 2007)

This unusual move was coordinated by SMC of Bartlesville and Taylor Crane & Rigging who provided a small army of men and an array of massive equipment to handle the move. Steam locomotive moves such as this occur only a few times each decade in the United States.

How and When Taylor got the Job
TCR began solicitation for the craning and moving of Miss Belvedere immediately following the first of the Tulsa World news articles and offered to donate their services. After attending a few of the unearthing meetings it became apparent that the original company and people that preformed the craning and rigging were no longer in business. Sharon King Davis (event chair) and her committee awarded TCR the lifting work in May of 2006.

Preparation and Planning
Old pictures of craning the car in 1957 illustrated lifting gear that would be considered unsafe by today’s standards. Without any drawings and the possibility of structural decay it became apparent Taylor needed to custom design, engineer and fabricate special lifting gear for a safe and professional lift.

Fabrication
Once drawings were approved, Taylor’s craftsmen fabricated the custom designed spreader/lifting beam(s) at its own shop.

Unearthing
On June 15, 2007 TCR will be providing a crane along with operator and rigging personnel to lift a famous 50 year old time capsule from a vault in downtown Tulsa. The time capsule gained national attention as Oklahoma celebrated its Semi-Centennial in 1957. The main draw – a brand new 1957 Plymouth Belvedere!

Practice Lift 
The No. 940 locomotive was rigged with a 265 ton and 120 ton crane. TCR performed the test lift in order to assure everything was in place and to get the weight of the locomotive, which determined to be 275,000 lbs.

Move of Locomotive
TCR lifted and loaded the locomotive onto a 8 axel, 64 tire scheuerle trailer and pushed tender to cranes and rigged and loaded tender (110,000 lbs) on to a 4 axel lowboy. TCR then moved the locomotive 4 blocks from Johnstone Park to the Bartlesville Depot. The locomotive was set into position over tracks and cranes offloaded it. TCR then backed tender in over tracks and offloaded the No. 940. 

• Installation of (2) towers was required to support Taylor’s beam and skating tools, which were necessary 
  to remove tube bundle 80 feet “off grade”

• Utilize 140 ton truck crane to lift and lower the 72K lb. tube bundle

Transported the tube bundle to a repair facility in Houston, TX

4. Remove existing Salt Cake Chute and fabricate New Salt Cake Chute. (Bartlett-Collins to supply construction material) (1,000 Lbs)
5. Continue New Salt Cake fabrication and installation
6. Lift Three, 333 KVA Transformers from trailer and place on to concrete pad (2,000 Lbs Each) 

Offload, rotate and set fin fan on stand (in extremely tight quarters and high winds) through existing operating equipment and live pipe rack.

Crowds gather as divers Larry and Bill Shufeldt explored Hulah Lake to hook the biggest CAT caught in Oklahoma waters. Taylor’s 265 ton Liebherr Hydraulic crane set on the bank to reel in the machine and set it on dry land. Crowd and client were pleased at the catch.