Cranemasters working at a 2019 train derailment in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The Chesterfield company is marking 40 years this month and is underway on the production of a new crane. (Photos courtesy of Cranemasters)
As it steams into its fourth decade in business, a Chesterfield-based railroad contractor is in the midst of rolling out a new line of mobile cranes.
Cranemasters, which responds to derailments and uses its equipment to lift fallen locomotives and railcars, has begun production of a new iteration of cranes intended to improve upon the company’s 200 RS Super-Duty Crane, a 600-horsepower machine with a 100-ton lifting capacity.
Company president Barry Isringhausen said the yet-to-be named new model would have greater lift capabilities and an improved undercarriage that would make it more stable and maneuverable than the 200 RS.
“We’re excited about the additional capabilities and efficiencies that this unit is going to bring to our service model,” Isringhausen said. “Obviously, in the derailment space, our equipment is purpose designed to operate in a more significant, high-level condition than a normal conventional frame would be, and this next generation has more capabilities to operate in even more extreme terrain conditions.”
The initial two units of the new crane model are being assembled at the company’s Chesterfield headquarters and manufacturing plant at 8020 Whitepine Road. Production started in earnest this summer, following design work begun in 2022. The new units are expected to enter the testing stage in August or September 2027.
While he declined to specify the investment in the development of the cranes, Isringhausen said a single unit was a “multimillion-dollar” investment. Cranemasters intends to use the cranes in its own operations and is weighing selling them internationally.
Cranemasters has nine 200 RS units, the first of which went into service in 2007, and intends to build at least a similar number of the successor machine for its business. Meanwhile, the company is in the process of updating its 200 RS units and doesn’t have immediate plans to retire the model.
“The core unit is still a very capable, very resilient structure. But we went through and did a remanufacture, rebuild on it and gave it a breath of fresh air,” Isringhausen said.
The new iteration of the 200 RS crane is planned to have greater lift capacity than the current model.
The development and impending introduction of the new crane comes amid expansion by the company in recent years. Cranemasters opened a Fort Worth, Texas, office in 2020 and then added an outpost in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2024.
The company has 11 offices nationwide, with other outposts in Missouri, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, Florida, Indiana and Illinois. It has about 255 employees.
Originally Cranemasters focused on derailment work and later expanded its services to include track repairs and risk mitigation and assessment. The company’s clients range from small- and mid-sized freight carriers to the country’s largest passenger and freight rail carriers. It also works on private railways that connect warehouses and factories to the public railroad network.
“The intent is that, as much as is practical and as much as what markets can support, each of our physical locations bears representation of each of the products or services that we offer, because that diversity helps build stability not only in the workforce but in our market share, in our relationships with our clients. We’ve become more or less a one-stop shop,” Isringhausen said.
Locally, the company has an office in eastern Henrico in addition to its 30,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and 6,000-square-foot headquarters in Chesterfield.
Cranemasters marks 40 years in business this month. It was founded with just a pair of cranes in 1986 by Loren Isringhausen and his sons Brian and Barry. The brothers now co-own the company.
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