Street railway crane 0711 was built in 1925 by the Differential Steel Car Co. in Findley, Ohio for the Cleveland Railway Co. It worked the streets of Cleveland for CRC and the Cleveland Transit System until the early 1950s when it was retired and set to be scrapped. But it received a second life on the CTS Rapid Transit. As the Rapid was being built, budgets became tight and planned new work equipment had to postponed temporarily. Crane 0711 was shopped, repairs made, and the car repainted. By 1953 there was no longer a rail connection to the Shaker Rapid from the streetcar system. So, 0711 had to loaded onto a railroad flatcar at the Harvard Shops of the CTS streetcar system and moved via railroad to the Shaker Rapid/Erie Railroad interchange track. Then the railroad flatcar was taken to the Kingsbury shop of Shaker where the Crane was unloaded onto the Rapid system tracks. Then 0711 began what was supposed to be a short-lived temporary call to duty. That temporary call to duty lasted 25 plus years! The car was not retired until 1980.
The Museum acquired the crane in 1982. Beginning in 2002 it received a mechanical and semi-cosmetic restoration. Since first run in November 2004, 0711 has been used as a locomotive to move the rest of our cars around. It can do this work because it was temporarily converted to be self-propelled with the addition of a gas-powered generator and a rectifier built by NORM volunteers.
Today 0711 can operate off the overhead wire or the on-board generator/rectifier set up. Which is used is dependent on where the car is at the museum and what kind of work it is doing. It is the locomotive of choice when the Museum is stringing overhead wire. It can easily push the line car and overcome the mechanical resistance the overhead wire exerts as it is unreeled.
| Builder | Differential Steel Car Company |
| Type | Electric Work Equipment |
| Description | Single End Double Truck Electric Crane |
| Year Built | 1925 |
| Retired | 1980 |
| Acquired | 1980 |
| Seats | n/a |
| Length | 43′ |
| Width | 8′ |
| Height | 12′ 3″ |
| Weight | 71,000 |
| Trucks | Differential AB |
| Motors | (4) WH 340 |
| Control | HL |
| Brakes | WAB |
| Compressor | DH20 |