Since the beginning of the railways, companies have had to face the obvious fact that locomotives and wagons can derail. The "range" of derailments goes from an axle leaving the rail to a major accident involving several vehicles, often two convoys, including a bogie that is free on a switch or a sideways catch in a marshalling yard or depot. To resolve these operating incidents, specialized teams implement a wide range of means ranging from jacks and winches to heavy specialized rolling cranes, known as lifting cranes. Frequently, specialized wagons are also used, the size and equipment of which vary according to their use: small emergency wagons (old network covered wagons or adapted OCEM) for local use, heavier wagons (TP or modern G10 covered wagons) for regional use, called "major intervention emergency wagons" (WSGI). Some of these wagons were often integrated into crane trains, supplementing their capacities (light lifting equipment; workshop capacity; heavy equipment). Around 1900, the commissioning of increasingly heavy equipment, such as locomotives, carriages and wagons, highlighted the deficit in lifting capacities and led companies to renew their fleet in the years preceding the First World War and then to supplement it a few years later with cranes of American origin. The fleet of lifting cranes that the young SNCF inherited in 1938 was that built up between 1910 and 1925. It was later supplemented by a few cranes acquired mainly in 1945/46. However, this type of equipment did not completely disappear from the SNCF fleet since in 2005 the national company received a new crane, the first in 60 years, of the German brand Kirov and with a power of 150 tonnes. This crane is therefore the only one in service on the French network today. This disaffection for rail cranes can be explained both by the constraints of employment, particularly under catenary, and by the possibilities offered by modern WSGIs available in most current depots. Finally, the possibility of renting high-powered road cranes can only encourage the SNCF to turn to this solution which ensures good territorial coverage (many specialized companies) and avoids it having to maintain a costly fleet but, fortunately, very little used. Subscribe to Michel CHEVALET's channel: @commentcamarcheparmichelch8752