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Digger Man

Digger Man Blog

by Nick Drew  |  Thu 18 Nov 2021

Could You Handle One of These?

Our good friend over at Awesome Earthmovers Chris Maginnis is a regular visitor to Vintage Excavator Trust at Threlkeld Quarry and Mining Museum and always captures some really interesting footage.

Could You Handle One of These?

On his Facebook group recently, Chris posed the question asking if anyone would fancy a shift on one of the old dragline excavators which produced some interesting responses.

Photo: Courtesy of Awesome Earthmovers.

It’s a fair point that in today’s technology driven plant and machinery world, we as operators are totally spoilt, with every creature comfort we could possibly need in the cab of a modern machine, and let’s face it, they are an absolute pleasure to drive these days, with almost no effort at all required. Although I always say it is still a mentally tiring job, because at the end of the day, you are controlling what could potentially be a killing machine if you are not concentrating on what you are doing.

But could you imagine what it must have been like to run something like this Ruston Bucyrus 54-RB all day every day. Sadly those still capable of operating these old classics must be getting a bit thin on the ground now, so its great to still be able to witness these old boys showing us all how it was done and indeed can still be done during these awesome events.

I must get up to one of these working demonstrations one of these days for sure to see for myself, it’s been too many years since I last visited Threlkeld on a typically quiet, misty and murky day.

So, without further ado, lets checkout Chris’s excellent video of man and machine in perfect harmony.

 

 

 

 

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