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Digging deep into construction machinery news

Wed 26 Mar 2014

When draglines walked the earth

One of the most famous walking draglines that ever worked in the UK was the Bucyrus-Erie 1550W, more commonly known as “Big Geordie”. Perhaps the next most well-known machine was the P&H 757 walking dragline known as the “Ace of Spades”, which worked at the Stobswood open cast mine in Northumberland. Built in the 1980’s at a cost of around fifteen million pounds, the P&H 757 weighed in at 4,000 tonnes, had a total machine power output of 11,689kw (15,690hp) and a bucket capacity of 65 cubic- yards. During the machines time at Stobswood, it moved an estimated 300 million tonnes of spoil. The machine which got its name from a local school children’s “name a digger” competition was retired in 2003 after it simply out grew the jobsite. The machine was eventually sold to an American mine, where it resumed its duties in 2011. Another model from the Harnischfeger stable now, with this P&H 9020 model. The machine in this photo started work at the Bulga Coal mine in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia in 1996. It was equipped with a 320-foot boom, and at the business end its bucket had a capacity of 115 cubic-yards. This Marion 8750-M known affectionately as the “Lady of the Lake”, works at the Highvale Mine in Alberta, Canada. It’s working there alongside more modern day earthmoving equipment, including a pair of the latest Caterpillar 8750 draglines. The Marion 8750-M carries a 100 cubic-yard bucket on the end of a 400ft boom which is one of the longest in the world! Finally in this batch, how about this for a dramatic black & white action shot, as an un-identified dragline discharges its bucket in spectacular style. This shot dates from the early 1970’s when the National Coal Board awarded a £5 million contract to Wimpey Mining to excavate 1,600,000 tonnes of coal at the Mabel Plantation open cast site in Cumberland. Look out for more machine photos from the archives soon here on the Digger Man Blog.  

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