Bucyrus Erie 1150B

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rikj

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Just posting this on here as I know a few people enjoy high things. Certainly not me, I prefer my feet to remain on the ground AT ALL TIMES!

This is the Bucyrus Erie 1150B walking dragline, preserved in some disused opencast coal workings to the south of Leeds. There is an open day once a year but I wanted some pics without people all over it. This is the beast from the business end:

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The dragline is now in its own fenced compound but not too difficult to access. The bucket that scraped coal out of the earth is around 12ft high, so a person would come about halfway up the bucket;

107573686_02b227ee47.jpg


It was a perfect day for pics but it had a rather ignominious end when I was asked to leave the site by (and this must be the most pathetic brush with security ever) a volunteer RSPB warden! The site is still owned by the Coal Board but the RSPB provide security. Believe me, twitchers don't make natural security guards! However, all credit to the guy as he stuck to his guns and I wasn't going to make his day any worse so I happily left.
 
I'd read about this place glad its been saved from the gas-axe, It Looks cracking.

Next time I'm in the area im definately going to have a climb - I doubt the volunteer twitchers would follow you right to the top!
 
That's an beautiful machine, I've always been a fan of heavy machinery, unfortunately there's not a lot round here though. I had no idea those things were so..big. I don't suppose you've any idea of the vintage of that thing have you?
 
It's so big that it was hard to photograph all of it. Weighs 1200 tons apparently.

Built in 1948 in Phillipi, West Virginia. Dismantled and shipped to the UK under the Lease-Lend scheme in the early 1950s, and I think worked at the mine all its working life. Finished working around 1989 and sat idle for ten years.

In 1999 it walked (!) about 50 metres off the workings to its current position.

I've heard that it had no onboard power and ran off the mains :eek:
 

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