A picture I took while flying over this railroad job we did for Armstrong Coal Co. I know they are building 2 draglines and a hear a third??
If I recall correctly, they were waiting for the economy to go back up before fixing that one up. I think they were all Page 752's? Do you have any more pics from Armstrong or have an idea of what other equipment will be used for them?
Thats huge.
I'm getting more pictures soon. That dragline in the picture is fixed and running now, and they should be building the second one as you read this. As far as equimpent I hear (From an employee) they just bought 130 new pieces to go on the Equailty Mine. What do you mean other equipment... other brand?
Dragline's use has been Healthy for quite some time. Australia Love's them and The Biggest machine operating (cy) Is there. Here's a Link to a Google map with most if not all the Aussie Drag's on there. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=e...d=113113898808631490080.000460b91f1eae992670d Head East and you will see. Map Courtesy of Dave Hopper
lll Sorry Haul-Pak, I should have said making a comeback here. Lots of old drags sitting around everywhere but not many, if any running in this area. You have any pictures of the "aussie" drags?
There is a rebuilt Bucyrus Erie 636 walking dragline from Ohio that just started working in March of 08 at Vaulcan Materials Sager Plant. It took 74 truck loads to move it. It's has a 27 yard bucket, weighs 2.5 million pounds and a 225 ft boom. It's going to mine 3 mill. tons of aggregate a year. The machine's electrical system was rebuilt ($13 mill) as an AC machine so it could be plugged into the grid. They are saying it's cheap productive power. Hi there jgivens used to live in Berea.
Hello Darryl Berea is over near Lexington right?
Where is the Sager Plant? Vulcan sure has been buying a lot of drags in the last few years. On a side note...a 636 is Page Engineering dragline model.
The environmentalists and tree huggers hate the draglines. What is it about the draglines that gets them so upset?
Sanger is in Kings County South Central California by Fresno. Yes, I 75 just a little south of Richmond. jgivins some of the pictures and places in you scraper post brought back good memories. Environmentalist are taught that all dragline do is tear up the country. They no nothing of reclamation. A typical just show coal in the bad light. If you really want an environmental problem windmills that generate a dribble of power would be top of the list. We have a lot of good coal for lots of power I hope they keep using it. They are not allowed to bring in coal by wire in Calif. anymore. What do you think of that? I would like to see some 225 yard walker ripping up the low sulfer coal that Bill C turned into a National Park, in UTAH I think? KING COAL
It's crazy huh? Lots of our coal is going to China, Explain that. That's why our power prices are so high. My dang electric bill was $250 this month they say the next one will be worse!
My buddy took this pic in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Here's one from Australia.
And another (better phone so a better image than the last one).
And on the inside of the motor room. Perhaps a kind person will make these photos visible like the other ones on this thread.
Here's your pictures. I can't load them in your thread so have to load them here. First welcome to the forum. By your name and the fact that you have a pic of the inside of a dragline I'm thinking your either operate or work on them? If you have more pics I'd love to see them. Especially the inside of the house. Very seldom get to see the draw works on the big boys. Let us know a little about yourself! Thanks for joining.
Leaflickers and Draglines yeah they sure do give draglines a bad name. Tell us, what is good about draglines. could use it to counteract some of their BS.
Thanks for loading the photos. I think because I have just joined I can't load them while I am on probation. I work on the control systems of the draglines. I contract for GE in New South Wales, Australia. I have just started so I will let you know more about the draglines when I get the opportunity to visit them more. I don't have a picture on the winding gear which would be to the left of the interior picture. The crane shown in picture 1 is actually doing tests on the line with a radioisotope to spot cracks and flaws not visible on the surface. There are two drags at this mine the one shown on the poor quality picture 2 and then another one shown in pictures 1 and 3. The first dragline weighs approx 3,500 tons and can scoop about 100 tons each scoop. It is electrically powered using about 15MW peak (while swinging). They can actually walk, one of the 'feet' is visible next to the pickup. Each step takes around one minute and covers 5 feet depending on surface it is walking on. I hope to post more pics and videos on this thread when I get the chance.
The bigger ones are electrically powered so it means they dont use diesel to fuel them. I think it really comes down to whether people want the benefits of coal or not. If an alternative source of energy is found maybe they could be done away with. Actually the draglines dont mine the coal where I work. They merely remove the rock which has been blasted loose to uncover and expose the coal seam, loose coal is them removed by loaders and dumper trucks. There is a dragline used to excavate a harbour in the Bahamas. Nothing to do with coal.
The mine that I work at has three drags. They have two Bucyrus drags and a Marion 8050 with a 325 foot boom. The Marion is the biggest in the state, and can move an amazing amount of overburden. IIRC it has a 90 ton bucket. I will try to get some piktars sometime.
I love watching those giant beasts work. I used to take a weekend and go watch them every now and then.
Real draglines With real dragline operators half sitting on a tin seat cheers malcolm
Great pictures m8. What year are those from?
Draglines Hi Wolf New Zealand 1969 before diggers This guy was a real pro loading trucks with no damage he could throw the bucket and land it exactly where he wanted it to go . notice the swamp pads in the photos for when it realy got tricky . See it on the transporter which had a steel deck and only a chain thrown across the tracks to hold it on we must have been moving at a slower pace back then cheers malcolm
Here's two views of the bucket from the operator's cab.
Hi guys, just found this thread while browsing. The dragline is a "Rapier 410" a little beauty with Perkins power and fluid flywheel.I see a "butterbox"ACCO-J5 Bedford,ThamesTrader and a Leyland "Comet 90" being loaded. A 2U-D8 with blade but can't make out the other crawler. The prime mover under the float is a VA Commer, probly with Perkins 6-354 and Turner gearbox. The side loading float was the rule back then. Where was the picture taken Malcolm?
Yair . . . I have mentioned on here before (that even today) a dragline with a competent operator is probably the most efficient way to do many jobs. I have built dams, done road cuttings and excavated canals with the primary machine being a small dragline . . . I was on a D6 feeding and trimming. I believe a small dragline based on a modern excavator with a lattice boom would be very handy tool . . . if you could find an operator to run it. Cheers.
scrubpuller, I owned for a short time an RB-H20 hybrid machine. She was hydraulic top driven by a V6 Cummins and the truck frame was standard 22RB bottom. I think they were desperate to use up the old drive gears.It only had a backhoe on it, was easy peasy to operate but then you were hung up on the old dog clutches and winding track locks in and out to tram and steer. About a fortnight after I got rid of it one turned up in my backyard on a council sewerage job. That V6 Cummins was a sweet little number, I think it was an abreviated 555. or "triple nickel"
Question, having been around 2 Draglines in the 70,s. Both were sold in the 80, and 90's. Now when sold and moved the tub on walking Dragline how do they take it apart I thought when building it was welded. So do they cut apart and how much metal is lost on a 50 or 60 ft. tub?? When they start to assembly at next mine site.
I see on Iron Planet there is a very large BE 2570 dragline with a 380' boom for sale. I think 2570's were the most popular BE draglines and usually had about a 100yd bucket. The buy it now price is $6,000,000 and they list 2 companies that are approved for dismantling it. It has 56,666 hours which I don't think is a lot for a dragline. I would imagine the dismantling, moving and rebuilding it might cost almost as much as the purchase price. All the pics. really show how complex a dragline is.
Thanks Welder Dave, any idea about the tub how it comes apart as I think it is extremely thick steel and super strong.
56,000 hours isn't a lot. A few P&H 4100 shovels I've worked on were over 100,000. That was a decade ago and they are still going.
Sure is a very complex machine, still interesting in how the tub is taken apart and resembled. I would guess Cutting and Welding ??????? Bucyrus 2570W Dragline Air Conditioner, 380 ft Boom.
BUYERS NOTICE:
Any persons entering the mine to perform work will be required to be MSHA certified and ISNetworld compliant. Recommended companies for tear down of the dragline are Warfab and DSS-CAT (Dragline Service Specialties), both of which... www.ironplanet.com Hope to find out one day
I would think they need to cut it apart the opposite way it went together. I'd guess there is extensive procedures for dismantling draglines and reassembling them. I know there's a few of the really big ones that were sold and moved to a new location.
I worked shovels for a few years. Very extensive procedures for everything, even 12 hour maintenance shutdowns.
This is a Page Dragline if memory is correct, with a 50 yard bucket. I took pictures in1977, with the Hayes I was driving.
I messed up Fording coal dragline is a Marion, it had a longer boom with a smaller bucket.
Kaiser Resources had a Page 762 with a 54 yard bucket. In the mid 70,s it was sold Consol's Glen Harold Mine in North Dakota. A old ex, by the 54 yard bucket My only picture when it was working at Sparwood B.C.
The pic. of the 54yd. bucket really makes you appreciate how big Big Muskie's 220yd. bucket was. In 2009/2010 a couple guys that road at my track were welder's who got hired on to build a big BE/Marion dragline. It was an 8750 but what was unique is that it is the longest boom ever put on a dragline at 435 feet. They said the weld tests were all dual-shield on thick plate with pretty strict requirements. I think it cost $50,000,000+ to build. I mentioned it before but I had a friend who was in the union, at the time, and got called up to the oilsands. While waiting for blueprints they asked him if he could weld on a dragline while waiting. It was better than sitting around so he agreed. The cables are already up the boom, he just had to take a stinger and some rods and climb up the stairs on the boom. He gets all set up and starts welding a crack when all of a sudden the boom starts moving. Freaked out he gets on his radio and tells them, hey I'm welding on the boom. Then they informed him they don't shut the dragline down for minor repairs. Nope, get someone else. He said it felt like he was going 25 MPH which is pretty accurate and feels worse the higher up/further out you are from the base. I read the BE 3850B stripping shovels had a top swing speed of 25 MPH. I'd guess draglines would be similar. Not long after that he heard they no longer ran the dragline while work was performed on the boom. Alberta also has a dragline that is tied for formally having the longest boom at 420'. Alberta has some of the cleanest coal in the world but they're phasing out coal powered generating plants. I think they'd be much better off looking more into carbon capture technology. Alberta has an abundance of good clean low cost coal. I'm curious what will happen the draglines. They'll have a lot of life left in them.
I've seen the Discovery dragline at Syncrude up close. That thing dwarfs any shovel currently working in any mine up there. Are the draglines around Wabamun still operating? I ride the Genesee Loop a couple times a summer and I can see a dragline off in the mine but I never see it operating.
Welder Dave great video and information my cousin farms south of there (Tomahawk) when he goes to Edmonton he sees this monster.
They have 2 for sale as we speak and the big one is still swinging it boom doing reclamation work last I heard.
I think the Wabamun mine is closed or converted to natural gas. Syncrude bought 2 100yd. BE 2570 draglines in 1974. They sold one and kept one on display. They also used bucket wheel excavators. I think one is on display too. My welding teacher worked building the Syncrude plant. It was his last job before he became a welding teacher at the trade school I went to. I think the school recruited him because he said it was the only school he'd go to. Sadly they got rid of the trade school. All the teachers were experienced trades people. He said the big Krupp bucket wheel had (I think) 3 Atco trailers full of blueprints to reference when building it. He didn't work on the bucket wheel though. He was a Tig piping specialist and may have been a foreman but not sure. He was a foreman on several big jobs and often got stuck with the problem apprentices. I asked him once what a problem apprentice was? A guy who'd throw a grinder at you when it was spinning! Yikes!
A 2010 dragline with all the latest technology is probably barely broken in. Draglines can last 50 years or more. They're often life of the mine machines.
Yep there's a bucket wheel next to Discovery. Have some pictures somewhere with my service truck in front of it and the bucket wheel. There was a 2nd bucket wheel out by KMC's Syncrude shop that was dismantled while I was up there.
A lot of the largest machines made went to work in the oilsands. Several were designed especially for the oilsands as well.
Talked to my cousin and on Saturday he went by and the big one is swinging a long ways from the road doing reclamation work. A few years ago they put in a 36 in and a 48 in Natural gas pipe lines into the power stations he said.