X Quad Operators photos
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Great pics!!!
Cool!
Phanks Malcolm, The phpotos of the DW20 and DW21 scrapers 1962 thats me on the DW20 leaving the cut. The four photos of the 657's are the rest of the photos that Caterpillar took 1965. Two photos of the three 657 hooked together, one color one black and white. Enjoy Mike Nebergall
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Excellent photos Malcolm Thanks for putting them up Kerry
Thanks Malcolm, these photos were taken in California on a Ebensteiner job around 1998?, I took these photos on a saturday and thought the way the operators were heavy loading the 657's that you people out there might enjoy them. This job I was told by one of the Engineers on the job, this was one of the worst slide areas in California, some of the cuts were around 200 ft deep, the engineers wouldn't let Ebensteiner have more than a 200 X 200 bottom cleanout, they were afraid if bigger it would cause a slide. on the job with all fazes completed the yardage was some where in the 22 million yard range. hope you enjoy. Mike Nebergall
Great pics Mike. Sure brings back some memories. I worked on 657B's back in the 80's. Used to like watching them much better than fixing them though. Six in a circuit is a sight to see and I was in awe of the fearlessness (maybe foolishness) of the operators.
Who,s 657 were they spanner?
Comalco Weipa. It was rare to see six going at the same time. I spent a couple of years on the scraper crew and we were kept pretty busy. They also ran 641's as water carts and had a few 633d's and 613b's. I think there was a couple of 651's when I first went there but they were retired and I never went near them before they were sold.
You probably worked on these Spanner..... I got them from Weipa in late 80s
Yeah, I think I can see one of my grubby handprints there. See that odd angled radiator grill on the push scraper's rear engine. We replaced the CAT core with a Mesabi core for some reason. May have been cost related or to try and catch less dust. At full steam the thing used to howl like a banshee. Like a steam whistle and loud . It drove the operators nuts if it was in the lead hence it was made to push mostly. The grill sort of diffused the air flow and made it little better. The fitters on that crew knew their stuff and I learned a lot from them. The first time I was allowed to drive a 657 as an apprentice I was so scared it was going to take off I rested one foot on the brake pedal and goosed the front throttle. It laid rubber on the workshop floor. The fitter watching me just shook his head and said stop dicking around and get on with it. I never actually operated one but we hade a few acres where we could test run machines after repair. I put the push pad in the dirt a few times before getting the hang of it. You know the look a dog get's on his face when he has his head out the window of a speeding car ? That was me in a 657 at full tilt down the haulroad.