Big Muskie Bucket

[h67st]

My wife and I went down to McConnelsville Ohio on Sunday and stopped at the Big Muskie Bucket. It's impressive; it's sad that they couldn't save the whole dragline. The sign said when it was built, it was the largest moveable machine in the world.

[HeavyGunner]

That's a big one for sure. Would be impressive to see the machine that pulled it too. 

[farmer52]

YouTube has some informational videos

 

[BillyT]

Any members ever see the huge coal stripping shovel that was visable on I 80 either in eastern oh or western PA? Was right on the line! May have been the one that they parked a tandem dump in its bucket!  I think it was a Bucyrus Erie!

[joes mack]

my uncle that lives in new Lexington ohio used to work in the mines and the shops where big muskie was at. he retired in 90. my grand father worked there too in the mid to late 60 when it was almost new.

[tjc transport]

15 hours ago, BillyT said:

Any members ever see the huge coal stripping shovel that was visable on I 80 either in eastern oh or western PA? Was right on the line! May have been the one that they parked a tandem dump in its bucket!  I think it was a Bucyrus Erie!

i remember that one. it sat there for a few years. 

[davehummell]

In hazelton pa. there is a marion shovel it had a 97 yard bucket now it looks like a 15 or 20 yarder on it. pegnotti owned it years ago. down the road is the anthrusite king  it pulled a 50 or 60 yard bucket. I have been all through the marion and that is something to see. When I was around them electric shovels I was told to jump from the ground onto the step never touch the ground and metal of machine stray voltage could get you the big ones run on upwards 6,000 and up volts I was told. In hazelton and surrounding towns there were hundreds of draglines that pulled 15 yards or more buckets

[davehummell]

I just remembered I bought a book called giant earth-moving equipment and it covers all the big shovels and the largest straight front shovels if you like this sort of thing you will find the book fascinating.

[Hobert62]

I know in Treverton, pa there was an electric walking shovel abanded in the strippings nothing in size by comparison but we could park a couple atv's in the bucket.  

[Ezrider]

We have a big drag line in nd that often times can be seen from hwy 83 in Falkirk. A couple years ago I hauled a bunch of gravel into the Falkirk mine for biulding haul roads after we finnished the job they invited us to go for a tour of the mine witch included getting to go up in the drag line and watch it operate from the control room. Unfortunately they didn't let me take a try at the controls. The drag line I got to go inside had a 125 yard bucket 

 

http://swce.coop/educational-opportunity/facts-about-falkirk-mine/

[superdog405]

Used to be a lot of drag lines around here in western PA, most (like big muskie) have been scrapped .

[MHfred]

I have a friend who was a welder for the Big Muskie. He had a small section of one of the electrical feeders to it and it was big. He told me when they moved the shovel that they pulled the electrical cables with a bull dozer.

[HeavyGunner]

 

. He told me when they moved the shovel that they pulled the electrical cables with a bull dozer.

There's an 80 something year old in my area and he told a very similar story about working in the big pit mine at butte. He said they used a D4 to move the electrical cables. 

[Swishy]

Sum years ago eye pirated sum pix of the demolition of the big muski .... then animated m

 

cya

§wishy

 

 

[Ezrider]

one of falkirks drag lines was operating near hwy 200 the other day when i came threw there so i snapped this picture of it. 

[h67st]

5 hours ago, Ezrider said:

one of falkirks drag lines was operating near hwy 200 the other day when i came threw there so i snapped this picture of it. 

 

That looks like a big one. Is that a gravel pit?

[Ezrider]

yeah its a big one. 

 

its a coal mine, they have two big draglines they use for stripping overburden. 

 

Draglines

There are TWO Marion 8750 electric powered walking Draglines, the AChief Ironsides@ and the APrairie Rose@ remove overburden from the top of the coal seams. The draglines specifications are:

Base – The base is 80 feet in diameter and covers the area of a baseball infield.

Boom – The Dragline boom height is 215 feet from the tip of the boom to the ground and the boom is 360 feet long. The Dragline dump height-130 feet, reach depth is 180 feet.

Bucket – The bucket weighs 244,000 pounds empty and holds 125 cubic yards or 160 tons of material. The bucket is 20′ X 16′ X 10′

Cost – The cost of the Draglines in late 1970’s dollars was $38.5 million and $41.9 million.

Construction – The Draglines were built onsite over an 18 month period.

Energy – Each Dragline uses 10 megawatts ( 10,000 kilowatts ) of electricity at 25,000 volts equal to a city with a population of 1775 people.

Motors – The power to run a Dragline comes from a total of 13,000 horsepower of electric motors at 475 volts.

Production – Each Dragline completes a digging cycle every 65 seconds. The Dragline has a digital scale that records every scoop and the weight and sends this data back to the office for production tracking purposes.

Re-generate – The Draglines generate power as the bucket returns to the ground in each digging cycle.

Shoes – The Draglines walk on 16 X 80 foot shoes at 7 feet per step or 1/10th of a mile per hour.

Weight – Each Dragline weighs 13.5 million pounds.