Moura dragline .

[Iron Horse]

This is a dragline they use to remove overburden at the Moura coal mine in Australia . It weighs 8200 tons and can dig it's own weight every hour . It can reach down 200' and stockpile 200' high . I was lucky enough to get a guided tour inside it in 1982 as it was having repairs done to a walking foot bush . The feet are on big cams and as the cam turns the foot goes forward and down . The foot lifts the front of the machine and as the cam rotates the machine slides forward dragging it's tail the bush weighed 5 tons and was packed in 11 tons of dry ice in a tip truck to shrink it enough so that it would fit in the eccentric . They have a D8 hooked up to the power cord you can see on the ground which drags it out of the machines way . A fox curled up in the switch board the night before and shorted it out and stopped work for hours . The chain links that attach the bucket weigh 1 ton each , i used to have a picture of me standing beside one .

 

[curly]

Very nice pictures. Those giant draglines are incredible with what they can do.

 

[HeyUvaVT]

the sheer size of those things astounds me no matter how many times I see them in pics i couldnt imagine it in person...

 

[stretch]

Marion 7800...Moura also had a 8900 and I believe a B-E 480-W. If you go to stripmine.org and search for Moura, there are plenty of pics of this machine and the mine.

 

[Iron Horse]

I did'nt notice it before but in both top pictures there is a worker with a white hard hat standing on a deck beside one of the foot cams , gives an idea of size . Inside were from memory several V12 GM's running winches . I can't remember why it uses electricity , i think it may have had electric slew . The RSJ's sticking out the back are beams that run beam trollies and endless chains to carry the GM's out through those huge back doors for servicing . Inside looked like a factory with it's own workshop .

 

[stretch]

I thought they didn't use diesels in these machines, as far as I know it was total electric. I would love to get up close to a big dragline.

Any more pics from the trip?

 

[Iron Horse]

The above photos are not mine , they belong to the library . I dont know where my photos are now because the friend i was with had them all in his posession . He owned wheat harvesters and a light plane , he decided to dive bomb his workers in a field for a laugh which was Joe all over and did'nt see the power lines . I would like to contact his family and see if they still have them . I have been looking on the net but can't find any reference to the Diesels in the dragline , but they are in there as that's what the doors and gantries are for .

 

[Iron Horse]

I have been looking to find why i had seen Diesel engines in the dragline , this site tells why but now i can't find why it needs the 12,500volt http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cach...n+8200+dragline+tour&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=au . It says it has 14 motors inside . 4 for lift (1045hp) 4 for drag (1045hp) 4 for swing (800hp) 2 for walk (1045hp) It says that each engine has it's own generator . It's funny , you can find all the useless crap under the sun on the net but finding good info is like finding common sense in government .

 

[euclid]

So what is the life span of one of those rigs? You mentioned 1982 going on a tour while the unit was down? I guess I would wonder what type of inspections would be done to check for stress and cracks on moving parts.

 

[Iron Horse]

They say 40 years + lifespan and that they are the most economical way of striping overburden . They have been computor modeling the boom structures to help with finding and repairing fatigue cracks . I was just looking at one on stripmine.org that had rolled over into the pit , will need a BIG crane to get it out . I'm curious how they did , it would need to be disassembled piece by piece .

 

[stretch]

There are still draglines from the 1940's working in the anthracite fields. We'll have to wait a few more decades to see that kind of lifespan in Australia's machines, although Ensham's 1260-W has been working for over 40 years.

As for the rolled drag that Iron Horse mentioned, that would probably be Brutus, in western PA. They rolled it over and rebuilt the entire machine and it has now been working again for several years.

 

[knucklehead98]

To get one out of the pit they dig out from under it a little at a time. By the time they get it to sit back down on its turn table, they have a bench big enough for it to sit on, make needed repairs, and walk it back out.

 

[euclid]

Amazing the life span of such a machine. Now do they do upgrades to the machine? Controls and overall comfort? I'm sure newer electric motors and stuff like that right? I would think profit is more important than effeciency? or is it opposite?

 

[indian347]

Brutis

That was a striping shovel. They cut it up.They just cut up the Silver Spade in Ohio to.Really sucks.The people coulder;t raise the money to save it.I got to see it up real close and it hurts to know what they did to her .Jim

 

[stretch]

That was a striping shovel. They cut it up.They just cut up the Silver Spade in Ohio to.Really sucks.The people coulder;t raise the money to save it.I got to see it up real close and it hurts to know what they did to her .Jim

Close...you're talking about Big Brutus which was actually preserved and is on display in West Mineral, KS. Brutus just happens to be a drag with the same name in PA. :beatsme But yeah, it really does suck about the Spade, I wanted to get a trip in the few months between when it broke down and when they cut it up. Very sad indeed to see such a thing gone.

 

[knucklehead98]

My godfather was named by Southwestern Coal Co. as one of the key people in the construction of The Captain.