(© ThyssenKrupp AG, http://media.thyssenkrupp.com/images/press/thyssenkrupp_p_831.jpg)
Posted on 12/04/2013 10:17:36 AM PST by thackney
Workers in Conroe hauled a colossal, 63.4-metric ton dragline excavator — essentially, a giant shovel — overnight Tuesday to a coal mine near Austin.
The 130-mile trip to Elgin was the maiden voyage in the U.S. for South African equipment maker VR Steel, which four months ago outsourced the fabrication of its first U.S. excavator to Conroe-based manufacturers C&C Metals and Mackanan.
The midnight ride took seven hours: Crew members on escort trucks lifted power lines and moved traffic lights to clear the way for the excavator, which sat 18 feet high on the back of a semi-trailer. After a “bit of a slow trip,” slowing but never fully stopping traffic, the excavator arrived at its new home at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, said Johan van Jaarsveld, a vice president of sales and manufacturing for VR Steel.
Two of the South African company’s engineers are expected to sign off on the device next week, enabling it to start chomping earth as early as the evening of Dec. 11.
VR Steel, which has a fleet of around 30 draglines scattered around the globe, is establishing a foothold in the Houston area, and plans to fabricate more mining tools in Conroe, using parts shipped from its warehouses in South Africa.
The region’s access to shipping lines linking South Africa and the Port of Houston was a big sell, and though the company will fabricate some equipment at remote U.S. mining locations, its Conroe business should “grow tremendously,” said van Jaarsveld.
Bastrop County, which includes the town of Elgin, has 13 lignite coal mining sites, among the largest concentrations of lignite in the state, according to the Texas Railroad Commission.
It took two cranes to hoist the monster onto the back of a semi-trailer Tuesday afternoon.
The dragline bucket is expected to attach to a mining crane next week in a construct resembling a long-necked dinosaur, with the excavator as its head — taking big bites out of the earth to mine coal: It’s part wrecking ball, part scooper.
Its maw is four-fifths the size of the largest dragline buckets in the world. It’s five times heavier than the legendary Big Muskie, an Ohio specimen that reigned as the largest from the late 1960s to the early 1990s.
The Conroe manufacturers hired about 10 more employees to work day and night shifts to finish putting the bucket together, and the companies may add 40 to 50 jobs in Conroe next year to fill more orders for big mining tools, Jaarsveld said.
The next excavator is scheduled for fabrication in Conroe early next year, and VR Steel is drawing up plans to construct excavators that can dig up 120 cubic yards of earth — a volume just shy of the largest excavators on the planet.
My grandfather drove a large dragline. As a 12 year kid I got to "play" with it. Wish I could remember more of the specs but it was huge. We have pictures of us climbing around the Big Muskie as well.
Very nice to see some heavy iron fabrication done in the US for other global destinations.
Indeed - equipment like this is cool. It could all be made in the USA, if our government policies didn’t encourage these jobs and plants to be sent abroad.
Am also surprised the wacko-greens aren’t out there protesting it. Digging up coal, spoiling environments, etc...
bttt!
(© ThyssenKrupp AG, http://media.thyssenkrupp.com/images/press/thyssenkrupp_p_831.jpg)
http://acidcow.com/pics/8389-bucket-wheel-excavator-vs-caterpilla-d8r-dozer-19.html
Wouldn’t take many passes with that thing to really clean out DC...
“...the excavator, which sat 18 feet high on the back of a semi-trailer...’
That’s thing’s a lot taller than 18ft. I used CAT D9s and a lot of varied heavy construction equipment before, but I’ve never seen anything that monstrous. Yikes.
Ooops, should have looked at article’s pics. That’s a frigging big bucket.
My grandfathers wasn’t that big. He kept an old worn out bucket next to his dragline. He used the dragline to move it when the dragline moved.
He kept it upside-down near the base and used it as a garage for his truck.
Yeah, we are just sharing pics of other big iron. The article pics are not simple to copy and share.
Sure would have made the Panama Canal a lot easier and
faster too.
“...used it as a garage for his truck...”
You could almost put a whole car lot under that thing! Amazing scale/size.
Fascinating that they drove this puppy through Bavaria. At first blush it doesn't look all that speedy or agile, so it was probably a bit of a slow slog. Can you imagine getting behind this thing on the autobahn? I'd be on my horn I'll tell you that.
Bucyrus-Erie used to make monsters like this until the war on coal in the ‘80’s did them in. My grandfather used to test these things as they left the factory. He died at work when a bank he was on collapsed and the shovel overturned.
Oh admit it. You'ld be out of the car taking pictures with the rest of us.
on Google Maps and see the mine in Germany is littered with these giant machines. I just assumed there was one but apparently this German energy company has a bunch of them for mining coal.
Well, yes. Seriously speaking I would indeed be stunned, and with my mouth hanging wide open like Debbie Washerhair Schultz when confronted for the first time with the dazzling array of products on the shampoo aisle at Walmart.
Yup. I saw a video taken of one of these inching across the German countryside.
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