The Largest Walking Dragline Excavator in The World - Marion 8050 Dragline

Meeker Colorado more than a mile up in the Rocky Mountains lies the Callaway oh mine to provide power for thousands of Colorado homes and businesses this colossal open-pit mine has to deliver more than 2.3 million tons of coal per year the whole world depends on electricity and without coal you have no electricity hitting those targets demands truly extraordinary machines and they don't come much more extraordinary than the Marion 8050 walking dragline wait thirty-one hundred tons boon length 325 feet bucket capacity 62 cubic yards too big to move on wheels or tracks the dragline walks on fifty eight foot long steel shoes the mining process begins with a big bang 75 tons of ammonium nitrate explosive shatters the layer of sandstone covering the 15 foot thick coal seam then it's time for Tracy Mac and the mighty walking dragline to go to work in the clear Tracy swings the mighty machines 325 foot long boom arm and the bucket choose 82 ton mouthfuls from the layer of dirt known as overburden I get to operate the the biggest toy in the sandbox and it's really cool man this takes too much time to keep up with the pace of production another digger operates in tandem with the dragline yes sir go ahead Don Hobbs operates the Bucyrus 495 be mobile shovel with its 6600 volt electrical power supply it's not on the same scale but it's still a mean machine it's a monstrosity of a machine that bucket holds 80 tons of dirt that shovel it's a challenge every day but at an altitude of 7,000 feet the air is dry and the mine won't allow the big diggers to operate if they start kicking up too much dust if there is a situation where the dust is overwhelming us we will shut down a shutdown costs the mind thousands of dollars but with low visibility lives are at stake and they might have no choice the mighty walking dragline has to clear 80,000 tons of dirt to uncover the mines 15 foot thick coal seam but the big diggers won't work unless the operators know the dust is under control unless this water truck shows up soon we're gonna have to stop about time you show up get us some water right the water truck arrives in time to damp down the dust and the massive diggers get back to work so far the mud and the dust there's a real fine line between not enough water and too much water for haul truck drivers like Connie Archuleta the extra moisture is bad news the biggest problem with those big puddles like that that are deep we have the wheel motors on both sides of the tires they're electric electricity and water do not mix even shallow water can cause serious problems for the 320 tonne haul trucks which take away the coal revealed by Tracy's dragline for us is starting to come through making it treacherous driving for the trucks potentially sliding into each other during the thaw is pretty significant water slick roads are devastating call trucks you can roll one over you never want to do damage to your equipment the entire mine depends on these four-story high behemoth trucks if they can't drive the hard work done by Tracy and the walking dragline will count for nothing kalo IO mine Colorado the mighty walking drag line has to clear 80,000 tons of rubble by sundown to uncover the mines coal seam but operator Tracy has noticed a problem yeah I'm kind of dragging the ropes over here the ropes are the 3.2 inch thick steel cables which controlled a 30-foot wide bucket arm the problem with the ropes dragging on the edge of the spoil we're on digging where's the ropes out and you get premature failure the only way to stop the ropes dragging is to clear earth from around the base of the drag line with a bulldozer it extends the life when we can cut that edge with the dozer and keep from dragging the ropes in the rock or the dirt to do the best you can and they'll smooth air out with the bucket this job demands inch-perfect control of the dozer on a steep gradient at the edge of a 50-foot precipice the consequences of getting it wrong are serious with premature failure in the ropes extreme danger the rope or chain could break and actually come back into the cab of the dragline the man at the dozer controls is someone Tracy can trust his son Jason yeah that's perfect right there the drag lines up and running but the smaller Bucyrus 495 B shovel that was helping out has been pushed hard when operator Don comes back from his lunch break he gets an unpleasant surprise while the maintenance team work the Bucyrus won't run does this mean I might get to dig the day gonna make my shovel better no we're gonna be working on this most of the afternoon and into the night today they've shut my shovel down that's putting a lot of pressure on the drag line the drag line is really gonna have to bust but to cover for what I don't get done with Don shovel out of the game hitting today's quota is a tall order for Traci and the dragline kala while mine Colorado the Titanic walking dragline has shifted 40,000 tons of dirt but that's only half the day's quota and the big machine is feeling the strain don't look right left drag hitch pin is sticking out there ways on the outside I'll set the bucket down maybe look at if a pin holding the giant bucket in place works loose the consequences could be catastrophic so Traci calls in an engineer to assess the damage it's not good news the two-foot long pins in good shape but the bolt that holds it in place the keeper is shot and replacing it is a big job I've got a keeper gun on one of our pins on a drag hitch rover back on course with the deadline looming welder press Miriam is on the scene in minutes get us back in the dirt I'll get you back in the dirt check it out I think I've got it to where you won't tear it up again yeah that'll work for now finally the dragline is back working at full speed in spite of dust and meltwater the workers of the kala while mine have beaten their towering daily quota

Channel: Vehicle Channel

Views: 424,430

Rating: 4.4146342 out of 5

Keywords: excavator, mining, showel, largest machine, walking, dragline, heavy equipment

Id: bkHeRohfAjc

Length: 9min 9sec (549 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 06 2016