Bucyrus Erie 3850-B Power Shovel (Peabody Coal Co. - Sinclair Surface Mine) "Big Hog"
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- Peabody Coal Company ordered this machine for one purpose and one purpose only, the Tennessee Valley Authority. It was built to supply the (at the time) brand new TVA Paradise Fossil Plant and its 3 MASSIVE coal hungry units. TVA and Paradise Fossil Plant still buy Muhlenberg County coal and Peabody coal to this day! This video just shows the old girl going through some simple cycles in the pit. You do catch a few views of some pit activity and stuff as well! Enjoy.
Some interesting facts about this machine my Grandfather & Aunt used to work on:
-Boom Length: 215 feet
-Overall Height: 220 feet
-Bucket Capacity: 115 cubic yards
-Crawler Size: 40 ft. long by 7.6 ft. wide
-Crawler Height: 10 feet
-Overall Weight: 22 Million lbs.
-Date Started: 1962
-Date Retired:1987 (roughly)
-Location: Outside Central City/Drakesboro in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky (Western Kentucky)
**When this shovel was built, it was easily considered the "World's Largest Machine/Shovel" ever built. It held that title for a relatively short time though unfortunately.
This machine was left somewhat intact, but higher portions were cut off of it when it walked into a hole that it dug for itself. After everything was trimmed off, the Sinclair BE 1260-W Dragline filled the dirt in around the machine and it was literally buried close to the TVA power plant on Peabody Property. That property is now owned by the US Government and trespassing is strictly forbidden.
To this day, the legendary "Big Hog" still resides under a deep number of feet of dirt in Muhlenberg County. The Big Hog was featured in an article in the January 1963 "Science and Mechanics" Magazine. An artistic rendering of this machine graced that issues cover. I'll never forget seeing this machine parked in its own grave that it dug, just waiting for the dirt and cutters torch. I had a grandfather and an aunt that worked around and on this shovel during its life. It will always be part of my family just like the Marion 5960 Shovel across the county at River Queen Mine!
Big hog (The huge shovel in the video) was built by Bucyrus Erie as a 3850 type. After being sent to work at an open pit mine owned by Peabody coal company, Big hog would work there for a long time until driving into a big hole. After getting damaged in the hole, Big Hog was buried underneath a lot of dirt.
R.I.P Big Hog
I went up inside the one in Southern, IL in the late '70's or early 80's. My friend's Dad worked there. It was on a Saturday, they were working on turning it around for some reason or re-positioning it in a canyon it had dug like in this vid. we walked over to the machine on the coal seam. Just crazy amazing. Walked up the steel stairs hanging down in the middle, up into the big room with spinning electric motors at the rear, huge cables prolly 1 ft in dia coming in thru the roof to the winches, all for moving the bucket. Took a little elevator up to the level where the operator sat. He was just taking it easy as a team of men with walkie talkies were down on the cat walks below the main room working on steering the tracks around.
Good God that dozer really brings into perspective how big that thing is.
Many a time went bass fishing in the lakes created by this monster. Saw it in operation as a youngster and it was beyond incredible.
Damm I bet that was something indeed, we dont get nothing like this in new Zealand ✌
I've been to "Big Brutus" in Kansas several times. It' surely an impressive machine.
Michael, I've been wanting to find some of these big giants working for a long time. I used to see them, and even got to go on one, and they are amazing. I used to have a picture postcard of one of them that had a big bus parked by it and it didn't come to the top of the track on the shovel. It said it had a 165 cu yard bucket. Thanks for posting this.
Pick ON, Pal!
I bet the guy running the small shovel feels like he's standing beside Ron Jeremy!
Yes, it is buried close to Paradise Fossil Plant in Muhlenberg County, KY.
Ohio had a few big. Drag line company's...bucrycus. and Marion power shovel. Love the history of these beasts. Really change the mining industry. I live 45 mins from Marion Ohio. Old plant is torn down but not forgotten
Ohio had god itself, Big Muskie
@EddiePennington Thank you Eddie! It is a real pleasure to have you comment on this video. I have alot of admiration for your work and I thank you for what you do! Once again, thank you very much and stay in touch!
Michael Davis
i've heard stories about this thing all my life. it must have been some to see work in person
this unit weights 20 million pounds, has a 250ft boom and took 11months to construct.
Lord won't you take me back to Muhlenburg County... sorry my son but you're too late in asking, Mr Peabody's coal train just hauled it away.
I absolutely love big iron like this, and know and value the energy it provides as well as the work, but Kentucky's a beautiful place to have huge pits like this, although I think they do try to reclaim the land after mining. Stay safe out there fellas and fellettes.
I believe my uncle Max operated this machine, wished I could find someone that knew him before he retired! Brent!
only one person ever operated this machine. from start to finish in 92
Parts were scrapped and other parts were sent to Southern Illinois for work on a twin machine at the time it was shut down. Otherwise, the shovel was buried in a pit dug by the dragline onsite. It was cut down and buried to be exact.
My Dad was a underground Miner in mulenberg co did not like seeing the land screwed up he worked 49 years I've in Missouri now
They restore it it's fine.
So cool I live near the old Bucyrus Erie plant.
I saw this in operation at Paradise Ky in the 1960’s.
@CAVSFAN2360 The "Twin" was located in Southern Illinois at the Peabody Coal Co. River King Mine. The shovel was actually larger (by bucket size) and was called the "River King". I have photos of this machine and other "stuff" that pertains to it. The Sinclair machine (the one in the video) is the one my family all worked on, or with though.
@generationll I agree. It's a shame that these are gone. This one is only 80 feet below the ground though. LOL!!
Great Video. Glad to see some of this.
Another outstanding video!!
u recon they shot the boom and gantry and buried the rest? hmmmm makes you wanna grab an excavator and torches and head out. love this stuff. here in Floyd co. ive got to work around 2 draglines, one one starfire strip. and the other was at an addington job(17 west) in martin co.there both gone now and I wish I had took more photos. coal keeps the lights on..
I think im gonna cry....thats a sad sad story.....buried alive....ughhh ppl are so stupid for destroying these awesome machines.
There is a microscopic bit of hope
It’s buried but still in tact
Nevermind the house on it was crushed
What a playground!
Down near Beaver Dam, Kentucky if memory serves.
the Illinois one is from the town i live in. really sucks it was scrapped 5 years before i was born so i could never have seen it :(
@Kenruckyheadhunter
Hey, if you want to see the machines from Armstrong, they are featured in my new book coming out Spring of 2011. You can buy it at all online book sellers like Amazon and others.
I have done a complete photographic history of Muhlenberg County and others. Its also got the dragline from your farm in Moorman, KY in it!
You fellers 'member this song? I grew up in the hard coal region of PA & love it.
Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal 'till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.
PARADISE or Muhlenberg County
(John Prine)
Words and music by John Prine, copyright 1971 Walden Music, Inc.
and Sour Grapes Music, all rights reserved.
dubdubdub_mudcat_o r g
Shawn Jenkins It's played at the end of Fire Down Below.
Great song BUT IT WAS A PROTEST SONG about strip mining but a good one thoe --those awesome machines they should have kept them as museums so people could see great things this country built that make it so great just like every thing now days greed ruined every thing they scraped them
I also live about an hour and a half a way from Muhlenburg County, KY
@CAVSFAN2360 Peabody had no intentions of giving it to the county or any organization for preservation. It cost way too much money to maintain and many other factors prevented it from being saved. It was designed for the mine it worked at and no other. So in that case, it had to be buried after having some parts scrapped off of it for its twin in Southern Illinois.
Dream job for any operator.
that guy with that little shovel is goofin off
I’m so mind blown today.. after me and my coworker was just talking about Mighty Mo and this Crane comes up!!
My grandfather worked at this mine
there still one fully in tack minus the dc motors inside it in southeastern kansas set up as a museum
Big Brutus is the name of the one in Kansas. Pretty cool but believe it was a smaller unit.
I have about ten tapes of Peabody putting a shovel on barges moving up river .
I would absolutely LOVE to see them!
Hi and thanks for the upload.
Not sure how old this is, but until as in this vid you get a person in shot next to this giant machine it is difficult to gauge how huge it is, mainly because 'landscape' have no yards or measuring and everything in this type of environment is already huge so there really is not anything to judge this `Drag-Line by sidewise.
Take care and have a great holiday.
mrbluenun
The dozer in the foreground in the first few frames is a fair comparison.
That shovel must be as tall as a 12-story building, and about the length of a football field!
its about a hhundred feet tall and 200 feet wide
22 stories
we saw a similar machine in western Illinois and likely Peabody owned.
There was a TV documentary about the history of and the competition between Bucyrus Erie and Marion, but I can't find it anymore. Maybe somebody knows if it's still available somewhere?
@AviationPhotogBNA Huhh, Still disappointing with all of these machines being scrapped. What was it's twin's name?
River king
Most Marion's are dwarfed by that thing.
Yes, the only ones that aren’t are the Captain and Big Digger
If this specific machine is buried out by TVA. Which bucyrus Erie was loaded on a barge off of an inlet to the river on rock port paradise rd in the 1990's I believe..?
Correct
Apparently some guys just couldn't leave the sandbox........nice.......
Western Kentucky Peabody Coal right there.
But looking at the effort to move all that rock, I can see why they invented the longwall for underground mining.....
Very impressive machine.Its bucket is not much larger then the 105 yards that the Silver Spade had.Too bad that these units have gone the way of the dinosaur
Was there any landmark that shows where the shovel is now
sneezabonk Is there a landmark that shows what was destroyed?
It seems like a small bucket for the size of the machine. I know the bucket is freakin massive up close but in comparison to the machine, it seems like it could be bigger.
ive seen it in real life. the shovel is like half the size of the machine itself
if you compare it with smaller machines thats right. thats because of the cubic-square rule: if you scale a machine the material properties grow by square (strenght in PSI) and the load grow by cubic (bucketvolume in cubicinches). so therefore its not possible to scale and big machnies will have small buckets compared to small machines.
Why did this and the machines like it all operating around the USA not brown out the electric grid? I know some - not all - were producing coal for electricity, but their use and retirement (plus or minus) does not seem to have had any impact on the grid. Same with all the electric-fired blast furnaces of the rust belt.
I thought that "The Mountaineer" a Marion 5561 was a bigger stripping shovel at least the largest at the time it was built. This monster may have come later and may have been bigger also the Silver Spade and the GEM were even bigger units made by the same company that made the Big Hog they are 1950b models and roamed the coal pits of Ohio.
The mountaineer was a 5760
It was built before the big ones
The 3850b “big hog and the river king” were the biggest Bucyrus Erie shovels
The silver spade and the gem were smaller
@@Leatherface123. The Captain was the biggest, that caught fire in 91 or 92 and was scrapped. Wasn't the Silver Spade second biggest and Big Brutus third?
The shovels were in this order largest to smallest 1.Marion 6360 The Captain 180 cubic yards 13,500 tons 2. Bucyrus 3850 The River King 11,500 tons 145 cubic yards 3. Bucyrus 3850 Big Hog 11,500 tons 115 cubic yards 4. Marion 5960 River Queen 8500 tons 125 cubic yards 5. Marion 5900 by weight not by bucket size which was 7200 tons and 105 cubic yards 6.Bucyrus 1950 The Gem of Egypt it had 130 cubic yard bucket but weighed 7000 tons 7.Bucyrus 1950 Silver Spade 105 cubic yard bucket and 7000 tons
Bucyrus Erie 3850-B Power Shovel (Peabody Coal Co. - Sinclair Surface Mine) "Big Hog Machine (The one featured in the same video) vs Godzilla in an epic battle to the death!!! Place your bets now!!!
is this the shovel that was burried, and if so, is it still there?
Yes it is the one that was buried. Yes, what's left of it is still underground.
why bucket looks so small compared to the whole machine?
The weight of the material it mines triples and the size of the machine has to increase more than the bucket size
@@Leatherface123. Ah, thanks for information
this look like something Jawas would have...
do you know which pit this is? I fish there a lot.
I'm not sure.
All most looks like big Brutus
dang the shovel we had was 14 yards, 100 less than this one
So how was it powered? Diesel Engines? Diesel Electric?...
diese electric
Pure electric via an enormous extension cord.
7,200 volt cable runs to it and powers it. All electric.
PURE ELECTRICITY
I think this is Big Brutus or like that.
no the Big Brutus was the Bucyrus Erie 1850b
Its different
@sneezabonk Yeah but why the heck would you bury it instead of preserving it? Now its LOST under TONS of earth instead of out where people can people can ENJOY it.
Money
big hog was 20 stories high
@CAVSFAN2360 At least they did not rip the living hell out of it
Did anybody know some men ant that mine by the name's of Clarence Pendergraff and Stan Pope?
Is this still active?
@EddiePennington I have a book coming out in the Spring of 2011 that covers all of the machines (shovels and draglines) that worked back in my hometown and places around it in Muhlenberg County. It has photos of all of them! You should give me a call and I'd love to tell you about it. Contact me via email and I'll give you my number. EMAIL: mddavis@comcast.net
and mister peabodys coal train done hauled it away
America doesn't have enough oil to keep us in the style we think ourselves deserving of. Not even close.
This is coal they are extracting, btw.
Funny about how everybody is crying at the horrible futility of burying it. google big brutus west mineral kansas
Way smaller
This one was nearly twice the size
All most as big as big David shovel
Way bigger
Is the one in the foreground her baby? Lol
Stop fighting.It makes me sad because I live by peabody.They berruide it because we could not pay for it to move.It had to run on a lot of stuff.
Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal 'til the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man…
Daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
thats so damn stupid that it was buried such a waste firs tit could be still used and if they are gonna junk it why not scrap it
Good question. Parts of this machine were salvaged for use on another machine like it in Illinois.
thats false, the whole tihngs still stands in west wineral kansas, i have seen it myself
I've been to Brutus. All of the motors were removed (lots of copper). Everything else is there, well worth going there.
@@noahbelcher27 different smaller machine
@@noahbelcher27 and just how was this moved from Tennessee to Kansas ??
this job will be fucking boring
sho gunn r