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.

@shanefraser7764

3 жыл бұрын

Damm I bet that was something indeed, we dont get nothing like this in new Zealand ✌

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'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.

@lewiemcneely9143

3 жыл бұрын

Pick ON, Pal!

I believe my uncle Max operated this machine, wished I could find someone that knew him before he retired! Brent!

Great Video. Glad to see some of this.

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 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.

Another outstanding video!!

@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

So cool I live near the old Bucyrus Erie plant.

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

@Leatherface123.

2 жыл бұрын

Ohio had god itself, Big Muskie

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.

I saw this in operation at Paradise Ky in the 1960’s.

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.

Dream job for any operator.

What a playground!

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

@American-Motors-Corporation

3 ай бұрын

They restore it it's fine.

@generationll I agree. It's a shame that these are gone. This one is only 80 feet below the ground though. LOL!!

@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.

I also live about an hour and a half a way from Muhlenburg County, KY

Down near Beaver Dam, Kentucky if memory serves.

I think im gonna cry....thats a sad sad story.....buried alive....ughhh ppl are so stupid for destroying these awesome machines.

@Leatherface123.

3 жыл бұрын

There is a microscopic bit of hope It’s buried but still in tact

@Leatherface123.

2 жыл бұрын

Nevermind the house on it was crushed

that guy with that little shovel is goofin off

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..

My grandfather worked at this mine

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 :(

I’m so mind blown today.. after me and my coworker was just talking about Mighty Mo and this Crane comes up!!

@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!

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?

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

@fallguye6011

7 жыл бұрын

Shawn Jenkins It's played at the end of Fire Down Below.

@alphonsotate2982

Жыл бұрын

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

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

@wmden1

2 жыл бұрын

The dozer in the foreground in the first few frames is a fair comparison.

@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.

we saw a similar machine in western Illinois and likely Peabody owned.

I have about ten tapes of Peabody putting a shovel on barges moving up river .

@MiningPhotography

7 жыл бұрын

I would absolutely LOVE to see them!

Apparently some guys just couldn't leave the sandbox........nice.......

That shovel must be as tall as a 12-story building, and about the length of a football field!

@noahbelcher27

7 жыл бұрын

its about a hhundred feet tall and 200 feet wide

@Leatherface123.

3 жыл бұрын

22 stories

there still one fully in tack minus the dc motors inside it in southeastern kansas set up as a museum

@FlatWabbitRabbitry

5 жыл бұрын

Big Brutus is the name of the one in Kansas. Pretty cool but believe it was a smaller unit.

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.....

Their needs to be a simulator game that captures this era in full immersion im talking realistic controls realisitic throttle responses coal rolling loud diesels an real to live physics for it cuz this shit is awesome

is this the shovel that was burried, and if so, is it still there?

@MiningPhotography

9 жыл бұрын

Yes it is the one that was buried. Yes, what's left of it is still underground.

Most Marion's are dwarfed by that thing.

@Leatherface123.

2 жыл бұрын

Yes, the only ones that aren’t are the Captain and Big Digger

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

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.

@Leatherface123.

3 жыл бұрын

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

@fallguye6011

2 жыл бұрын

@@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?

@bethanyhaskiell9116

2 жыл бұрын

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

Was there any landmark that shows where the shovel is now

@redeyedmongoose2963

3 жыл бұрын

sneezabonk Is there a landmark that shows what was destroyed?

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..?

@Leatherface123.

3 жыл бұрын

Correct

dang the shovel we had was 14 yards, 100 less than this one

@AviationPhotogBNA Huhh, Still disappointing with all of these machines being scrapped. What was it's twin's name?

@Leatherface123.

3 ай бұрын

River king

All most looks like big Brutus

this look like something Jawas would have...

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.

@noahbelcher27

7 жыл бұрын

ive seen it in real life. the shovel is like half the size of the machine itself

@aarondurler8174

6 жыл бұрын

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.

Is this still active?

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!!!

do you know which pit this is? I fish there a lot.

@MiningPhotography

9 жыл бұрын

I'm not sure.

why bucket looks so small compared to the whole machine?

@Leatherface123.

Жыл бұрын

The weight of the material it mines triples and the size of the machine has to increase more than the bucket size

@pekkavalkonen1973

Жыл бұрын

@@Leatherface123. Ah, thanks for information

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.

@CAVSFAN2360 At least they did not rip the living hell out of it

big hog was 20 stories high

So how was it powered? Diesel Engines? Diesel Electric?...

@noahbelcher27

7 жыл бұрын

diese electric

@SteamCrane

6 жыл бұрын

Pure electric via an enormous extension cord.

@hisaddle

4 жыл бұрын

7,200 volt cable runs to it and powers it. All electric.

@Leatherface123.

3 жыл бұрын

PURE ELECTRICITY

Did anybody know some men ant that mine by the name's of Clarence Pendergraff and Stan Pope?

All most as big as big David shovel

@Leatherface123.

3 жыл бұрын

Way bigger

and mister peabodys coal train done hauled it away

@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

I think this is Big Brutus or like that.

@catzzzz1450

10 ай бұрын

no the Big Brutus was the Bucyrus Erie 1850b

@hacktester69

2 ай бұрын

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.

@Leatherface123.

3 жыл бұрын

Money

Funny about how everybody is crying at the horrible futility of burying it. google big brutus west mineral kansas

@Leatherface123.

3 жыл бұрын

Way smaller This one was nearly twice the size

Is the one in the foreground her baby? Lol

America doesn't have enough oil to keep us in the style we think ourselves deserving of. Not even close.

@pressureworks

Жыл бұрын

This is coal they are extracting, btw.

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…

@fallguye6011

2 жыл бұрын

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

@MiningPhotography

9 жыл бұрын

Good question. Parts of this machine were salvaged for use on another machine like it in Illinois.

@noahbelcher27

7 жыл бұрын

thats false, the whole tihngs still stands in west wineral kansas, i have seen it myself

@SteamCrane

6 жыл бұрын

I've been to Brutus. All of the motors were removed (lots of copper). Everything else is there, well worth going there.

@Leatherface123.

3 жыл бұрын

@@noahbelcher27 different smaller machine

@pressureworks

Жыл бұрын

@@noahbelcher27 and just how was this moved from Tennessee to Kansas ??

this job will be fucking boring

@johnsmailes1599

7 жыл бұрын

sho gunn r