Monster! Those 55 gallon drums standing near the man door lend some perspective to the scene. Thank you for another excellent video.

I remember the documentary you did on this beauty, what a machine it is, great video Justin, keep em coming mate.

This is the only 8700 in the world. Only two were built by Marion. There are many other different draglines in operation in Pennsylvania; the 8700 is the largest

48 yrs old. love to know how many tones its moved in all that time + hours worked..awsome.

What a beautiful machine, it's like a symphony of man and machine, i do not have the word's, thank you

Love your videos! Keep em coming!

I see many draglines with beams emerging from the rear of the house, what is their purpose? Load distribution? I am new to mining equipment. Thank you, these videos are fascinating.

Nice steady work…:) Tough angle to shoot… That is a big ass machine…:)

Is it still around cause I need to see this!

Just saw this was running again!

1) I wish you could have filmed from the cab.. what a machine! 2) I thought I knew what overburden was till your comment about the op digging at the *bottom* of the coal pit. If overburden is what covers coal, why dig what's beneath it?

I’m pretty sure this is bigger then my house! Wow huge

Thanks

Grade to what? Not sure I understand what your asking. He is sitting 300ft down in the pit and reaching down another 200ft to the very bottom of the coal.

The shelf the Marion is sitting on, is that at grade level ? Or is the shelf below grade already ?

He's not digging beneath the coal, he's sitting down that far to reach to the basin of the coal. Think of an anthracite coal vein as a "U" shape on a cross-section. The top of the "U" is what is called the outcrop, the coal closest to the surface. The bottom of the "U" is called the basin; it can be a few hundred feet deep depending ion location. Now, put this dragline inside and right above the curves in the sides of the "U" and that is where he's sitting.

How many of these machines are operating still in PA?

Yeah it was because of the distance I was shooting from. Thanks!

Why didnt they repaint the boom with the rest of the machine? When they repainted the lower half did they completely go through it and paint the inside too?

how much does that bucket weigh?

It would have been nice if they did but keep in mind in order to repaint the boom it would have to be lowered, and that is downtime that can not be justified just to make the machine look pretty.

Yeah it is, and this is only a midsize dragline!

Better Call jason about full buckets.

Let's see Jason operate a dragline and clean rock off coal

You don't really measure a bucket by tons. A ton is a measurement of weight which all depends on material density. A bucket is measured in yards (volume). This machine is digging with an 85yd bucket

why does the operator swing to the right almost 3/4 of a turn instead of swinging to the left I cant help but think swinging to the left would increase his cycle times something wicked ?

@PAmining

10 жыл бұрын

True it would, however, if he swings to the left he'd be swinging the bucket over the trailing power cable and also, the boom point over service vehicles- (both which are shown in the video if you look carefully). This is something you never want to do as a dragline operator....especially swinging a loaded bucket over the cable.

@alexxxxx12341

10 жыл бұрын

oh yea na fair call now that I look at the video a second time I see the cable and I thought those vehicles were parked suspiciously close

@Frenchy3055

9 жыл бұрын

I've been in this situation several times as an operator of a big dragline sitting down low. These machines weren't designed to dig and dump this way and this machine is being tested to it's limits. One reason he might be swinging to the right instead of the left is the fact that the pile is already full to the left, meaning he would have to drag the bucket over the top of the pile if he swung to the left. You can't tell in the video. Plus he has to pause and dump the bucket slow to see if a large rock is going to come out. If it does he has to let it roll down and see where it lands. If he doesn't pay attention to big rocks and just swings back to the dig a rock might roll down and get under one of the walking shoes and knock it off alignment or break something. As far as swinging over the power cable is concerned; the dozer operator can cover the cable with a little dirt to protect it, or he can put a 50 feet long piece of large steel pipe up against it and if a rock falls out of the bucket the rock will hit the pipe instead of the power cable. To me it doesn't look like the vehicles are parked in the swing of the boom, but if they are that's just plain ignorance.

@PAmining

9 жыл бұрын

***** I am telling you the reason why the operator is swing long here is to avoid swinging over his power cable. And covering the cable with dirt is not going to stop at 30 ton rock from damaging it if it falls out of the bucket from 80' in the air

@Frenchy3055

9 жыл бұрын

PAmining And I'm telling you that I used to run a Marion 8900 155 cubic yard machine, a Bucyrus Erie 2570 100 cubic yard machine, and a Bucyrus Erie 1250 machine 35 cubic yard machine, and covering the power cable with dirt will protect it from rocks falling out of the bucket, but it isn't as good as covering the cable with a pipe. Either method is better than swinging the wrong way. And you are right that almost nothing is going to protect the cable from a 30 ton rock, but a 30 ton rock is not going to fall out during the swing. If a big rock is at the front of the bucket load then it should fall out when you pick the bucket up. And if he swung over the power cable he wouldn't have the bucket 80 feet in the air, only a few feet.

God damn that would get boring