Mega-Excavators

[CigarStone]

Watched a show on Discovery last night called "Mega-Excavators.......Machines that Reshape The World"

Don't know if any of you saw the show but it was pretty interesting. I am especially interested in these machines because they are abandoned all over the place where I grew up in western Pa. The biggest one ever is as big as a 22 story building and when the coal mining job is done they just gut the machines and leave them out in the woods as it is too expensive to move them.

If you have access to good satellite images you can see them in the "West Freedom" area of Pa. A few are still operating but most are abandoned.

To put it in perspective, the bucket on the machine below can pick up over 400 tons in one scoop.

 

[DanTheMan]

Very Impressive! That is one big load of dirt! The biggest things we have or had here are fishing boats or logging trucks... Shame they are left for waste though... D

 

[Irish]

Nice - did they include this one they built out in Germany in the show?:

Some more info & pics

 

[CigarStone]

Yep, that baby was featured!

 

[cabaiguan juan]

Google Maps is no help, but it does show a lot of stripmines from the closest distance you can view.

 

[hoshnasi]

Nice - did they include this one they built out in Germany in the show?:

Some more info & pics

That part of the show was great. They showed it digging up close and personal.

 

[CigarStone]

Google Maps is no help, but it does show a lot of stripmines from the closest distance you can view.

Trying to get some images

When I go to this link the image pops up and then reverts to the nearest town coordinates.....if I hit the back button the image comes back.....give it a try. This is the best satellite image I can get. This unit has been abandoned for decades.

Link.

The small valleys and draws which do not get stripped become very good deer hunting spots.

 

[Irish]

That part of the show was great. They showed it digging up close and personal.

Sweet, I've only seen pictures, no video clips. Looks like they're broadcasting it again on Feb 23 @ 2:00 pm, I'll have to check it out.

 

[Dr. Marneaus]

Those Bucket-wheel excavators are intense. I love how they move whole towns and roads just to get them to a new mie...all in order for them to destroy another part of the planet...

 

[CigarStone]

When I was a kid we used to play in the old abandoned strip mines. Before the government made them come back and "reclaim" them they were incredible dangerous with dozens of spoil piles and a pond at the bottom of them.....if you didn't know what you were doing you would slide right down one of the spoil piles into the pond and couldn't get out.

These machines used to take away a hillside and leave a giant cliff with a spoil pile below it and we would ride our bikes off the cliff, throw the bike to the side, and fly until we hit the spoil pile, then tumble in the soft spoils all the way to the bottom. We became experts in bike repair

About 20 years ago, right before they reclaimed them, there was a long narrow ridge which they had stripped along both long sides leaving a very narrow ridge with huge cliffs on each side. I was hunting and there was a couple inches of new snow on the ground. I noticed a black line the entire length of the ridge top and started walking it, the ridge was probably 1/4 mile wide. The ridge was falling away on both sides and it was opening up like a split meatloaf. As I walked out further the split became wider and eventually became about a foot and a half wide with the earth's warmth coming up out. Down inside the split, a black bear had chosen this as his winter home.