Just got back from what will probably be the last bucketwheel excavator coal mine in the US. The BWE at the Big Brown Mine burned awhile back and is being parted out/scrapped/buried (conveyor caught fire). These pictures are of the last working BWE on a coal mine in the US; it's at the Monticello Winfield Mine near Mt. Pleasant, TX. (Home of Priefert panels, gates, and chutes for you ranchers and rodeoers. Yes, you can buy seconds at their factory.)

Discovery Channel was here last summer for about a week filming. I haven't seen the show though.

I took the first picture about two years ago; I didn't get a good overview this week. Shows an overview of the BWE and crosspit spreader and two draglines working the pit. The dragline boom is about 330 feet long. The other photos are from the past couple of days.



The crosspit spreader is about 800 feet long.



The Bucketwheel is about 40 feet in diameter. It can move 80-85 feet vertically. That is a D9 feeding.



Standing under the crosspit spreader looking at the BWE. The pads on the spreader are about 13 feet each.



Looking down on the BWE from the top of the spreader. The feed belt from the BWE stretches to the left. The belt dump to the spreader grizzly is on the far left.



Hitachi(?) hoe working to drain a mud pit in advance of the BWE.



Just a view down pit. That is another dragline boom over the spoils. As you can tell, they recover two seams.



I like big stuff. And, if I get stuck while I'm working, it's easy to pull me out no matter how bad the stuck <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

I saw the discovery channel episode with that on it! Pretty cool man!

So what do you do?

Several of the earthwork contractors I work with consider a Cat D9 big equipment. I try to remind them of the Komatsu dozer model with a 20' wide blade 10'+ in height...one of the mining machines (model D575A-3 SD) and humble the Cat.

Komatsu link

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

"So what do you do?"

Environmental law enforcement. Training a new hire (first in years). They have to learn the capabilities of machinery.

"a Cat D9 big equipment"

Notice the 9 is just being used to clean up and feed the BWE. It is not considered big on a coal mining operation. These TX operations all use 10's and 11's to grade the dragline spoils.

I've seen the Komatsu Superdozer's work back in WV. They can move some spoil. Got some pictures somewhere.

Somewhere on the 'net are pictures of a dozer Peabody Coal built on its Kayenta, AZ operation. They hooked two big Komatsu's together with one huge blade between them. The controls were all linked and one guy operated it from one of the cabs. It was huge. I never saw it push dirt...I only watched it rust. I believe they scrapped it sometime in the early 90's.

A bigger one feeding on a D10



When i worked for CAT crazy pictures and stories would get forwarded to everyones corperate e-mail, i had one wher a dude didn't use his parking brake on a 797 haul truck and it rolled down a hill into an open pit. The truck looked like a little toy down in the water and you could see all the fluids floating around it.


One of my favs

HOLY MOLY!!!!!! That D9 got ATE UP!!!

That dumptruck has some 3 wheel motion goin on!!

Ohh, I love that first one. I think that was in Europe somewhere. The bottom of the buckets on the one in TX were made from chain. That way it would clean better than a solid bottom.

Did a load shift in the second one...looks awful flat though...loaded poorly?

Naw... somebody just photochopped out the RTI ramp. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" />

A huge boulder shifted to the right rear corner of the dump bed, nearly flattening the tires and flexing out the frame. The only way to fix it was to blast the rock apart, but this was at a coal mine, so they had to drive a flaming truck out of the way before attempting to extinguish the fire. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/zombie.gif" alt="" />

That first picture where the Cat got eaten up was Here in Alberta, Canada...up at the Oil-sands in Ft.MacMurray, I have worked up there numerous times. The Machinery up there is ungodly.