The Silver Spade & A Herd Of Cats Ramping Down - Part 2

The Silver Spade & A Herd Of Cats Ramping Down - Part 2 - August 20, 2001

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6 жыл бұрын

Ramping Down, Part 2
We went back the next morning, and found the Spade pulling ruined mats out of the mudhole, while a herd of Cats worked on reclamation. The one working on the edge looks like a D11, the other high tracks are D10's. Looks like a D9 and a D10, maybe a 3rd dozer in the distance. Note the large Euclid scraper spread parked in the distance to the west. There are also glimpses of a cable reel truck, relocating the extension cord. Looks like they were just moving it over to the side of the road.
When we first started going to the Stumptown Steam Show, in the early 1980s, the Silver Spade was working directly behind (North of) the show site. Subsequently, it was parked for several several years, due to high coal inventory. When it was reactivated, it worked north of OH 519, eastward over to OH 9. It then returned and crossed OH 519 next to the Stumptown site, and moved 1 mile west. After working a higher seam on the south side of 519, it ramped down to a lower seam. I don't remember the seam numbers, perhaps some viewer does.
The rumor was that while ramping down, they broke into old mine tunnels, and the machine almost tipped over when the ground gave way. They had to fill in to stabilize the area before proceeding. This video shows part of the stabilization process. It appears that they had dug further ahead, and then backed the machine out to build a solid base. Must have been scary, as several machines ended their lives that way. During the process, they sometimes used the bucket to tamp material into the hole.
Ramping down is a scary process in any case. The downhill leveling rams are extended, and the uphill ones retracted, with little margin for error with this very tall narrow machine. There are crossed bubble levels on the operator's console, and probably several other locations.
We visited the Spade several times per year, from the time it was reactivated until it was retired.
The original video format is 720 x 480. The video will look best at that viewing size.
This video was shot with a Sony Handycam in Digital 8. This format used 2 hour Hi-8 analog videotapes, running at 2x speed, to produce high quality 1 hour digital video. It was a revolutionary format at the time, and was used extensively by news media for field news gathering, such as in Iraq. A bit of image quality is lost in the MS moviemaker editor, losing some of the striking immediacy of the format. Note that it is interlaced, and sized for broadcast televisions of the time.
This video is from a large box full of 75(!) of these 1 hour tapes, that WurliTzer153Duplex is gradually converting via FireWire. These were shot by both of us, with several cameras, and it's interesting to figure out who did what.
A large percentage of the 75 videotapes are labeled as Silver Spade...!
There is some cool stuff in there.
#635
Sony Handycam Digital 8
20010820f Spade Ramp Part 2

Пікірлер: 52

@mikepowell1076 2 жыл бұрын

It's hard to get a sense of its size, until you realize those are D11 cats working around it. Amazing

@chrispza 6 жыл бұрын

What a stunningly impressive beast! Didn’t realise the sheer size until you pulled out and the dozers came into shot. Thank you so much for what must be hard and exacting work.

@whitetiger8652 6 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the video. I remember seeing the Gem of Egypt, Mountaineer, and Silver Spade in operation as well as the crossing of Interstate 70 as I grew up in the area. Amazing pieces of equipment. I saw Big Muskie in operation also.

@wmden1 Жыл бұрын

You are lucky. I just got to see a few truck mounted draglines, and a couple of tracked small ones. I did get to see a stripping, walking, dragline at about a mile off, about 4 years ago. It was probably about 40, or 50 yards, not real big, but not small. I never saw a shovel, except the hand kind, in my life. Seen plenty of them, and used them, many times.

@bobhumberston3021 6 жыл бұрын

our family followed this beast from day one.we got to go in it on first day of fire up.used to have picnics watching the gal getting put together. train loads of stuff in staging area.

@jamesdanniballe2612 4 жыл бұрын

bob humberston bo

@danielmarshall4587 5 жыл бұрын

Thank you for this. History both of the machine and the format used to record the images and sound.... thanks again.

@oldfarmshow 6 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the video

@BiddieTube 6 жыл бұрын

That must take some real high voltage in order to keep the power cord weight and size down. I used to get into these kind of machines when I was a little kid. I never studied this one in particular, but remember it being a real special gem in its time. I think it was the largest track shovel of its kind. It still may be.

@martinblanch5828 4 жыл бұрын

There's was a bigger one made by Marion but the silver spade out lived it due to a hydraulic fire.

@ferdinandocappelletti6740 6 жыл бұрын

beautiful video, poor Silver Spade!

@ilovecops5499 5 жыл бұрын

Those are larger than life machines and are quit eterrifying to see thems in real lifes. Thanls YOUS!

@wmden1 9 ай бұрын

I am always amazed at the engineering and actual production wonders of manufacturing and assembling the parts for such a huge, mobile, excavating machine as this and others. It is mind boggling, to say the least. It is difficult to tell, but this looks like the walls of the cut might have caved around the tracks of the Spade and the dozers are clearing it away.

@SteamCrane 9 ай бұрын

The dozers were digging a huge ramp to move the shovel down from one coal seam down to the next one below. In many areas, coal is in several strata with rock layers in between. At one point while ramping down, they hit an old underground mine, and had to fill part of it in to move the shovel across. The shovel is so heavy that ordinary soil won't support it, they use huge timber mats to spread out the weight. They have just enough mats for the tracks to sit on, and the shovel picks up mats from behind an places them in front to travel. When on the coal, the coal is hard enough to support the machine. The Spade was bigger in person. Look at the tiny operator's cab. It still exists, and is big enough to live in.

@wmden1 9 ай бұрын

@@SteamCrane Thanks. That is interesting to know. I was just guessing. I was also considering how careful they had to be to move The Spade to another area, with its weight and its high center of gravity. I am curious as to whether the track's gearing had more than one drive speed. It was sure slow here, which I am sure was highly necessary, gear ratio wise, at times. The machine was most impressive, and I am sorry it is gone and that I didn't get to see it in real life.

@rjlz6194 5 жыл бұрын

If anyone doesn’t think dinosaurs roamed the earth during our lifetime, they have never seen these marvels of engineering. I am a miner & have been for over 19 years, I am very proud of everyone who has & still does help build our country.

@lozarok 5 жыл бұрын

Great Vid - cheers

@ferenclukacs165 3 жыл бұрын

Csodalatosak ezek a giga gepek ,en mint nehezgepszerelo ,imadomoket Koszonet a fantaztikus videokert!

@rickynewman4393 5 жыл бұрын

been over 20 years, i can't recall exactly, Will try find it

@buildmor 4 жыл бұрын

Man, that thing is huge! It could reach down and flip one of those cats over like a child’s toy.

@Leatherface123. 3 жыл бұрын

It will carry it

@levisalvini4110 3 жыл бұрын

@@Leatherface123. with no effort...

@Leatherface123. 3 жыл бұрын

@@levisalvini4110 it would be like it’s not even there

@levisalvini4110 3 жыл бұрын

@@Leatherface123. That's right my man! Is105 cubic yard capacity that bucket. Imagine being the operator of the D11, and you see that bucket coming at ya! Run for your life!

@scottmasker4389 3 жыл бұрын

What exactly are they doing?

@SteamCrane 3 жыл бұрын

Moving downhill to a lower coal seam.

@hwoods01 6 жыл бұрын

With those models, double exhaust stacks == D11.

@canvids1 6 жыл бұрын

Makes you wonder if it ever paid for itself over the years. Just the everyday costs of running it must have been high. Many millions of dollars just to build it. the cost of moving it from mfg to the site to assemble. The mount of people , maintenance, electricity consumed, break downs. time to relocate to another seem etc etc.

@SteamCrane 6 жыл бұрын

Yes. I've wondered.

@matthewhburch6198 6 жыл бұрын

They were quite efficient, compared to the alternatives of the day. Economy of scale means a lot more when basic engineering is cruder.

@jadoncramer6512 6 жыл бұрын

Yep, they were. Unless a major catastrophe happened.

@bethanyhaskiell9116 2 жыл бұрын

Big Muskie was only 25 million back in the late 60s so it paid for itself quite a few times over and Silver Spade operated longer than Muskie so I'm sure it paid for itself 10 times over or more

@rickynewman4393 5 жыл бұрын

moving the giant shovel called the Bullwinkle, after it cross the highway it tipped over, they had to scrap it , sad,

@jasonkelley7606 5 жыл бұрын

Where was that

@CosgroveNotts 2 жыл бұрын

A lot of machinery for such a little bucket by todays standards . Hardly efficient whatever anyone says. .

@SteamCrane 2 жыл бұрын

Bucket capacity is limited by working radius. In this case 195 feet dumping radius. Bucket was 105 yards on the 1950-B Spade (high front), but the nearly identical 1950-B GEM had a shorter boom and stick, and smaller working envelope, and swung a bigger 130 yd bucket. Turned out the GEM's reach was too short for the coal seams in the area, and it was scrapped much earlier than the Spade. All of these machines were used for ripping rock, not just loose soil. 105 cu yards on a ~1 minute cycle at 200 hundred foot radius while ripping on every pass is a lot of tough material per day.

@MICKSHRED 6 жыл бұрын

Is this twins with the captain?

@epistte 5 жыл бұрын

The Captain was quite a bit bigger. The GEM was almost this machines twin.

@TL64329 5 жыл бұрын

No-the captain was MUCH BIGGER!!

@Leatherface123. 3 жыл бұрын

Captain was twice the size

@RJ1999x 5 жыл бұрын

Wonder why they called it the silver spade when it's orange and yellow

@robertestep7017 4 жыл бұрын

1965 was 25th anniversary of Hanna Coal Co.

@RJ1999x 4 жыл бұрын

@@robertestep7017 thanks

@behappy2583 4 жыл бұрын

fekin huge .... but the bucket looks so small

@SteamCrane 4 жыл бұрын

The Silver Spade's bucket was 105 Cu Yd. The Spade was a near-twin of the Gem Of Egypt, but with a longer boom. Since the Gem operated at a shorter radius, it had a 130 yd bucket. Due to the depth of the coal seams, the Gem's digging depth + dump height turned out to be too short, and it was scrapped well before the Spade.

@behappy2583 4 жыл бұрын

@@SteamCrane I know nothing about diggers or buckets i was only saying what i seen . I just like to watch big diggers and things .. But im still none wiser ! but still love the vid

@33100Gman 4 жыл бұрын

Was that a huge jaw crusher die it was swinging around?

@SteamCrane 4 жыл бұрын

Massive wooden mats or "floats". Coal is hard enough to drive on, but dirt isn't. Thus when not on the coal, the mats spread the load, similar to those used at many liftcrane jobs, but these mats were much bigger.