PDA

View Full Version : Archived: Dragline - St Aiden's open cast mine, Leeds, Sept '09



boxfrenzy
29-09-2009, 08:40 PM
Finally got a move on with the hundreds of pictures of some places I've been recently. This fella was open on the Heritage Open Weekend, and is massive and cool.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3481/3966267948_cfb15024e1.jpg

This was built by Bucyrus Erie in 1948, in Winsconsin, US of A, where it worked for four years before stints in Wales and the Midlands. It is absolutely massive.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2510/3965491325_5d8eb46c4a.jpg

In 1972 (cue A Team joke) it was moved to St Aiden's Open Cast mine, just outside Leeds. This is inside.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2555/3966265066_7749565dc8.jpg

Another shot from inside, this time of the steel cables that traveled up over the boom.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3485/3965489699_e851a2189c.jpg


On the boom. Top marks to the real crane climbers. I though I was going to tip off at any moment here. It was embarrassingly close to the ground. Oh dear.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2468/3965490439_11613655d4.jpg

This chain is massive, and goes to the shovel, which I failed to take a picture of. To give you an idea of the size, I reckon you could fit a mini (the old one, not the newer ones) in it. You can just see its blurred and wonky outline in the background.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3609/3965490965_823ef63bcd.jpg

This is the open cast mine where this fella (named Oddball - I don't know why) worked. It is the largest preserved walking dragline in the UK.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2513/3965491951_f80477ef49.jpg

It's hard to get your head round the fact that this massive machine has moved around the world, being dismanted and rebuilt every time.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3458/3965492293_2a55e2a812.jpg

Sad that so many of these monsters that worked tirelessly were broken up for scrap twenty or thirty years ago. There are not many left now, at all. Which is a shame really.