Marion 6360, also known as The Captain, was a giant power shovel built by the Marion Power Shovel company. Completed and commissioned on October 15 1965,[1] it was one of the largest land vehicles ever built,[2] exceeded only by some dragline and bucket-wheel excavators. The shovel originally started work with Southwestern Illinois Coal Corporation, but the owners were soon bought out by Arch Coal. Everything remained the same at the mine except for the colors which were changed to red, white, and blue. Like most mining vehicles of extreme size, Marion 6360 only required a surprisingly small amount of men to operate, a total of four consisting of a operator, oiler, welder, and a ground man who looked after the trailing cable.[1]
| History | |
|---|---|
| United States | |
| Name | "The Captain" |
| Builder | Marion Power Shovel |
| Laid down | April 1964 |
| Christened | October 15, 1965 |
| Commissioned | October 15, 1965 |
| Fate |
|
| Notes | Largest power shovel ever built |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Marion 6360-series Electric power shovel |
| Tonnage | 12,700 t (28,000,000 lb) |
| Length | 97 m (319 ft) |
| Beam | 27 m (88 ft) |
| Height | 64 m (210 ft) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 8 x caterpillar tracks |
| Speed | 0.25 mph or 0.4 km/h |
| Capacity | Blade capacity: 180 cubic yards (137.6 m3) or 151.2 short tons (137.2 t) |
| Complement | 4[1] |
The shovel worked well for Arch Coal until September 9, 1991, when a fire broke out in the lower works of the shovel.[1] It was caused by a burst hydraulic line that was spraying the hot fluids on an electrical relay panel.[1] This fire caused a great deal of damage to both the lower works and machine house.[1] Afterwards, engineers from both Arch and Marion Power Shovel surveyed the damage and deemed it too great to repair, and the machine was scrapped one year later in the last pit it dug.
The only Marion shovel that compared (in size and scope) to "The Captain" was the Marion 5960-M Power Shovel that worked at Peabody Coal Company's (Peabody Energy) River Queen Surface Mine in Central City, Kentucky. It was named the "Big Digger" and carried a 125-cubic-yard (96 m3) bucket on a 215-foot-long (66 m) boom. It was Marion Power Shovel's second largest machine ever built and the third largest shovel in the world. This "sister shovel" was scrapped in early 1990 in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.
Specifics
edit- Boom Length: 215 feet (66 m)
- Bucket Capacity: 180 cubic yards (140 m3) (double doors)
- Dipper Stick Length: 133 feet (41 m)
- Overall Weight: 12700 tons (11,521,000 kg)
- Total Height: 210 feet (64 m)
- Crawler Height: 16 feet (4.9 m)
- Crawler Unit Length: 45 feet (14 m)
- Individual Crawler Width: 10 feet (3.0 m)
- Individual Track weight: 3.5 tons apiece (42 pads per track total)
- Clearance Under Shovel: 16 feet (4.9 m) to the first level of the Lower Works
- Largest Shovel In The World & Largest Ever Built By Marion--
- Started Service: 1965
- Dismantled: 1992
- Power 15,000 bhp (15,208 PS; 11,185 kW)
- Build time (site erection) 18 months & 150,000 man hours
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d e f "The Captain's Dying Hours". Coal Age.
- ^ "Bucyrus page on Marion". Archived from the original on 2008-05-31. Retrieved 2008-09-30.
External links
edit- Picture of the shovel at the Wayback Machine (archived 2018-03-17)
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