Trawling the Heritage weekend site for places to visit this weekend, I was surprised to find something monumental in the industrial archaeology stakes that I wasn’t aware of not too far from us. It is a preserved giant Steam Shovel, or more accurately a walking dragline excavator.
Bucyrus Erie B-E 1150-B was never steam powered, it used electricity and rather a lot of it. The mains cable was three phase 6,600 Volts and David was amazed how heavy a short section of it was.
This enormous beast is American in origin, something which speeded up its demise as it couldn’t readily run on UK power without further conversion. It was constructed in Milwaukee in late 1948 and used for four years in West Virginia before being shipped to Britain with two others. It was used in the Leeds Swillington area at St. Aidan’s open cast coal site (by “sunshine miners”) from the early seventies until 1988 when it was prematurely retired due to the site being flooded out. A local preservation Society was formed to save it and it needed to be (partially) restored in 1999 in order to move it to its current resting home some fifty yards from where it was abandoned.
It is called a dragline because of what it does- a huge bucket is dragged along the ground until it is full of spoil, then raised and tipped nearby (or into lorries). It is a walking dragline because it can slowly walk itself in any direction using two enormous footpads on eccentric cams. (In practice it is revolved so that the jib faces away from the direction of travel and then it walks backwards at 0.2 miles per hour.
The Leeds one has been silent for a decade now and is unlikely to ever move again. It also looks rather ungainly as the jib has been lowered to near horizontal position in order to release the tension on the various jib supporting ropes. As you approach the site, you can’t miss it and the machinery room is enormous. Inside strings of lights fed from a generator illuminate the substantial internal space which is filled with various motors, winches and electrical sets. Substantial fans around the walls suggest this was a very hot room to work in and videos of the final move also suggest it was very noisy as well!
Up a steep iron gantry ladder you find yourself in the driving Cab. Here, from a comfy seat, and with wide visibility, the skilled operator worked the machine in a similar manner to JCB operators everywhere, using two large hand controllers. When visiting, it is also possible to walk along the narrow jib walkway, a journey that would have been much more difficult when the walkway was inclined 30-40 degrees upwards. (It may well have been stepped or even been a cat ladder and has now been replaced with catwalk flooring and a staircase at the far end).
More pictures tomorrow. It is open on Sunday 13th as well, details here. Future open dates are on their website.
