Big Muskie was a coal mining Bucyrus-Erie dragline owned by the Central Ohio Coal Company (a division of American Electric Power), weighing nearly 13,000 metric tons (13,000 LT; 14,000 ST) and standing nearly 22 stories tall. It operated in the U.S. state of Ohio from 1969 to 1991. Big Muskie was the world's largest dragline and one of the world's largest mobile earth-moving machine after the Marion Power Shovel built 6360 stripping shovel called The Captain at the Captain mine in Illinois and the German bucket wheel excavators of the Bagger 288 and Bagger 293 family.[1]
Big Muskie cost $25 million in 1969, which is $145 million today adjusted for inflation.[2] Big Muskie removed over 608,000,000 cubic yards (465,000,000 m3) of overburden, which is twice as much earth as was moved during the construction of the Panama Canal, uncovering over 20,000,000 tonnes (2.0×1010 kg) of coal. It was 151.5 feet (46.2 m) wide, 222.5 feet (67.8 m) in height, and 487.5 feet (148.6 m) in length with the boom down. Its bucket could carry two Greyhound buses side by side. It took over 200,000 man hours to construct over a period of about two years.
Big Muskie was powered by electricity supplied at 13,800 volts via a trailing cable, which had its own transporter/coiling units to move it. The electricity powered the main drives, eighteen 1,000 horsepower (750 kW) and ten 625 horsepower (466 kW) DC electric motors. (A Diesel engine and hydraulic drive system is more common today.) Some systems in Big Muskie were electro-hydraulic, but the main drives were all electric.[3] Big Muskie used the equivalent of the power for 27,500 homes. The machine had a crew of 5, and worked around the clock.
Big Muskie was dismantled in 1999, despite calls that it be preserved as a museum. Its bucket was relocated to a newly-constructed Miners Memorial Park in Morgan County at 39°41′57″N 81°43′52″W / 39.69917°N 81.73111°W.
10,000 acres (40 km2) of the land stripped by Big Muskie were reclaimed and turned into a wildlife park called The Wilds, which opened in 1994. It is home to numerous species of African, Asian, and North American fauna.
References
- ^ For details see the table on the German Wiki.
- ^ "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2008". Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. http://www.minneapolisfed.org/community_education/teacher/calc/hist1800.cfm. Retrieved 2009-08-01.
- ^ Extreme Mining Machines, by Keith Haddock, pub by MBI, ISBN 0-7603-0918-3
See also
- Dragline
- The Silver Spade - another large coal mining machine from Ohio
- MAN Takraf RB293
External links
- Tribute page, with pictures
- Miners' Memorial Park -- Noble County tourism website
- Attraction listing at Roadsideamerica.com
- The Wilds –- wildlife park constructed on land mined by Big Muskie
Coordinates: 39°41′57″N 81°43′52″W / 39.69917°N 81.73111°W
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