Marion 6360
Encyclopedia
Marion 6360, also known as The Captain, was a giant power shovel built by the Marion Power Shovel
company. Completed in 1965, it was the heaviest land vehicle ever built. 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 where everything was painted red, white, and blue. The shovel worked well for Arch Coal
until September 9, 1991, when a fire broke out in the lower works of the shovel. It was caused by a burst hydraulic line that was spraying the hot fluids on an electrical relay panel. This fire caused a great deal of damage to both the lower works and machine house. Afterwards, engineers from both Arch and Marion Power Shovel surveyed the damage and deemed it too great to repair, and the machine was scrapped in the last pit it dug one year later. The only 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
. It was named the "Big Digger" and carried a 125 cubic yards (95.6 m³) bucket on a 215 feet (65.5 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
.
Marion Power Shovel
Marion Power Shovel Company designed, manufactured and sold steam shovels, excavators and dragline excavators for use in the construction and mining industries....
company. Completed in 1965, it was the heaviest land vehicle ever built. The shovel originally started work with Southwestern Illinois Coal Corporation, but the owners were soon bought out by Arch Coal
Arch Coal
Arch Coal is an American coal mining and processing company. The company mines, processes, and markets bituminous and sub-bituminous coal with low sulfur content in the United States. Arch Coal is the second largest supplier of coal in the U.S. behind Peabody Energy. The company supplies 16% of...
. Everything remained the same at the mine except for the colors where everything was painted red, white, and blue. The shovel worked well for Arch Coal
Arch Coal
Arch Coal is an American coal mining and processing company. The company mines, processes, and markets bituminous and sub-bituminous coal with low sulfur content in the United States. Arch Coal is the second largest supplier of coal in the U.S. behind Peabody Energy. The company supplies 16% of...
until September 9, 1991, when a fire broke out in the lower works of the shovel. It was caused by a burst hydraulic line that was spraying the hot fluids on an electrical relay panel. This fire caused a great deal of damage to both the lower works and machine house. Afterwards, engineers from both Arch and Marion Power Shovel surveyed the damage and deemed it too great to repair, and the machine was scrapped in the last pit it dug one year later. The only 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
Peabody Energy
Peabody Energy Corporation , previously Peabody Coal Company, is the largest private-sector coal company in the world. The company is headquartered in Downtown St. Louis, Missouri....
) River Queen Surface Mine in Central City
Central City, Kentucky
Central City is a city in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 5,893 at the 2000 census. It is also the largest city in the county and the principal community in the Central City Micropolitan Statistical Area which includes all of Muhlenberg County and the communities...
. It was named the "Big Digger" and carried a 125 cubic yards (95.6 m³) bucket on a 215 feet (65.5 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
Muhlenberg County, Kentucky
Muhlenberg County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 31,499. The county is named for Peter Muhlenberg. Its county seat is Greenville....
.
Facts and figures
- Boom Length: 215 feet (65.5 m)
- Bucket Capacity: 180 cubic yards (137.6 m³) (double doors)
- Dipper Stick Length: 133 feet (40.5 m)
- Overall Weight: 15,000 tons
- Total Height: 210 feet (64 m)
- Crawler Height: 16 feet (4.9 m)
- Crawler Unit Length: 45 feet (13.7 m)
- Individual Crawler Width: 10 feet (3 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
- Scrapped: 1992
- Power 15,000 hp
- build time (site erection) 18 months & 150,000 man hours
See also
- MAN Takraf RB293MAN Takraf RB293Bagger 293, previously known as the MAN TAKRAF RB293, is a giant bucket-wheel excavator made by the German industrial company TAKRAF, formerly an East German Kombinat. It owns or shares some records for terrestrial vehicle size in the Guinness Book of Records...
- Big MuskieBig MuskieBig Muskie was a coal mining Bucyrus-Erie dragline owned by the Central Ohio Coal Company , weighing nearly and standing nearly 22 stories tall. It operated in the U.S. state of Ohio from 1969 to 1991...
- The Silver SpadeThe Silver Spade350px|thumb|Bucket and cab of The Silver Spade at Harrison Coal and Reclamation Park on [[Ohio State Route 519|Stumptown Road]]The Silver Spade was a giant excavator used for strip mining in southeastern Ohio. Manufactured by Bucyrus-Erie, South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the model 1950-B was one of two...
- Big Digger
- Big BrutusBig BrutusBig Brutus is the nickname of the Bucyrus-Erie model 1850B electric shovel, which was the second largest of its type in operation in the 1960s and 1970s. It is currently the centerpiece of a mining museum in West Mineral, Kansas.-Description:...
- Bucyrus-Erie
- Bucket-wheel excavatorBucket-wheel excavatorBucket-wheel excavators are heavy equipment used in surface mining and mechanical engineering/civil engineering. The primary function of BWEs is to act as a continuous digging machine in large-scale open pit mining operations...
: the only type of mining vehicle bigger than power shovels - Dragline
- ExcavatorExcavatorExcavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, stick, bucket and cab on a rotating platform . The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. A cable-operated excavator uses winches and steel ropes to accomplish the movements. They are a natural progression from the...
- Power Shovel
