Does anyone know of any northern quarries where they still use wire rope face shovels or draglines?

I dont know of any; it is possible though

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Dunbar Cement quarry uses a dragline still I think.

The Ace of Spades which was the biggest dragline in Europe stood idle at Stobswood opencast for ages and has just been dismantled for shipping to the USA.

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Silverband still had an old Ruston navvy dragline up there last year, not sure if its still there now

come to think of it - i dont think ive ever seen one save ina museum

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The Ace of Spades up at Stobswood was an incredible sight.
Stood on the jib walkway once, it was like climbing up a tower block and being stood under it made you feel very very small, if you turned the bucket upside down you could get quite a lot of people living in it 😉

This is the last navvy I worked on at ICI's Tunstead Quarry at Buxton Derbyshire. Rushton-Bucyrus RB-150, we had 4 150's at Tunstead, 2 RB-110's at Hindlow Quarry and again 2 RB-110's at Horton in Ribblesdale. They were supplied at 3.3KV from the quarry header mains.

[img]http://www.aditnow.co.uk/showimage?f=/community/Personal-Album-992-Image-001/[/img]

I had a lucky escape while working on this machine when part of the face collapsed, I was found hidding under it 😮

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What's the biggest ever used in the UK then? Seems to be scant literature on them. Seen some pictures of draglines on the Ironstone mines (as I am interested in the railways there) in Northants. I know there were soome huge machines in some of the coal quarries.

😉

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What's the biggest ever used in the UK then? Seems to be scant literature on them. Seen some pictures of draglines on the Ironstone mines (as I am interested in the railways there) in Northants. I know there were soome huge machines in some of the coal quarries.

😉

Try looking in "Classic Plant & Machinery" it's a monthly magazine - carries adverts for DVds and books on excavators etc. also www.oldpond.com  and www.nynehead-books.co.uk 

Cheers

Graham

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The RB-150's were either face shovels or draglines. The diference being the angle and length of the boom. In a shovel the "Crowd" motor drove the "Dipper Arm" up and down, where as on a dragline it would haul the "Drag Bucket" forward and backwards.

Both used the same method to propel them via the track drive. The "Crowd" dog clutch would dis-engage while the drive clutch engaged. Turning the beasts was a work of art. Two more clutches controled the tracks.

The driver had three contols, "Luff, Crowd and Slew". Luff and Crowd were controled via hand controlers, Slew was by foot control (Push bike pedals). I've seen the slew control fail, the shovel was going like a Dervish around in circles 😉

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What's the biggest ever used in the UK then? Seems to be scant literature on them. Seen some pictures of draglines on the Ironstone mines (as I am interested in the railways there) in Northants. I know there were soome huge machines in some of the coal quarries.

😉

The Ace of Spades
Stobswood opencast

Does anyone know where we could find either a 150RB faceshovel for sale or, better, a complete 3.3KV drive motor and generator assembly on its chassis ? we keep eating Cooper generator bearings because the alignment of the generators on the existing chassis is impossible to set up. Think the chassis is warped. For that matter, does anyone still keep 150RB parts ?

Havn't got one of those, but does anyone want an unused 1966ish JCB III windscreen? Just found one in my fathers loft - & SWMBO reckons I'm a horder! :angel:

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Does anyone know where we could find either a 150RB faceshovel for sale or, better, a complete 3.3KV drive motor and generator assembly on its chassis ? we keep eating Cooper generator bearings because the alignment of the generators on the existing chassis is impossible to set up. Think the chassis is warped. For that matter, does anyone still keep 150RB parts ?

It would be as easy to have a new chassis fabricated. There wasn't a great deal to them from what I recall. Mind you it's over twenty years since I last worked on a 150. OK the chassis is a bit on the hefty side but fairly straight forward. The new chassis would have to be stress relieved before being machined. (IE the whole fabrication heated to 850c then allowed to cool slowly).

Or get a company like Dowding & Mills to laser alighn the generators and motor. I've had to do this on a Wellman 170T crane. You set off from the LOW end and then shim/ ream each mounting bolt as you go along. You only have 12 to sort out. The Wellman had 16 due to the motor, gererator, CVE & CE being on the same bed.

Which bearing keeps going? By the fact you say it's a Cooper bearining it must be one of the centre gen (luff / crowd) pedestal bearings.

Contact me by PM

PS, what starter is fitted to the MG set? The old manual oil switch autotransformer starter is now illeagal. Fun to opperate though :guns: They were replaced by Star Delta ACB's in later navies.

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There is a complete 150RB shovel available if still interested.

I've seen rope draglines being used from time to time on civils sites, usually based on Ruston RB22 or RB30.

they are usually used for spreading and grading topsoil on batters, because of the reach they can achieve

you very occasionally see them being used for dyke dredging in the Fens, again because of their reach

dangerous bl**dy things, partly because they are all now totally worn out and partly because of the difficulty of finding anyone who can still drive one.


as for making a complete new chassis, I rather suspect ( from experience of large castings and forgings for the offshore industry ) that there is no longer anyone in the UK who could undertake such a task, with the possible exception of Vickers tank production facility - and I greatly doubt that they would wish to involve themselves in such an activity

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dont know if this is of any relevence,but Old Glory magazine had a small article in no.226 (December 2008) about the Threlkeld collection.Maybe if you look on the net for Threlkeld Quarry and Mining museum you might find something.I think it is a private collection of draglines etc,but they seem to have open days.Seems to have olts of draglines etc in working condition,some very old.Not a subject I know much about,but hope it helps.PS I have a J.M Henderson catalogue of Fixed and Radial Cableways that contains two photos of draglines they built,maybe worth contacting them to see if they have any old photos remaining.I have their number somewhere if you need it.

Spartylea,
In fact there are 2 R.B machines at Lafarge Quarry at Dunbar.
1/. A 360 Ton Ruston Bucyrus 195-B Electric Shovel of 8.Cubic Metres Capacity with a maximun cutting hight of 17.5m which was first used in 1980 to load overburden into the hopper cart of the Bridge Conveyor (a 1,034t conveyor built in 1981 - 1982 with crawlers at each end which can transport 1,500 t.p.h.) which transfer it over the Quarry Cut.

2/. A 480 Ton Ruston Bucyrus 380-W walking Dragline, has a 9.5 Cubic Metre Bucket on a 51.8M boom to give a 42M Radius also made in 1980 used to transport overburden.
Both machines are currently out of use as the new Quarry extention is being opened up and are requiring expensive upgrades but should be up and running in 2 years time.

I've found in Peak District Mines Historical Society's Bulletin - Mining History Vol.14, No.4, Winter 2000 (pp 49-55) an excellent article written by Ivor J. Brown, entitled "The Last of the Walking Draglines, The Largest Mobile Land Machines in the UK". The author describes the history of the large walking landlines, their range of uses and their demise, also the effort to preserve one of them which was the one (a B-E 1150B nicknamed "Oddball") that operated at the St. Aidans Opencast Site, Leeds, and was owned by RJB Mining. The article is amply illustrated with diagrams and photographs, and lists many sites where walking draglines were used.

Obviously this article is now outdated, and being completely ignorant of the machines I can offer no further help, but I thought some of you might be interested in reading it.