The 1,200 ton
Bucyrus-Erie 1150-B
dragline known as
"Oddball" was built in 1948, to be used in the
coal mine stripping operations in
West Virgina U.S.A. It was transported in the mid 50's to the
UK and used in the coal industry in
South Wales. It is an amazing piece of machinery -- it took an entire
fleet of trucks to move Oddball to
Commock, Stafforshire to resume it's work as a dragline in the
mining industry there. Its final operation was for Miller Mining in
Yorshire. While Oddball may be referred to as a walking dragline its top speed was
.04 kph, not typical for a
walking dragline. To put this puppy in perspective -- Oddball is the size of
60 double deck busses.
While the "
Big Muskie" is the largest dragline built to date (weight 27 million lbs), Oddball is the only dragline of it's class to have been perserved. At its final resting place (open to the public) at an
opencast mine site just outside
Leeds, Yorkshire, Oddball quietly lowered it’s boom unaided.
To view Oddball see:
http://stripmine.org/oddball.htm