These are notes that I am writing to help me learn our industrial history. They are my best understanding, but that does not mean they are a correct understanding.
Friday, October 23, 2020
The Big John dragline (BE 1570W) is being moved from West Virginia to Morocco, Africa.
"Big John," the dragline, shoveling coal at the Samples mountaintop removal mine on Cabin Creek
[I'm glad there were some trucks in the photo to help provide scale. (Update: note the comment near the bottom of these notes that says this dragline was at Hobert instead of Samples.)]
The Samples mine covers eleven miles of the Cabin Creek Plateau. Writing in The Virginias, a 19th century industrial magazine, D.T. Ansted praised the Cabin Creek Plateau for the lushness of its natural resources, capable of sustaining populations of workers from Liverpool. In an unpublished report, the Office of Surface Mining and the Corps of Engineers found that mountaintop removal mining is likely to increase peak runoff during heavy rains. In mid-July of 2001 five inches of rain fell within several hours, flooding the adjacent hollows and valleys of Clear Fork and Seng Creek, sending houses, trailers, trees, and vehicles downstream.
WVmetronews, Jeff Jenkins Big John dragline has "walked" nearly 10 miles in its [32 year] career at the Hobet mining site. [It moves the tops of mountains into adjacent valleys to uncover coal seams. The bucket holds over 80 heaping cubic yards.]
I included this satellite image since eventually this should become greener and be harder to find.
To ship the dragline to Africa, WarFab is cutting it up and loading the pieces onto trucks. The pieces will be put on a ship in Baltimore that takes them to Casablanca.
Three "before" photos that were provided by William Oldani as comments on a post.
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Sep 23: William Oldani posted seven photos and a video with the comment:
Removing the Gantry (A-Legs) from the swing deck of Big John (Hobet 1570) this procedure leaves Only the Swing Deck an Tub. Getting the Large Pins out was a Chore!
Photos courtesy Gene Miller
Videos courtesy Justin Miller.
The Only relationship between Gene and Justin is Working with the BIG Iron!
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Oct 2: William Oldani posted three photos with the comment: "Here’s a Good Component Break down slides for the Hoist drum from “Big John” BE 1570 Dragline. Roughly from 13 Ft to 9 Ft"
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Oct 3: William Oldani posted eight photos with the comment:
Some Warfab Drone shots of Hobet’s Big John dismantling. We’re coming down to the wire!
Very Organized Site. Very well managed.
Drone Shots Courtesy of Tim Oldani
William Oldani: Around June 12th, site crews ( Gene Miller Project Manager) came in and started to organize part location zones. Actual disassembly started in July!
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Oct 11: William Oldani posted six photos with the comment:
In a week and a half WarFab went from 75% of the swing deck remaining to completely Removed!
The Main Front Boom and Superstructure Beam was removed in on Section (Last 2 Slides) just over a 1/4 Million pounds! It’ll have to be cut in Half for transport.
Pictures Courtesy of Gene Miller
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2 Shannon Webb: Wow....the circle looks so different from this view. Spent quite a few hours down in there cleaning grease (especially between the swingers, I was one of the only guys that fit down the hole in floor) Bob Haare: Shannon Webb I know that feeling! I was a welder at AMAX' Sunspot Mine and became acquainted with many tight spots!
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5 [Triple 8s doing a tandem lift of a 225,000 lb section.]
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Oct 17: William Oldani posted four photos with the comment: "Last Pieces of Big Johns tub (The machines Base) are being separated and many components are moving out to Be transported to Baltimore for loading on a ship for a ride across the Pond! God Speed Big John! Well done WarFab!"
Joseph Cerveny: The machine is going to Morocco next year.
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William commented on his post The Rack was Shot! I don’t believe that machine could have run another full month! Jamie Kelly: WEO, that rack is 32 years old. It got over twice the normal life of a rack circle.
Oct 21: William Oldani posted eight photos with the comment: "Very Last Pieces of Big John separated and set up for shipping ! There’s still a lot of pieces on site being prepped for movement!"
Franki Shaffer: What was the boom length of Big John?
William Oldani: Franki Shaffer 325’, 66’ Tub, 74 yard Bucket.
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4 Nick Anderson: I always wondered what these disassembly field cuts looked like. These are excellent! How wide were the cuts? Wlliam Oldani: It appeared the thicker plate was cut wider 1/2”+, while the thinner plate was 1/4”+. Nick Koba Jr.: was it machine cut or cut by men by hand?
William Oldani replied to Nick's comment This is very typical of the Track torching that was used!
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William Oldani commented on a post [This is what the base looked like when it was new.]
William Oldani commented on his post Here’s Big John in his new Colors
This photo is one of three photos that was mislabeled Big John. The photo is of a shovel instead of a dragline. But I include it because it helps me understand that they did remove the tops of several mountains.
AFC 1999/008: CRF-LE-B021-03 "Big John," the dragline, loading rocks and dirt into two rock trucks at the Samples mountaintop removal site
I don't think they ran out of coal. In 1999, the US Army Corps of Engineers got caught cheating and eventually quit granting mining permits because of environmental impact issues. [youtube comments] It appears that through the magic of bankruptcies, the coal corporations are dodging pensions, health plans and site cleanup. "Today, Hobet is owned by a conservation group and no longer producing coal. The mine is a scene of rubble and retaining ponds where sycamore, pine and cedar forests once stood. Toxic runoff must be steered clear of tributaries that feed the Ohio River. A decades-long cleanup awaits....For Andrew Adkins it's a matter of leukemia medicine costing $1,200 a month. He could die without his pills, yet the health care plan for Adkins and about 800 other retired Hobet miners and their families expires at year's end. Miners who went on strike in the 1990s to protect their health plan said they never expected this....For mining families in West Virginia and beyond, a blur of Wall Street deals altered the industry's decades-old pledge to mining communities." They were supposed to restore the land to its "approximate original contour." This mine was started in 1974 using the "shoot [explosions] and shove" technique. The dragline was introduced in 1984. The last coal shipments were in 2016. The dragline had been helping with mine reclamation. [stltoday]
Looking at a satellite image, they did put some "bumps" back on the land, but they are not near as high as the removed mountain tops. But I'm guessing the bumps are good enough. Of more concern are the toxic wastes. "The weathered piles of spoil and valley fills are leaching selenium, a healthful nutrient in trace amounts but a toxin in larger doses. A 2008 study, presented in federal court, found deformed fish and warned of catastrophe, requiring a cleanup." And the slurry impoundment that marks where the dragline first started working was promised to be a wildlife habitat. [stltoday]
It appears that stltoday copied&pasted the text from reuters. But they didn't copy all of the graphics. The link is worth accessing because it has an animated set of maps showing the advancement of the "land scar" across the countryside between 1984 and 2015.
(new window) The comments have a significant amount of information. Unfortunately, many of the links are now broke.
William Oldani posted thirteen photos with the comment: "Here's an Update on Hobet's 1570-W Move to Morocco! It's been nearly 2 Years, and the Machine is 80% Complete. Mostly House Panels left to assemble."
Big John was not located on the Samples mine. It was on the Hobet mine site near Danville / Madison WV.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to change quoted text. But I did copy your information next to the quoted text.
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