(Continued from 28 June.) Full details of the DVDs are in the blog of 9 September
In Northumberland we were the guests of UK Coal at the Steadsburn site of the Maidens Hall open-cast coal mine. This (left) is one of a series of pits excavated above the seams of the original deep shaft mines. Water bubbled up from the flooded working beneath.
Here (right) an O&K RH170 face shovel was working. This is the only one, Steve said, in the country.
This (left) mighty face shovel loading a Cat 789 was Maiden Hall's O&K RH200. We were to see a newer version at another Northumbrian site.
The Cat 789 (right) was tipping to a Cat D10R.
There were a couple of O&K RH120-C excavators loading Cat trucks with boulder clay.
I only regret I didn't get to see Chevington Collier at work, a Bucyrus-Erie 1260W walking dragline.
The 3,500 ton machine excavated 43 tons at a time with a 32 cu metre bucket suspended from a 54 metre high boom. When we were at the mine the dragline was waiting shipment to South Africa.
We were grateful to Trevor Meek for looking after us at the mine. In the photograph from the left are are Director Jonathan Theobald, cameraman Roger Wiltshire, Trevor Meek and tripod-carrier Steven Vale.
Continued on 20 July ...
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