The Silver Spade & A Herd Of Cats Ramping Down - Part 2 - August 20, 2001

Ramping Down, Part 2

We went back the next morning, and found the Spade pulling ruined mats out of the mudhole, while a herd of Cats worked on reclamation. The one working on the edge looks like a D11, the other high tracks are D10's. Looks like a D9 and a D10, maybe a 3rd dozer in the distance. Note the large Euclid scraper spread parked in the distance to the west. There are also glimpses of a cable reel truck, relocating the extension cord. Looks like they were just moving it over to the side of the road.

When we first started going to the Stumptown Steam Show, in the early 1980s, the Silver Spade was working directly behind (North of) the show site. Subsequently, it was parked for several several years, due to high coal inventory. When it was reactivated, it worked north of OH 519, eastward over to OH 9. It then returned and crossed OH 519 next to the Stumptown site, and moved 1 mile west. After working a higher seam on the south side of 519, it ramped down to a lower seam. I don't remember the seam numbers, perhaps some viewer does.

The rumor was that while ramping down, they broke into old mine tunnels, and the machine almost tipped over when the ground gave way. They had to fill in to stabilize the area before proceeding. This video shows part of the stabilization process. It appears that they had dug further ahead, and then backed the machine out to build a solid base. Must have been scary, as several machines ended their lives that way. During the process, they sometimes used the bucket to tamp material into the hole.

Ramping down is a scary process in any case. The downhill leveling rams are extended, and the uphill ones retracted, with little margin for error with this very tall narrow machine. There are crossed bubble levels on the operator's console, and probably several other locations.

We visited the Spade several times per year, from the time it was reactivated until it was retired.

The original video format is 720 x 480. The video will look best at that viewing size.

This video was shot with a Sony Handycam in Digital 8. This format used 2 hour Hi-8 analog videotapes, running at 2x speed, to produce high quality 1 hour digital video. It was a revolutionary format at the time, and was used extensively by news media for field news gathering, such as in Iraq. A bit of image quality is lost in the MS moviemaker editor, losing some of the striking immediacy of the format. Note that it is interlaced, and sized for broadcast televisions of the time.

This video is from a large box full of 75(!) of these 1 hour tapes, that WurliTzer153Duplex is gradually converting via FireWire. These were shot by both of us, with several cameras, and it's interesting to figure out who did what.

A large percentage of the 75 videotapes are labeled as Silver Spade...!

There is some cool stuff in there.

#635

Sony Handycam Digital 8

20010820f Spade Ramp Part 2

Видео The Silver Spade & A Herd Of Cats Ramping Down - Part 2 - August 20, 2001 канала SteamCrane