Absolutely awesome video of such a beautiful shovel! It looks like a ton of fun to operate, but i couldn't imagine pulling those massive levers for twelve hours a day lol. Great stuff!
Mike- Thank you for your comments. I have been thinking right along with you--it took real men to operate one of these for 10-12 hours a day. Thanks to those guys, they built this country!
Nice! My Dad was the NW dealer in the late 70's to mid eighties. By that time the only ones sold in Socal were draglines to the irrigation districts. We did sell one HW hydraulic excavator, though. It had air operated pilot controls which were kinda cool. Gotta love the Murphy motors! Hook rollers for ever!
Anders Eriksson Thank you for your kind words. I have seen your HCEA posts on Facebook and enjoy them very much. I believe you are the Ackerman excavator expert, is that correct?
Northwest Shovel Thank you! I wouldn´t consider myself an expert, but I have uploaded a few pictures of Åkerman. Have you shown pictures of your 80-D on Facebook?
Anders Eriksson No, I have not put any pictures of my 80-D on Facebook yet. I am new to Facebook and my computer skills are limited but perhaps I will post some pictures when I get more familiar with how Facebook works.
Anders Eriksson Thank you again, Anders, for your comments. They are much appreciated. I may do another video someday when my son is home from college, I need hime to operate the camera. Also, I keep enjoying your Ackerman and Ruston-Bucyrus photos of Facebook, thank you!
I worked for a gravel company back in the early 70's and we had 3 80d's. One had the shovel front like yours , one was a deadline. The third had a how front. Also had a model 6D with a how front. Never got to learn how to operate them but went on to run hydrolic excavators.
Love it ,had a 1954 one size down ,just a boom on it ,those machines are very strong when you swing and hoist at the same time .I pulled some big quarry blocks out of the ground with that machine
Thanks for demonstrating your Northwest 80-D Shovel. That's a fine machine, and I'm sure you are happy to own such a legendary machine. It runs great, and hearing a Murphy MP-21 is always music to my ears!! I note that the dipper has been changed from the standard Northwest dipper to an ESCO. All she needs is the Pekin orange paint!! Fortunately there are folks like you who keep these reat old machines alive and kickin"!!
Mario-Thank you for your kind words. I found out that my shovel was shipped from the factory with the ESCO dipper as original equipment. I have been emailing back and forth with Matt Folsom and I have enjoyed your first two books very much, thank you for your efforts, your hard work is greatly appreciated. Matt and I have been talking about including my shovel in the coffee table book to follow your photo archives. It sounds like you and I grew up with similar backgrounds, except that I grew up with all the Northwests in southwestern Connecticut while you were in New York. I did manage to get to New York often enough to catch some of the famous New York contractors running their Northwests. Those were the best days.
Actually, I find it fairly easy to operate once you get used to it & since I don't run it every day, the throw on the levers doesn't seem to be a big deal. I might feel differently if I was running it 10 hours a day, 6 days a week! But in any case, the old long-throw levers are lots more fun than modern joysticks.
Snertli-I'm not wild about the sound of the dirt bikes either but I have to put up with them because the owner of the quarry built a practice track for his son-in-law and his buddies & unfortunately they can be heard from my shovel. I much prefer the sound of the Murphy Diesel in the Northwest machine.
My dad owned 2 of these, he inherited it form his dad, it must have been from the 50s? Last time I saw it run was early 70s, the operators nick name was crawdad. The story of this machine may have saved my dad’s life, he joined the Army during the Korean war as a private in the infantry. His ability to operate this machine for the Army kept him off the front lines, as they needed a person at the time to run this machine so the story goes.
Fantastic machine! It almost seems like a medieval machine powered by a jet engine (turbo whine)! But indeed these were beautifully engineered machines built with lots of metal to last a long time! Those engineers used clever designs like the double crowd pull and simple but effective travel/steering; when in doubt, use more metal! I would remove that thing showing out from the rear "hatch" or maybe put a screen there! That machine is 2 years younger than me! I used to watch the cable backhoes all the time in the sixties and even into the 70's as then the hydraulics were just getting started over here. There was a derelict 80D in a quarry very close to where I live now but it disappeared about 30 years ago. It is great to see someone who appreciates these machines able to fully enjoy one!! I have to settle for a Tonka!
+rallyx900 Thank you. The material is actually some sort of sandstone that does break up when dug at a certain angle. Fortunately it does not require blasting.
Cool. I ran a 80D and a 180D years ago in a copper mine in British Columbia. The 80D had mechanical controls and 180D where air controls. I can remember that you had to have the adjustments on the friction clutches set just right on the 80D because if you didn't you were in for a long hard shift.
Thank you, 2222swish! What's really cool is that you ran a 180-D, that automatically makes you my hero. My mission in life is to aquire a 180-D some day and really move some dirt!
You are correct, the Northwest shovel in the movie "Killdozer" was an 80-D but was an older version, most likely late 1940's to early 1950's, with the double dippersticks & older style gantry.
Thank you, Mrdancefloordj. You mentioned Zagray, are you from Connecticut? I was born & raised in Connecticut but moved to California 37 years ago and the shovel in the video is located in southern California. That Murphy MP-21 is quite an engine, I think it will outlive me! When I was a kid in Connecticut, I grew up around many contractors in southwestern Connecticut who had Northwest 80-D shovels so I got used to the sound of the MP-21 lugging away as they loaded shot rock into Euclids. Those were the days...
Interesting to see how the bucket/boom retracts/extends in and out. Obviously slow compared to the modern hydraulic, computerized giants, but that thing can carve out its fair share of hard dirt.
Yes I operated all of them from the Model 4 to the 95, until Keystone was sold to Beaver Construction Group out of Montreal, the moved in with a whole fleet of hydraulic shovels 466 to the 1266 Koehring.
+2020jd If things work out, I may be able to get some new video this summer when my son gets home from college. I need his expertise in being the cameraman and loading the video onto RU-vid.
+2020jd Interesting, I have two very close friends who live north of Atlanta. I know that Gerhart Machinery in Lititz, PA has at least a couple of 80-D shovels for sale but it would depend how much you want to spend and I would imagine it would cost a fortune to ship to the Atlanta area. I know there were quite a few 80-D's in Georgia back in the '60's & '70's but would have no idea if any are still in that area.
There are still some older friction cranes and shovels around to on the Island. Not many guys know how to run clams shells or friction rigs...I am a crane operator and have run older Linkbelts like 238a up to the newest Leibherr hydraulic cranes with computers etc...whole different universe now...new excavators so easy to run anyone can do it...I miss old friction rigs..kept you awake especially when erecting steel with long boom in wind..lol.
Northwest cranes have right hand swings which means you pull the levers with your left hand these are not doorhandles by the way these levers actuate clutches as the clutches catch then turn the drum this needs to be controlled It’s a skill. Also both feet Will be stepping on brakes to slow the drums down these machines have no air-conditioning no heat other than the engine the noise level is deafening without hearing protection and every time it bounces up and down do you think it’s gonna fall over the operator in this video is dressed exactly as the operator should be dressed coveralls everything around that machine wants to make you dirty or cut you and it’s exactly what I wish I was doing right now
Wow, still had cables! How are the sprockets, swing gear, etc? Where do you get parts? I'm an expert on these things because I sit in my armchair and watch lots of youtube videos about this sort of equipment. Seems to me that machine is just as productive as the new fancy shmancy machines with all those blasted electronic parts that you can't fix yourself. Hella good operator, but somebody should tell him to wait for the dump truck to arrive before he starts loading it. Nice to see old machines that can kick the modern stuffs azz. Thanks for sharing. (Next time, maybe some footage of the running gear?)
The gears, shafts, clutches, brakes, etc. are all in good shape actually. Even though this machine is 57 years old I get the impression that it did not lead a very hard life before I got ahold of it 16 years ago. On the few occaisions where I do need parts, I have gotten most of them from Gerhart Machinery in Lititz, PA. but their prices have gotten so outrageous that in the future I will be looking elsewhere. Because this model was built in such large numbers by Northwest (approximately 2600), parts are generally not too challenging to come by.
Absolutely would not be as productive as a modern hydraulic face shovel of equivalent size . You’re dreaming if you think that . Having said that , I could watch this old rope shovel all day !
Northwestt were tough shovels and the operator had to be even tougher had to keep everything adjusted good or you needed arms five feet long to handle the throw on the levers
Really? You can't be serious. Professor of what? Delusional comments? The filming was done by a Magna Cum Laude Ivy League graduate who is now a highly successful professional. I seriously doubt the same can be said of you.
I ran 1 of these loading logs on the west coast of Vancouver island awesome power never stall out like new machines about 1970 i think was its last job travel was gone so went to bone yard ?
Really nice machine.Restore that one...HCEA in Ohio has club and museum which restores classic equipment . I thought Murphy was made by MWM in Germany? PS I was a dirt bike kid back in the eighties on Long Island NY...we practiced in a sand mine..At least these kids riding learn how to fix and respect machinery etc and not doing negative things.
+motorhead Thank you for the comments, motorhead. I have only done a partial restoration on the machine and fortunately, it was in pretty good mechanical condition when I acquired it 14 years ago. Also, I am an HCEA member. I'm not certain, but I think the original Murphy Engine company and MWM in Germany are completely separate entities. So, you are from Long Island? We might be old neighbors, I grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut, probably right across Long Island sound from you!
much better sound than the bikes i d say. :) a question if i may, when did these diggers go frome beeing steamies to deaseals ? thanks in advance .glad you saved her from the heap.:)
+allan egleston Allan, yes it certainly sounds better than those whiney bikes! To answer your question, the conversion from steam power to gas, diesel, and electric powered excavators took place during the late 1910's to the early 1920's. Thanks for watching.
The Murphy diesel is a model MP-21, net horsepower is listed as 208 & it weighs approximately 6,700 lbs. with radiator included. Operating weight of the total machine is 155,000 lbs.
These are manual controls as you can see by the long levers. All Northwest machines have a feather touch feature, whether they are manual or air controlled machines.
Orange & black were the standard factory colors on Northwest machines of this vintage. The black roof was never a problem. I have run the machine on 100 degree days & there were no heat issues.
The reality is that no hydraulic shovel can give a cable shovel a run for its money. I have experience running both hydraulic & cable shovels & if the machines are of comparable size, the cable shovel will outperform the hydraulic shovel. Cable shovels have advantages in breakout force due to the geometry of the front end & they also have a far superior digging range.
Looks like you really enjoy the old girl .back when men were men and you know the rest I live in California and having fun is not allowed you would need a couple hundred thou in permits to even think about starting that beast and moving earth
