Very Cool ! i really enjoyed operating this machine and actually a pleasure for its time was very easy to operate and awesome power i wish they made them today it could give some modern machines a good run for its money to be sure .
All I could think of during your tour was grinding the rust off and repainting. I helped a mechanic one summer rebuild an 80-D Northwest shovel. Love those beasts.
Thanks for this brilliant video. Here in the UK Bucyrus Erie machines are thin on the ground, The much more common Ruston Bucyrus version are plentiful in comparison. Bucyrus equipment is built tough, as you know, and the fact that much of it is still operational says it all. Manufacturing over here ceased over 20 years ago, but you can still get spare parts. Thank you for taking the time and effort to make these videos they are much appreciated.
I recently just started working as a mechanic for the company that owns this machine, I work at the quarry in Daleville and they have one of these old Bucyrus Erie shovels all dismantled behind the shop, pretty cool stuff. Love your video's by the way man, great info on everything, keep it up!
I was hoping he would run the machine. When I was a kid I watched SJ Groves & Sons build route 280 in W. Orange, NJ in the early 1960's, and they had one of these loading blasted rock into huge quarry dump trucks. When the 88B bucket opened to drop the rocks in the dump, the noise was louder than the blasting. There's a picture of the construction site in what was then called the Newark Evening News showing this shovel loader. I wish I could find it.
I have run Two 88-B’s, Both in Dragline configuration. One was an older series with the operator cab open to the engine & friction noise in a rock quarry in Miami... The other was the newer Raised Cab model, it was at a Coal strip mine in Montgomery Indiana, That’s Just north of Evansville IN. So Often the factory salesmen would come by in a few Cadillacs showing perspective buyers the machine while running, they Always seemed to Watch for to Long of A period..!! 😱 Once They Left , my boss would come bye and tell me what a Good Operator they thought I was, I would answer him, “Boy we Sure pulled the wool over Their Eyes then”. . . What fun that was, it was back in 1975 and the Dragline was brand New... 🙄😎👍✅
We use nto have a smaller shovel than that I do know it was a B_E we use to load under it. Had one of the only operators around that could still run cable mchines. also had a drag line in the pit & a clamshell all B-E this was in the late 80's early 90's we were still running them
Ah ha ha ha ha ha I know eactly what you mean about the grease and diesel smell. Brings back memories. I did not run an Erie, I oiled on a 90 D Northwest! Smells were the same. I used to go to the beach on weekends and get bags of sand for underneath the bogies. Really dried out that grease. :-)
Justin, I have enjoyed your videos for years but this is the first time I have been motivated to sign up for a Utube account and thank you for this great video. I had an opportunity to operate an 88-B series III years ago and it was a blast! A couple of things I noticed-first, as darkstar cren commented, the 88-B had the three main control levers he describes and we can see the middle lever, to operate the crowd/retract, has been removed. I'm guessing Morrisey decided to get fancy and combine this function in one of the two remaining levers. Do you know what the story is on this? Second, when you were showing the 6 cu. yd. dipper, I noticed there is no bail on this dipper. The bail was standard on series III's, but was not on the series IV. I'm guessing Morrisey removed the bail to accommodate the larger size and capacity of the 6 cu. yd. dipper. Any thoughts? Also, do you know the whereabouts of any Northwest 180-D shovels still working? If so, a walk-around video and a working video would be nice to see. Thanks for all your great work.
Thank you; I'm glad you joined! Most likely the bail was removed to accommodate for the larger bucket, but don't take my word on this. There are a couple 180/190D's still in operation that I can think of. I have one planned for filming. Video will be coming up in the future
Now THIS is what I have been waiting for! That was one hell of a shovel back in the day and it still is! Great video! The video really doesnt do the machine any good as far as its sheer size and massive bucket capacity!
Very good machine. I operated both the model you see here and the step-up version series 4. If I only had a dollar for every ton of shot rock I loaded with an 88-B we could both buy an Island!!! There were three levers for the operator. Left to right, swing, crowd/re-haul, and hoist. Just saying...
Hi, And thank you so much for taking and uploading this video of what I consider to be a classic, kind of like the firstJaguar E Type. I mean there wasn’t that many about, ay least not in my personal memory files between my ears. Wonderful digger, just a shame we can’t see it operating. Things were certainly made to last then weren’t they?
Someone tried to give my grandfather 2 bucyrus-erie cranes (40b's I think, I think the qvea has one they had a video talking about the difficulties of getting it were it is now) for free about 15 or 20 years ago but he didnt think he could get them back out of his backyard so he didnt take them. They both worked too.
I operated three of these one series 3 and 2 series 4's, the 4's had the step up cabs, the 3 and one of the 4's had V-12 cummins engines, the other four had a striaght 6 cummins engine. That V-12 was a monster!
Do you by chance know what the color scheme was for each series? I remember the one my dad operated was a purple & tan 2 tone. Awesome vid!!!! Dad had to climb the boom to greases the upper sheaves. he had 88 grease fittings to hit every week.
They were all purple and yellow, you said tan. I operated both the series 3 & 4. The 4 had a step-up cab, that got the operator away from a lot of the noise and heat of the machine. It was possible to put AC in the step-up cab. I don't know how many fittings they had but it was a LOT. Damn good shovel though, wasn't a North West that could touch it!!!
That VT1710 had to be seriously derated to only put out that amount of power. Seems like a big cam 400 would have been better choice, unless I'm missing something. ???
These are some interesting and well-researched videos. Forgive my ignorance, but when you say "electric power", does that mean that those machines are powered by a cable from an external source? Thanks!
That oldie is in an excellent shape! You did always a good job! How did you know anything about the old machines? Study the driver manuals? Think you're a walking library ;-)
