My grandfather on my dad's side was a shovel operator. Since my dad was born in 1928, this would have been a current generation machine in grandpa's time. I am very glad to see such an old machine kept operational. Too much old stuff is either static display or left to rust. Many thanks for keeping my childhood memories alive. God bless you all.
My GD used to use a horse and a scoop to excavate foundations in London (Ontario, Canada) when he built houses there. That would be back in the thirties. That man taught me most of what I needed to know in life!
This was a beautiful vidio of Restoring a steam shovel. I wish I could have been a part of this! Hat's off to all the men for bringing her back to full Restoration!
Hi guys I am COL Donnamarie Fuentes Dumont Lavallee and I am a retired army air corp special ops pilot and a blasting expert and very heavy equipment operator and lowbed transporter and I also owned some vintage machines a koring 304-1A a bucyrus erie 88B and a north Weston diesel electric shovel I so much 💕 love vintage machines and their is nothing anywhere else that has such outstanding and gorgeous history so sweet I would love to own a steam shovel as beautiful as yours I want to say thank you for all the hard work it took to make this outstanding video I hope you and your family are doing well and healthy and stay safe My ❤️ to all COL Donnamarie Fuentes Dumont Lavallee
The old boys that designed and made machines like this were a special breed. Well done for restoring it in their memory. How many of todays machines made today will work in 100 years .
Interesting and informative on several accounts. We have to be grateful to Erie and Bucyrus for their machines, without which the Panama Canal would have been long delayed.
In the late 1950's I saw a Bucyrus Erie steam shovel digging the La Ballona Creek out before the Army Corps of Engineers cemented the whole thing in to prevent erosion. there was also a steam pile driver to drive pilings in for the 405 freeway bridge footing.
Ive missed the show at Rollag maybe a total of 3-4 years since 1986. I have to say Ive enjoyed the Sandbox evolve over the years and it seems the Belleview crew has quite alot to do with it. As I have a job to do during the show I dont get to watch nearly as much as I want. Thanks for a great piece to see.
Great video, I'm a former crane operator and am amazed that you need to use a boom dolly for that 70 Ton Link-Belt crane in your state. I have driven a 130 Ton five axle Krupp all over southeastern Massachusetts with full time four axle steering. And 80 ton versions of the same make with optional rear steer capability. I am amazed that the 50-B had absolutely no steering at all. I would think that a fairly simple but expensive to build one of "lock- out" front hub system would do the trick. You have all the time in the world to plan the turn, just stop the machine and unlock the track you don't want drive ; and I would bet that thing could actually steer. Just my 2c.
Good thing no old timers where kilt off in this assembly. Good job boys. Getting boom pins in is always tricky, but ya got her. One time a company I worked for bought two Northwest 80's with Murphy diesels. One set up for dragline the other was a shovel. One of the scariest moments of my life was driving that shovel onto the trailer. Another was tracking to dragline up a slight grade to the quarry where we where going to use it as drop cross. While tracking up up hill the drive dogged out and back a rolling I go, all I could think about is the power lines at the bottom of hill, jump or stay. Well I stayed and she finally just stopped rolling. After that we tied off to D9 for insurance. We finally junked them old girls, but I got the big ole Northwest sign off dragline and it graces the over the door to my shed to this day. Thanks for saving this old machinery for people to under stand history of dirt moving.
Impressive piece of equipment and I admire the engineering that went into its design and manufacturing. Furthermore, i have nothing but respect for these peoples who preserve and protect this heritage. 2021/01/25. Ontario, Canada.
Assembled in much smaller parts on site with the idea being they basically worked till they fell apart then do the cut up for scrap or like so many simply abandoned Only a tiny percentage of them made it to the common day
There is a Clam shell bucket list a similar unit in Salt Lake City on Sawner road . It's being used for a ornament just north of California ave. Cool old stuff. I think it off a Dag line Dredge.
When I was young well what younger I was a mechanic for the largest high altitude logger in the state. Big old growth timber . 3 log loads were common. They had 2 30 b s . I worked the trucks but when hawkey's 30 b was down it was the number one priority. I remember the steel balls for the roundhouse bearing . It got a major overhaul except for the engine it had been rebuild over the winter a couple of years earlier. And the stick.
Hi Tony - I'll make a note to see if I can get in the cab this year when I'm filming! We've got some footage in one of our DVD playlists, however I can't recall the year right off-hand. - Tim
IIRC, Bucyrus-Erie built, or was planning to build, a plant in my home town of Richmond, Indiana, sometime in the '50s or '60s. If they ever built there, it didn't last. Nevertheless, the only pronunciation we heard at that time was Bucyrus, not Bycyrus. If the town of Bucyrus pronounces it Bycyrus, I'd like to know. It's possible, but I never heard it that way.
That's a wonderful looking machine, and a great video with sweet narration :) - it would have been best to do a full metallurgical inspection and assiciated repairs prior to assembly, as there's plenty of bodge welds next to critical components, but I appreciate the excitement and cost/labour involved. Keep safe and well, all the best from the Highlands of Scotland. :)
Agreed, but I expect this girl only gets run once in a while at the shows. PS. Thanks for the “Nectar of the Gods” you send over the pond! Anything with a “Glen” in it’s name is fine with this Canadian!
@@tomrogers9467 Your probably correct, as I thought it was a live public exhibition machine - really great to see our shared industrial past being kept alive. Aqua Vitae, is a fine stuff - My local malt distilery is Glen Morangie, with blending distilleries nearby being Glen Ord, Teanninich, Invergordon. BTW my grandfather was Canadian(war effort lumberjack from lake Banff area). I love Canada, as it's just like Scotland, but bigger - I lived in Toronto for 5wks as a youngster, and planned to emigrate there......Keep safe and well.
The old Kitty Cat had her toungue hanging out, trying to drag Mary Sue up the hill! A lot of booms are fractured due to boom base pin looseness. As soon as a little clearance develops, a banging starts in swinging and stopping. That's transferred to the bucket and massively intensified returning as TORQUE on a square section. this causes lateral ripping of the metal. Small ammounts of sideways push on the bucket equal HUGE lateral boom shear force! It usually appears diagonally. That's why "smooth operators" were preferred! the wider the base pin clearance, the exponentially faster it wears! Keep side stays tight. A lot of that welding probably could have been skipped if new base pins and bushings were installed. All that jerk from poor operation is transmitted directly to the turning gear, and that gets expensive! I have seen "smooth operators " who could run a shovel that loose and swing it without rocking the pin clearances! Companies only cared about tons/hr, so they encouraged operators to "bang her around if you have too but get the job done QUICK!" Private owner- operators had a huge investment in machinery, probably used at that, and it had to LAST! So their kids could inherit it and the small "buisness" that came with it! If someone jerked his old shovel around and didn't maintain it, he'd get fired and possibly socked in the mouth! Then the owner gets a job running a new shovel at a quarry close by and walks off the job after a week, and tells the boss "I can't treat any piece of equipment the way you want even if you pay me and its YOURS!" Men and women like that have been owners and stewards of this amazing machine for many years of her retirement now! She may have arthritis, but Mary still dresses up nice and likes to waltz!
And just what was it about that west coast of Lake Michigan that produced so many of our big iron names? Manitowoc, P &H, Kohler, Briggs and Stratton, etc! I’ve been there several times and it’s beautiful country.
OK, how does BU get pronounced BI? I never understood that. Beautiful machine. Glad to see one. Wonder how they assembled these behemoths in the old days?
Surprised they didn't block up the back end until the counter weight of the dipper was installed. All that weight was hanging off one side of the ring gear toward the back of the house.
Much of my pleasure in this video comes from its earnest, homespun quality. As much as I detest the addition of music to documentaries, the barn-dance band enhanced that quality. Even the lady's consistent mispronunciation of Bucyrus added a chuckle. I'll try to find the other videos Rollag may have added to its nostalgia collection.
I think it´s Swedish folkmusic. I rekognise some of the tunes from my childhood in sweden. Could be Gnesta Kalle or Ludgo Pelle . If i remember correct Minnesota is Swedish immigrant country.
First they put very irritating "music" over the natural soundtrack, then they wind us up even more by miss-pronouncing the name. In Welsh a U is pronounced "I" as in "TIP" but the woman doesn't sound very Welsh.
Seems to me, the chain should be in the teeth of the bucket and loop back to two points. Move the bucket around and you can do circles. Don't need a Cat that is to small.
What was that old guy doing on top of the boom, talk about breaking a hip…. He was already unsteady without trying to lift the telephone wire. When it came off the stick it looked like he was fighting a swarm of bees hahaha 😝.
The water truck is about a 1948 International, (what it looks like to me). Who is the owner'? The dirtiest, raggedyest guy there. I just learned that Buycyrus (town) was named after the company, it''s usually the other way around. One of the first things I followed on the Internet, early 1990s, was a guy looking for the oldest Bucyrus truck. Some guy answered him and said that sometime in the early1900s he had worked on a job in Northern Canada. The government gave the construction company permission to bury the 3 Bucyrus trucks they had. So they parked them by a cliff and dynamited the cliff to cover the truck These guys exchange contact information. I have often wondered if the trucks were recovered. But that hooked me on the internet.. There are videos of the Panama canal being built, showing these steam shovels at work.
I feel like I’m in someone’s basement watching his home movies. But that’s not a bad thing! Even better if it was in the basement of the Schoolhouse with ‘Ol Mike.
Hi Tom - A number of the 'from the archives' videos are exactly this! Folk who have taken video at our show and provided us to transfer to digital format to share on RU-vid.
Has it occurred to you that we are here to watch and listen to you as you work on this machine? Why then did you decide that we need to be entertained by your idea of music? I suppose it was better than the usual angry rock music, but there are plenty of music vieos available if that's what we want.
With much respect, several of these men should have retired from crane and rigging work, a couple, or more, years back. I am 70, and I can feel for the way some of them were having trouble climbing around on the thing. It ain't no fun anymore, and is dangerous, for all. Bless their hearts, though, and my hat is off to them.
Many of our members are close, or have retired from the career, but still continue to contribute their time and knowledge, also passing skills onto our younger members. Many of our member put aside aches, pains and age for the betterment of our show, and we appreciate each and everyone, young and once-young.
@@wmstrmedia I understand, and know what you mean. An experienced, and dedicated person is of great value. I also know how heart breaking it is to not be able to do what I love to do, and how tough it is to face that reality. Trying to do it can be dangerous, to one's self and to those around, depending on individual circumstances. Old age is not for the faint of heart, but it is what it is.
Hahahahaha. I’m in Cleveland and have been to Bucyrus, my friends grandparents lived there and they always called it Buckyrus. 🤣🤣🤣🤣. That’s what I Call it
the name is bUcyrus not bicyrus someond who knows what they are doing needs to edit this video which has too much history to have this kind of mistake, having rebuilt several crains and drag lines in the 70's I can appreciate this vid THANX!
