That was a wonder to behold back in its day, all the boys from miles around coming to watch it work, I well remember the term "steam shovel" even back in the 50's when I was a kid.
Nice, just watched the video yesterday of the assembly of the 50B . . . . . . . got to see it in action today when this popped up. Thanks for the upload.
I just noticed that the Erie shovel has a horizontal hoist engine in front of the hoist drum, while others have a vertical engine behind the hoist drum. Design change somewhere along the line I guess.
I'm wondering if these were able to excavate well below the level of the bottom of the tracks? As a modern excavator can go well below the ground its sitting on? It isn't clear to me if these are an exact analog just built differently, or if these old steam shovels were used more for moving already stockpiled material rather than excavation of new material.
I spoke to operators at Rollag. This shovel can dip down about 12 feet if they excavate a slope. It is a different skill set compared to track hoe excavators!
@@Platinum1812 PS, I learned a new-to-me word, dipperstick! That is the arm with the bucket, extended and pulled back with rack and pinion. Why isn't that taught in school?
There were a few steam powered shovels around in the 1950’s. Also front shovels powered by gasoline or Diesel engines. They were pretty much all gone by the mid 1960’s.
I’ve always had a fascination for these machines. I remember seeing a cartoon showing one. But the first one I ever saw working was at the thrashers reunion in Denton NC.
I remember a children's book about a steam shovel like these when I was a little kid in the '60s. I've always wondered what it must have been like excavating with a steam shovel. Looks hot, slow, and noisy yet there is a primitive mechanical beauty to it nonetheless. Thank you for posting this!
@@TheRealTburt "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel" by Elizabeth Lee Burton published in 1939. It's still in print too! www.amazon.com/Mike-Mulligan-His-Steam-Shovel/dp/0395259398
This is way more exciting than the jet car I just watched almost crash. The Goliaths are amazing to watch. I see the rd and yellow one had what looked like a hose running to it, anyone know if it is a water hose for the boiler ? always wondered how they kept them filled with fuel and water when they were out working.
@@wadazi "Mike Used to say, that him and Marry Anne could dig as much in one day, as a hundred men could dig in a week! Buuut... He was never quite sure about that."
Tree huggers still haven't figured out that mineral and fossil fuels have saved forests worldwide. I love the smell of coal smoke. It means that trees have been left to grow.
That setup on 50-b looks dangerous as hell. When the boom slides down it looks like it could break off that wheel and the end of the boom comes right into the cab
Many thanks to Bill Rudicill(?) for donating two of his hobbies to the Steam thresher's reunion!! I'm sure he knows they will be lovingly cared for forever!! In 200 years people of the world will come to Rollag, Minnesota to be amazed by a working steam shovel!
Wow! Other than on old movies its the first time I've seen such machines working. Apart from boiler certification, I'd think those cables would be subject to rigorous safety checks. Must be costly keeping these machines running.
Hi, Paul! You are right about the wire lines. They must be lubed a bit and monitored because all the individual wires rub when they travel around the sheaves. I would love to see the procedure to thread in new line. I've done that on oil field spudders and pulling units, and I think that there are few old timers who can maintain a machine like these.
@@DavidN23Skidoo Threading a new line sounds tricky & perhaps needing great strength & dexterity. Hope the skills are passed down to younger folks to keep these machines running. They were not built to be sad, static museum exhibits!!!
We had a comment from Paul Flak, that TH-cam caught because of a bad word, but Paul thinks machines like this should all be using natural gas or be melted down. Well, Paul, as much as coal is maligned nowadays, you need to know that coal saved our forests. Metal refining required hot fires; charcoal fires, with charcoal made from trees. Huge acreages were being turned into charcoal for metal refining when the coking process for coal was discovered. Coal became the heat source for metal refining at that point in history and forests began growing back. Look at photos of the eastern U.S. during the American Civil War, when iron was being made for the war effort. Mountains were denuded for charcoal production. I love coal, because I love our forests.
When you had to get below the ground level you had to dig a ramp to get down Into the ground. in these small machines you might get down a couple of feet below the track level so you started a ramp and worked your way down to a lower level but you also had to clear a ramp a d loading area for trucks to load the excavated material.
Oh man this video just connected some old dots ,when I was young we had a fishing spot down near an abandoned sand plant along the river in the middle of seemingly nowhere at that time and there was alot of abandoned equipment trees had grown through and around, Tina had taken a heck of a toll and at 5:03 in this video I remember seeing one of those and at the time had no idea what it was but thought is was such a cool looking beast even though it was well weathered and sevierly rotten , I always wanted to go inside of it but the closer I got the more I smelled cucumber I always knew that thing was infested with copperheads all around it.....I wonder if that stuff is still out there or if that land has been developed at this point,it's probably a subdivision now. Anyways thanks for the video and bringing back some old memories
@@tomrogers9467 copperhead snake nests smell enough like a cucumber plant (cucumbers) that that's been something passed down many generations in my parts of the Smokey's if your in a thicket and randomly get a whiff of cucumber beware ...hope that helps, I encounter copperheads frequently here and they have gotten in the home a couple times but I never really smelled anything unless I stroll across a nest of them and it in fact smells much like cucumbers in the garden
@@wolfmanrebel874 Well you learn something every day on this “web thingy”. Thanks for the lesson. We’ve only Northern Rattlesnakes that are venomous up here in central Ontario, and they stick close to the rocky coast of Georgian Bay, where very few people live. Bites are rare and seldom fatal.
@@tomrogers9467 Yeah,copperheads and water mocosin( if I spelled that right) are what you most likely to encounter around here however there are Timber Rattlers but the only places I have seen them are way off in the trails of the Smokey's especially going up to MT leconte which is no rookie hike anyway most people would pack suction kits/Snake bite kits and such for such a hike I would hope because if you stir them up that far from civilization your screwed,it's rare though I only remember one death reported in the last decade and it was a guy climbing off trail and reached his hand up where he shouldn't have in a place he shouldn't have been to begin with.
It's just a little ways east of Fargo ND on the Minnesota side of the border, if you believe that there really is a North Dakota! First time I had ever seen it, almost like seeing Sasquatch!
That is steam leaking around the piston rods at the packing glands on the engine, and the exhaust at the end of the boom. That engine runs the pinion and rack that extends and retracts the shovel on the boom. Running one of these machines is an intricate dance!
There are two steam "engines" on these, one for the rack and pinion to move the "dipper" up and down on the on the boom. This is the one you see the steam exhaust coming out at the top of the boom. The 2nd one is in the cab, this is the one that slews (rotates) the entire cab assembly, powers the cable winch for the boom and also provides power to the tracks. This is the one is leaking the steam you see coming out of the cab. Both of these need their respective rod seals adjusted a bit as they are leaking steam. This adjustment is done all the time.
@@andyc.4387 The model T was built with better suspension than a lot of modern jeeps. The motors on them were easily replaced and they didn't even have odometers till the 1930s.
Love the brutes so much energy into building it and humans involved hours replacing man power. Just raw power, no wonder hearing aids followed in Thier wake
It is working upon steam power, if a steam fanatic engineer rejuvenates it by Hydraulic system; there's no doubt, that the Majestic affordable, cheap and best, Steam power can be re-introduced right now, even today!
The flintstones weren't that far off the mark. It was an amazing process to load these on ships, send them to Suez and Panama, assemble, track and repair these monsters.
I think Greta Tunberg is too busy successfully getting coal fired power plants dismantled worldwide to be worried about a vintage steam shovel burning coal for just a few days out of the year.
That was a wonder to behold back in its day, all the boys from miles around coming to watch it work, I well remember the term "steam shovel" even back in the 50's when I was a kid.
The 50-B sure is a cute and sharp looking shovel. Congrats on a great addition!
Thanks 👍
Grew up W, NY there was a sand and gravel Co, and they were still using one when I was in grade school, gone by the time I graduated in 1965 .
There was just a video on that shovel. Le Roy. New York. Was the town. And the shovel is preserved there. Googled and found it.
Wow I love watching those old machines. Those old engineers were magnificent. Thank you for the display!!!! And GOD bless you!
Our pleasure!
gotta love the sounds of the pistons when they scoop the dirt up
I spent a weekend with the 50-B shovel in 2000, when it was in Kentucky. Wonderful machine, ran very well.
Nice, just watched the video yesterday of the assembly of the 50B . . . . . . . got to see it in action today when this popped up. Thanks for the upload.
Nice 👍
Same here. Tried to Google the Mary Anne but struck out. Really glad to get this video.
What a sheer joy to see these magnificent steam-powered mechanical marvels in action. I love stuff like this.
I just noticed that the Erie shovel has a horizontal hoist engine in front of the hoist drum, while others have a vertical engine behind the hoist drum. Design change somewhere along the line I guess.
Imagine being the man running one of these on a hot summer day for a living. Hopefully back then the gland seals were better! Cool video
I'm wondering if these were able to excavate well below the level of the bottom of the tracks? As a modern excavator can go well below the ground its sitting on? It isn't clear to me if these are an exact analog just built differently, or if these old steam shovels were used more for moving already stockpiled material rather than excavation of new material.
I will find more info and get back to you. I know they can dig. The Panama canal was dug with steam shovels.
@@DavidN23Skidoo that is very kind of you, thank you in advance.
I spoke to operators at Rollag. This shovel can dip down about 12 feet if they excavate a slope. It is a different skill set compared to track hoe excavators!
@@DavidN23Skidoo very interesting, thank you!
@@Platinum1812 PS, I learned a new-to-me word, dipperstick! That is the arm with the bucket, extended and pulled back with rack and pinion. Why isn't that taught in school?
Very nice video plus where this video was taking at??
Western Minnesota Steam Threshers at Rollag, 2019. They have an annual show on Labor Day weekend. Plan at least two days. You will never see it all!
@@DavidN23Skidoo very nice to see steam shovel real life right!!!
There were a few steam powered shovels around in the 1950’s. Also front shovels powered by gasoline or Diesel engines. They were pretty much all gone by the mid 1960’s.
I’ve always had a fascination for these machines. I remember seeing a cartoon showing one. But the first one I ever saw working was at the thrashers reunion in Denton NC.
do you know if it is still there? i am in NC and would love to see it one day
I remember a children's book about a steam shovel like these when I was a little kid in the '60s. I've always wondered what it must have been like excavating with a steam shovel. Looks hot, slow, and noisy yet there is a primitive mechanical beauty to it nonetheless. Thank you for posting this!
What was the book called? I also remember reading it.
@@TheRealTburt "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel" by Elizabeth Lee Burton published in 1939. It's still in print too! www.amazon.com/Mike-Mulligan-His-Steam-Shovel/dp/0395259398
@@TheRealTburt Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel
Magnificent video! I don't think most people appreciate the immense contribution of these mechanical marvels. 😃👍
This is way more exciting than the jet car I just watched almost crash. The Goliaths are amazing to watch. I see the rd and yellow one had what looked like a hose running to it, anyone know if it is a water hose for the boiler ? always wondered how they kept them filled with fuel and water when they were out working.
I think it's fantastic how these beautiful machines are still operating they were good looking power horse's.... Steam is amazing ❤
A celler in a day. A celler in a day. Even though it can't be done, do it anyway!
I hadn’t even heard of these before I looked into how the Suez Canal was excavated. Wonderful!
Getting Mike Mulligan vibes here. "The more people who came to watch, the faster they worked."
Henry B. Swapp is smiling in a way that is not mean at all.
@@wadazi "Mike Used to say, that him and Marry Anne could dig as much in one day, as a hundred men could dig in a week! Buuut... He was never quite sure about that."
Love your Mike Mulligan reference, favorite book as a kid and it is still in print today.
I can smell granola and tree hugger tears through the internet while watching these beasts.
Tree huggers still haven't figured out that mineral and fossil fuels have saved forests worldwide. I love the smell of coal smoke. It means that trees have been left to grow.
That setup on 50-b looks dangerous as hell. When the boom slides down it looks like it could break off that wheel and the end of the boom comes right into the cab
Many thanks to Bill Rudicill(?) for donating two of his hobbies to the Steam thresher's reunion!! I'm sure he knows they will be lovingly cared for forever!! In 200 years people of the world will come to Rollag, Minnesota to be amazed by a working steam shovel!
That 50-B needs to be written into a feature film - it is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When are we going to see them have a fight?
Wow! Other than on old movies its the first time I've seen such machines working. Apart from boiler certification, I'd think those cables would be subject to rigorous safety checks. Must be costly keeping these machines running.
Hi, Paul! You are right about the wire lines. They must be lubed a bit and monitored because all the individual wires rub when they travel around the sheaves. I would love to see the procedure to thread in new line. I've done that on oil field spudders and pulling units, and I think that there are few old timers who can maintain a machine like these.
@@DavidN23Skidoo Threading a new line sounds tricky & perhaps needing great strength & dexterity. Hope the skills are passed down to younger folks to keep these machines running. They were not built to be sad, static museum exhibits!!!
Yeah, they were checked whenever they broke.
As a modern day excavator operator this is amazing too see. What year would it be God love to see it in the real. How far is it from perth wa.
Rollag is just east of Fargo, ND. The showgrounds is a bit SE of Rollag.
We had a comment from Paul Flak, that TH-cam caught because of a bad word, but Paul thinks machines like this should all be using natural gas or be melted down. Well, Paul, as much as coal is maligned nowadays, you need to know that coal saved our forests. Metal refining required hot fires; charcoal fires, with charcoal made from trees. Huge acreages were being turned into charcoal for metal refining when the coking process for coal was discovered. Coal became the heat source for metal refining at that point in history and forests began growing back. Look at photos of the eastern U.S. during the American Civil War, when iron was being made for the war effort. Mountains were denuded for charcoal production. I love coal, because I love our forests.
When you had to get below the ground level you had to dig a ramp to get down Into the ground. in these small machines you might get down a couple of feet below the track level so you started a ramp and worked your way down to a lower level but you also had to clear a ramp a d loading area for trucks to load the excavated material.
Thank You!
Oh man this video just connected some old dots ,when I was young we had a fishing spot down near an abandoned sand plant along the river in the middle of seemingly nowhere at that time and there was alot of abandoned equipment trees had grown through and around, Tina had taken a heck of a toll and at 5:03 in this video I remember seeing one of those and at the time had no idea what it was but thought is was such a cool looking beast even though it was well weathered and sevierly rotten , I always wanted to go inside of it but the closer I got the more I smelled cucumber I always knew that thing was infested with copperheads all around it.....I wonder if that stuff is still out there or if that land has been developed at this point,it's probably a subdivision now. Anyways thanks for the video and bringing back some old memories
Any idea where the land is? That would be neat if they are still there.
What is the significance of the cucumber? Might be a southern thing this northern boy has not heard of.
@@tomrogers9467 copperhead snake nests smell enough like a cucumber plant (cucumbers) that that's been something passed down many generations in my parts of the Smokey's if your in a thicket and randomly get a whiff of cucumber beware ...hope that helps, I encounter copperheads frequently here and they have gotten in the home a couple times but I never really smelled anything unless I stroll across a nest of them and it in fact smells much like cucumbers in the garden
@@wolfmanrebel874 Well you learn something every day on this “web thingy”. Thanks for the lesson. We’ve only Northern Rattlesnakes that are venomous up here in central Ontario, and they stick close to the rocky coast of Georgian Bay, where very few people live. Bites are rare and seldom fatal.
@@tomrogers9467 Yeah,copperheads and water mocosin( if I spelled that right) are what you most likely to encounter around here however there are Timber Rattlers but the only places I have seen them are way off in the trails of the Smokey's especially going up to MT leconte which is no rookie hike anyway most people would pack suction kits/Snake bite kits and such for such a hike I would hope because if you stir them up that far from civilization your screwed,it's rare though I only remember one death reported in the last decade and it was a guy climbing off trail and reached his hand up where he shouldn't have in a place he shouldn't have been to begin with.
I think it's adorable they mention Rollag like everyone knows where it is.
It's just a little ways east of Fargo ND on the Minnesota side of the border, if you believe that there really is a North Dakota! First time I had ever seen it, almost like seeing Sasquatch!
My grandfather was born in North Dakota and my mother in Minnesota, still doesn't help :)
How come there's coming steam out on top of the boom, and halfways the boom?
That is steam leaking around the piston rods at the packing glands on the engine, and the exhaust at the end of the boom. That engine runs the pinion and rack that extends and retracts the shovel on the boom. Running one of these machines is an intricate dance!
@@DavidN23Skidoo Thank you.. I do understand now that there's a reason, although I can't honestly say I can grasp how it works
There are two steam "engines" on these, one for the rack and pinion to move the "dipper" up and down on the on the boom. This is the one you see the steam exhaust coming out at the top of the boom. The 2nd one is in the cab, this is the one that slews (rotates) the entire cab assembly, powers the cable winch for the boom and also provides power to the tracks. This is the one is leaking the steam you see coming out of the cab. Both of these need their respective rod seals adjusted a bit as they are leaking steam. This adjustment is done all the time.
Was there ever a steam excavator operated with steam rams instead of cables?
I don't think so. I think the mechanical advantage of gearing outweighs the simplicity of a ram.
No, steam rams would have to be huge to generate enough force. Modern hydraulics operate at thousands of pounds per square inch.
Looks and sounds like a dinosaur! Lmao and the fact that they were digging up coal in the plains makes it a lot more erie...
WTF I wanted to see and hear a steam shovel and all I can hear is a frickin diesel screaming.
This what built America the dinosaurs from the past
Need some vintage dump trucks
Was that a Bucyrus machine?
Carefull rumble bucket
Ware is/was this and was it public or private would love to see that old iron running in person
It's at Rollag, Minnesota. The show is Labor Day weekend. rollag.com/
Everything was built to last in this era. Even the cars.
Not really. Cars were lucky to get to 100,000 miles. And people often replaced their cars every couple of years.
@@andyc.4387 The model T was built with better suspension than a lot of modern jeeps. The motors on them were easily replaced and they didn't even have odometers till the 1930s.
Those living, breathing monsters were built like TANKS. Beautiful to behold. Excellent video, David. Subscribed !
About 700 pounds of dirt per scoop.
Cool cool coal.
Love the brutes so much energy into building it and humans involved hours replacing man power. Just raw power, no wonder hearing aids followed in Thier wake
It is working upon steam power, if a steam fanatic engineer rejuvenates it by Hydraulic system; there's no doubt, that the Majestic affordable, cheap and best, Steam power can be re-introduced right now, even today!
Pala mecánica el antes de la excavadora
The flintstones weren't that far off the mark. It was an amazing process to load these on ships, send them to Suez and Panama, assemble, track and repair these monsters.
That smoke stack would give Greta thunberg a brain hemorrhage.
I think Greta Tunberg is too busy successfully getting coal fired power plants dismantled worldwide to be worried about a vintage steam shovel burning coal for just a few days out of the year.
Let's see them actually work a job not this display crap