Coal Age

AUG 2012

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1950-1959 In August and September 1956, the magazine published two stories on Truax-Traer's massive surface operations in northern Illinois and southern West Virginia. The company's Fiatt, Ill., surface mine had recently begun employing the first production model of a wheel excava- tor in the U.S. working in tandem with a 33-cu yd shovel. Eventually the wheel took on more stripping duties as it was able to remove more of the softer top material thus reducing the amount to be handled by the shovel and allowing it to advance faster. The wheel strips and spoils an average of 10,000 cu yd of mate- rial in a shift, removing 25-30 ft and leav- ing 30-35 ft for the shovel. The wheel can work the top from an 80-ft highwall down to a 30-ft high bench. At the Marfork mine in southern West Virginia, the company had recently deployed a Bucyrus-Erie 750B equipped with a 19-cu yd shovel. A 900-ton giant designed to "tear off the hilltops to recov- er the Dorothy seam. Towering 85 ft above the ground, the electric power shovel chews up blasted rock…while uncovering a 115-ft strip of coal." For the October 1956 issue, associate edi- tor Flowers reviewed the new Gibraltar Coal Co.'s massive new surface mine situated in Western Kentucky along the Green River. Supplying more than 2 million tons per year to the Atomic Energy Commission's new power plant at the Portsmouth atomic pro- duction center, Gibraltar began as a joint venture between Ayrshire and Midco mines and constructed with a 4 million tons per year capacity. Stripping from two seams, the Kentucky Nos. 11 and 12, overall stripping ratio was approximately 6 to 1. To handle the job, Gibraltar used a 42-cu yd Marion 5561 electric shovel with a 135-ft boom that worked 24 hours per day. "This unit is designed to strip the cover over the No. 12 coal, which will average 40 ft. A 6-cu yd Bucyrus-Erie 190B high-lift machine with a 70-ft boom removes the intervalbe-tween the seams. The third stripper is a 13-cu yd Marion 7400 dragline with a 175-ft boom." Less than a year later, the largest shovel ever constructed by Bucyrus-Erie, the 55- cu yd 1650-B River Queen began taking 80- ton overburden bites at the new River Queen Coal Co. mine near Greenville in Western Kentucky. Located not far from Giant 70-yd Shovel The world's largest at the time, sets the pace at River King mine. This unit is the first of three similar excavators to be owned or operated by Peabody. *Coal Age, January 1958 the giant Gibraltar operation, together the two new mines placed Muhlenberg County at the forefront of the nation's stripping areas. Jointly owned by Peabody Coal and the W.G. Duncan Coal Co., the two compa- August 2012 100th Anniversary Special Issue www.coalage.com 103

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