B-E stripping shovel

[Burlington Bob]

Here is a model that would be the focal point of ANY HO layout! No more wimpy little mine tipples with a short load out track! This will dwarf all but the biggest buildings! And this was a mobile piece of equipment!

Only problem.........the price may well be close to $7000 or more!

https://ccmodels.com/shop/187-bucyrus-erie-1850-b-brutus-brass/

 

[Red Oak & Western]

Oh, darn. While I'd love to get one, its 15 years past the cutoff for my time period.

 

[OldGuyHO]

it's 160 feet high 1:1 so the model would be 22" tall!!

 

[Burlington Bob]

This is a stripping shovel, so it would be in a pit anywhere from 45 to 90 feet deep if You modeled it as a working shovel. You could model it as being idled, just sitting in a fenced off area with possibly a guard shack along with a lot more mining equipment.

One thing for sure, it would be the center of attention on most any layout!

If anyone is interested, the real thing is located at West Mineral, Kansas. This is not far from Joplin, Missouri. While not the largest stripping shovel ever built, it is huge! Also, this is the only surviving large stripping shovel in the world! All of The others were buried or cut up for scrap. The mine I worked at from '76 to '83 had a 65 cu. yd. shovel and a 110 cu. yd. dragline so this is very interesting to me. If I win the lottery, I will buy one!

Here is a YouTube video of it in operation back in the middle sixties: https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=BaNs335hfgc

 

[montanan]

I'll be these things are flying off the shelves at that price.

 

[Iron Horseman]

Oh, darn. While I'd love to get one, its 15 years past the cutoff for my time period.

Well if you aren't a rivet counter and don't care if it is the exact shovel, these sorts of stripper shovels have existed since 1925, the big ones came out right after WWII. This just happened to be the end-of-the-line version.