Buycrus Erie 50B Steam Shovel heading out to the pi.

[@loopwithers]

When I was five, my mum used to take me to see Ruston Bucyrus shovels working in the quarry. She sketched them from the cliff top. Easel and watercolor. One day, we got spotted. Big guys turned up and started shouting. Then, they saw her drawings. They took their caps off and departed. Apologised. Carried on. Great men.

[@critical_always]

That is a cool story. Did any of the drawings survive?

[@loopwithers]

@@critical_always yes! And the coloured watercolor and ink ones, as well.

[@blueborealis]

@@loopwithers Links or scans for the curious? Even a picture on imgur on something? I'd love to see these.

[@loopwithers]

@@blueborealis the artist formally known as Entropic Kitten...? Thanks for your interest. Are you on Instagram?

[@blueborealis]

@@loopwithers Yes, and yes, but rarely used. Are they on there? I really would like to see them. It's not often you hear about people doing water colors of heavy equipment.

[@rand49er]

To this day, I don't call them excavators. I call them steam shovels. Such a beast of a machine. Thanks for showing us that survivor.

[@jockellis]

I don’t think anyone in the earthmoving industry did until hydraulics took over from cables. I helped rebuild a Northwest shovel in 1966 and it was powered by a DOHC 6-cylinder Murphy diesel.

[@elliotkane4443]

You call a hydraulic excavator a steam shovel?

[@fjs_forfjun1107]

Grew up in company housing on mine property. Still called “Shovels”. They dropped the “Steam” part of the name since they’re electric now.

[@jackb8682]

Steam, electric or diesel, if the mechanical action is like this old girl's, it's a shovel. (It replicates the action of a hand shovel) as opposed to a dragline, (self descriptive) or excavator, which have different soil moving actions.

[@jockellis]

@@jackb8682 True. But they all like to play in the dirt.

[@georgecarter838]

What amazes me about steam shovels is that it's like a living being instead of a machine.

[@silflim]

Тогда видимо это живое существо при смерти

[@TexasRailfan21-RailfanRyan]

Yes, indeed, anything powered by steam whether it’s a steam shovel, steam truck, steam crane, steam traction engine, or a steam locomotive is the closest thing man has come to creating life

[@theshapeexists]

I saw union pacifics Big Boy Locomotive in Denver recently. That is one helluva steam machine if you haven't seen it. I'd been waiting 40 years for 1 to be restored. So glad they did. I love the ground shaking as it rolls up. So much power its almost unfathomable.

[@Jking0005]

They have so much character and personality

[@walter6873]

Thank you to all that save these beautiful machines

[@piekielrl]

Love these old machines, so much nicer than modern stuff! OK, since no one else seems to have said it, here goes...LOOK It's Mike Mulligan and Mary Ann!

[@stacase]

1st thing I thought of, thanks for posting (-:

[@jockellis]

I said that under a Caterpillar video about the Bucyrus Erie shovels building the Panama Canal. I would love to have one of these smaller ones. Somewhere I read that the last steam shovels made was just after WW II. A California company ordered two from the Lima Locomotive Works. One it put to work while the other was stored so that future generations could see a steam shovels the way they came from the factory.

[@ModMokkaMatti]

I knew I should have scrolled down a bit farther, because I just made a similar comment referring to Mike Mulligan! As someone born in the early '70s, that was one of my most favorite stories as a young boy. 😊

[@jockellis]

@@ModMokkaMatti As someone born in the late ‘40s, it was one of my favorites man and boy. Still is. Wish I could find a detailed schematic if one so I could try to build one of wood for my grandson. Friends of ours in South Georgia had an ancient wooden model of one. It must have been built from at least 200 parts. Absolutely gorgeous.

[@bullhauler5065]

Can't imagine how hot it was inside that steam control room, no thanks I'll take air-conditioned cab any day.

[@acdii]

Pretty cool to see an old shovel running that at one time built the Panama Canal by the dozens. Imagine running one down in Panama in all that heat and all the noise they make in a canyon.

[@terrystewart2070]

To those comments about "this thing should be in a museum", it is. The Roots of Motive Power is a working and restoring museum in Willits, Ca. Comprised of a group of people who have over many years put together a pretty big stable of steam operated logging and construction equipment (as well as some gas and diesel antique stuff) that has been salvaged after years of abandonment in the woods, or as they explained at one their shows, this shovel last worked on the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge and was left in the mud flats for years (at least that's what I think they said, don't quote though LOL). They do their own restoration work and used to put on classes where you could join up, and learn all about these machines and do hands on work. They generally have a big show once a year, used to be on Labor Day weekend I think. Anyway, if you have interest in this stuff you really need to go to their show.

[@adambergendorff2702]

Wow, those things must have looked like monsters when they were running!

[@robertjones7419]

You give that machine plenty of room….

[@bacilluscereus1299]

Ever seen the modern incarnations:question

[@tomp.6239]

That's actually a small one.

[@robleary3353]

Love that old bits of kit like this still exist and work! Nice one!. Nuff said!. 🙂

[@squangan]

I am in awe. I guess I always thought the term steam shovel was just a saying. That’s a second guy in the back running the boiler isn’t he? What a machine!

[@RobertBrown-jz4qj]

You never read the story pf the steam shovel that dug the basement for a school. Then could not het out. So they use it as the furnace. Read ot in 1st grade.

[@chucklipka3215]

@@RobertBrown-jz4qj That's "Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel." The machine had a name, but it's too many years ago to remember.

[@carlcarlamos9055]

The guy in the back is the “fireman”. Just like on a railroad steam engine.

[@jamespowell7302]

@@chucklipka3215 Mary-Ann is the name you are looking for. (and no, I didn't have to go look it up. Is a town hall, not a school. 50 trucks to carry away the dirt :).

[@barryphillips7327]

So GOOD this old girl Did NOT end up on the Scrap like so many others, a similar machine is not too far from me in town Not in running order, this machine MUST be at LEAST 150 years old the fact that it is still here is a miracle but it runs drives under its OWN POWER QUITE INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@MidwestSirenProductions]

What a beautiful machine. A fine piece of craftsmanship!

[@athensboy123]

I agree as well...

[@Nudnik1]

Panama canal machines I recall? I ran a BE 66 shovel Murphy Diesel at our antique show . Compare to my 325 CAT 1998 excavator.. Operator got some workout in those friction shovels. Wow!

[@hobsonbeeman7529]

Who would have ever thought it would be headed out the gate under its own power…..amazing!

[@barryphillips7327]

Never EVER underestimate the POWER in Steam!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Ollisaa6095]

to me it looked like it had some problems moving (not enough power) but it can be just because of the large gear reducions?

[@johngillon6969]

not a transistor or capacitor or cpu or tech support needed here . so refreshing.

[@bacilluscereus1299]

Low-teck FTW.

[@iancraig5471]

I kinda wonder if there is a way of modernizing this without adding electronics. Natural gas fired boiler, closed loop steam. Kinda like a Doble steam car but with more modern materials.

[@BNU30C]

Post-EMP mining rig right here

[@sykostevesfupadventure]

The operator was using every limb they had to run this and needed another feller keeping the fire going.

[@sykostevesfupadventure]

Definitely took a lot of know how or you'd be messing up a lot of stuff lol. Not only do they not make equipment like this but they don't make men like that either.

[@Nick-nw6zg]

Awesome beautiful piece of history

[@jasoncorreal8810]

Blows my mind that this was once considered state of the art!

[@AKUJIVALDO]

When all you have is hand shovels...This is A Miracle!

[@desubtilizer]

And that was only like 100 years ago...

[@williamsmith9048]

Its a work of art

[@stevendephillips2490]

I am very happy they have preserved that piece of machine history.

[@artmoss6889]

I've often wondered what a steam shovel looked and sounded like. Thanks for the video.

[@chemistryinstruments7156]

Saw an abandoned one in Virginia once amazing to see one working

[@tootired76]

I love how they pulled blocks of wood out from the track after turning the machine!

[@jackb8682]

Thanks for explaining what that was about. Was this the standard way to turn these or is it a work-around because the track drive was faulty ?

[@tootired76]

@@jackb8682 That from what I understand is how they did it. No faults with it. I watched them do it in Rollag, Minnesota a year and a half ago.

[@carlcarlamos9055]

I think that is a work around. I’ve done that on much newer diesel machines. I mean look for yourself. The new has worn off this machine eons ago. And it is obviously nowhere near restored. It’s probably pretty dangerous. If you are reading this, you have some sort of computer. Look up steam explosions.

[@damiencrossley7497]

Back then the wave of the future!

[@fordsrestorations970]

What a wonderful piece of Art , if I owned this I would park it right in my front yard , what a dinosaur !

[@frontagulus]

There's always someone out there waving their arms around uselessly

[@dtj9923]

Absolutely love it! I didn't realize these had horizontal boilers, the front of the smokebox poking out the side of the cab scores extra points!

[@theMG174]

I read the Mike Mulligan book a zillion times myself!

[@tomrogers9467]

Still have my copy.

[@bigears4014]

What a challenging machine to operate

[@cartman4885]

So that's so cool to see, so did it pull a water tank along with it

[@glynluff2595]

Looking at the sheer dynamics of size and motion one can see it must have been quite possible to upset or overturn one of these amazing machines!

[@jamielacourse7578]

A real life "Mike Mulligan & his Steam Shovel"........

[@ryanmiller2143]

That was my favorite book as a kid

[@fraserport6623]

What a fantastic contraption that is!

[@ersikillian]

I remember seeing an ancient steam pile driver working in the Chesapeake bay back around 1980.

[@chrisstaylor8377]

Nothing worse than some one on the ground waiving there arms around when you can see what your doing

[@KMPandme]

That's incredible. Never seen one in action, what a monster

[@miked.5287]

Imagine how hot it would be in the cab of that beast..

[@oldfarthacks]

Yep no AC, and even more so for the engineer running the powerplant.

[@kd4pba]

I honestly think this is the coolest shit I have seen in years.

[@cs7th]

There used to be two walking bucket cranes at my local sand pits. Sadly I never managed to arrive when they were working.

[@benjaminallen2370]

Holy cow… i’ve seen my granddad in pics with bucyrus eerie shovels… but have never seen one run.

[@williamworth2746]

Awesome living museum piece

[@michaelguerin56]

Thank you for this video. I have subscribed.

[@hughezzell10000]

My back makes the sounds of those tracks every morning when I roll out of bed. i hope that old guy running that thing teaches some young buck how to do it. kudos to the guy in the back keeping that boiler running correctly. looks like they were using the wood blocks to lock the left track for the turn.

[@xXturbo86Xx]

SPS. Self Propelled Sauna. It can even dig out it's own coal.

[@jackb8682]

The guys who invented the steam shovel said......."let's make a giant mechanical digging machine.....but how shall we do it ?" "I know ! lets copy the way a man uses a long handled shovel to shift dirt" ........and there you have it, watch these things working and that's exactly what it is.

[@gregdolecki8530]

Such a fantastic beast of a machine.

[@athensboy123]

Wow that's older than my mom 🤣 TRULY A DINOSAUR!!!! just imagine being drunk or high and seeing this scary ass old Beast coming at u?? 😂 Way different than the trackhoes we run at my job...

[@metalrooves3651]

These were so much better than what we have now!

[@scottmeeker9971]

Looks like a great lumbering behemoth, perhaps a dragon.

[@TheGhostzZ]

This should go inside a museum!

[@marvindebot3264]

Why? Why would you want it sitting dead in a building instead of being outside, alive and doing what it was built to do? What a messed up POV you have sir.

[@Rubensgardens.Skogsmuseum]

Se have a museum and the machines are used every year in our own forestry. Even the hand saws are kept sharp and used.

[@robertfeeley-6514]

God, what a machine!

[@nikson1520]

Beautiful 🥰

[@PS-wn7cw]

This is the stuff of my books as a kid in the 70s. Steam shovel this, steam shovel that. Very cool, or hot - literally. Let's see, an external combustion engine with exposed firebox, pressurized steam, cables, pulleys. Gutsy people back then.

[@PlanetMojo]

Beautiful machine!

[@Fluffy-Tail-0000]

Boy, to see that thing in action was something.

[@Ollisaa6095]

beautiful machine!

[@jockellis]

Is that a railroad track between the cut and high grass? What RR is the caboose from?

[@gehlen52]

That's Bucyrus, as in Bucyrus, Ohio where the company first started.

[@ВасилийХристофоров-н2р]

Невероятно! Сколько же лет этому динозавру?

[@danielseelye6005]

По данным компании, 534 из них были произведены в период с 1923 по 1939 год. Название Bucyrus-Erie означает, что это произошло после их слияния в 1927 году, поэтому он был построен в период с 1928 по 1939 год, поэтому этому паровому экскаватору от 84 до 95 лет. . Надеюсь это поможет.

[@ВасилийХристофоров-н2р]

@@danielseelye6005 в эти годы мой дед в сталинских лагерях в Сибири работал кайлом и лопатой на морозе. А в США уже такая продвинутая техника на стройках была задействована.

[@realtruth172]

do they still have the owners manual?

[@waltergorzkowski7246]

Really cool. I wish more were saved. But who knew back then.

[@AndreZA979]

What a machine!

[@brimstone260]

Do you have to shovel more coal on the fire by hand than the shovel loads in a day? Incredible piece of machinery.

[@75impalaca91]

Was this machine in Evansville or where they made there? I live close by and never knew of any steam shovels left it’s pretty awesome.

[@павелкулешов-ъ8ж]

Охренеть живой динозавр 👍

[@jeromejeanbaptiste5921]

Nice very nice greating from ardenne

[@CybreSmee]

Jeez, thats something out of my childhood nightmares.

[@Lichnaya_pravda]

It seems alive, like ancient dragon

[@carlcarlamos9055]

The antithesis of the tiger.

[@robertjackson8728]

I'm trying to imagine Big Musky running on steam like this!

[@carlcarlamos9055]

Big Muskie was primarily electric with some hydraulic(mostly in the travel). Big Muskie was also a dragline, not a shovel front.

[@charliedunivan2660]

Old school gotta love it

[@kriscalverley2131]

Very interesting machine. Cables ,pulleys,fulcrum points,. Germany needs to feed their coal plants now,it will fit into their agenda

[@bacilluscereus1299]

Just waiting on Greta's approval.

[@swampen85]

Unbelewebel cool!!!! 😮😊 what a Beast!!!

[@dazzler6992]

It must have been hard graft operating them things how things have changed.

[@robertfitzsimmons9428]

Good god what magnificent absolute beast! Big ugly brute and its gorgeous!

[@ЕвгенийОрлов-р7ш]

Охренеть можно, этим экскаватором можно и капать и в нём же в баню ходить!!!

[@Фурианец-ь5з]

Фсьо правильно - хто хорошо работает - тот хорошо купается)))

[@carlcarlamos9055]

It might take the hide off!

[@confusinga.d.d5064]

Did anyone else think of the book Mike mulligan and his steam shovel?

[@davidb5952]

How big was water tank? Did they burn oll? How long til water needed refill?

[@dominictoon7768]

Spelling Bucyrus correctly would have made it easier to find.

[@brushbros]

What percentage of the energy used was simply to move the machine?

[@ryanmiller2143]

Is it named "Mary Ann" like the one in "Mike Mulligan and his Magnificent Steam Shovel"?

[@greghelms4458]

Is that Mike Mulligan?

[@ld4244]

Amazing they were still building them in 1939, 3 years after the first Spitfire flew.

[@johnnymichaelangelo9264]

Just shows how even easy shit was harder work back then.. ouling and maintaining all those parts back then must have been a bitch. WORKIN on ne equipments a pain in the ass😬

[@wandergrift-e1y]

Wonderful it's really monster!

[@toddr.4630]

" it's like a sauna in this cab" 😝

[@Cola64]

This is what a TRex looked like before breakfast 🦖

[@pedroalvesoliveira4910]

muito melhor que um churrasco que não tem como come

[@dont-want-no-wrench]

what an aweseome old dragon

[@randymagnum143]

Get some, Mike Mulligan!

[@kennethm.pricejr.8921]

The thing that is most noteworthy about this machine is the fact that it can run on just about anything that will burn. This is why Big Oil hates steam and coal even worse.

[@robertfeeley-6514]

Can't swing when traveling. Both functions use same clutches. I worked on these machines and when the teeth break off the swing gear you can get underneath and weld the back in. No mechanic that I know ever did a decent job. Just to difficult.

[@user-fn1rb9ze6p]

😯 this is amazing

[@irishlad8797]

Wow shes gorgeous ❤

[@johnr5252]

Cool name. If I had a son I would name him Bucyrus.

[@АнтониоПорейро-г2т]

Я так то смотрю, много утечек у этого парового экскаватора! Под реставрации перемещается!??

[@zoozu2067]

What a fine machine

[@bishopcorva]

An elder iron dragon in disguise if there ever was one. Going to be hard to convince otherwise.

[@goransandstrom6266]

Nu hjälps vi åt att sprida detta program vidare 😃😃😃😃😃😃

[@bartonrobinett3790]

The Rona will get me if I don’t wear a mask outdoors while driving/herding a STEAM SHOVEL! Love it!

[@jackb8682]

Driving/herding....😂😂😂 love it !

[@dean4817]

That is awesome 👍💪

[@jasonbrown7258]

The fact that this machine doesn't have to run on that expensive gas or diesel fuel it can run on anything flammable and there's no electronics you would think the maintenance costs would be lower compared to modern equipment. Also it doesn't require a technician with a college degree to work on it.

[@uncareid5557]

Steam engines are complex, high maintenance and extremely dangerous in the wrong hands. There is a YT video about a locomotive that exploded and horribly maimed the crew. There are good reasons this technology was left behind. And coal and wood are not free. Or even cheap.

[@carlcarlamos9055]

It requires a steam license, which sometimes requires taking a college coarse in order to pass the test.

[@chevtrukman]

Hello, Mary Ann. I guess Mike did finally get her out! If you know, you know.