Sand Mine: (Satellite)
Lignite Mine: (Satellite)Dragline: (Satellite)
Dragline: (Satellite) Given the fancy haul road down to the rail loading facility, I presume Kosse Mine has both of these draglines.
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| Roy Luck Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) Dragline, Luminant Energy Kosse lignite mine Texas is a leading coal producer. Almost all coal is low-grade lignite consumed by in-state power plants. This mine is owned by Luminant Energy, a subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings - formerly TXU before it was taken private. |
At 5:40, I noticed a couple of front loaders and a haul truck removing the coal seam. Fortunately, at 9:00, he does a closeup of that operation. Are they using front loaders instead of shovels because lignite is soft? I don't understand what the dragline is doing here. Normally, the dragline digs the shelf it is on and swings just 90-degrees to dump if over the coal seam that had been mined. This 4:l0 video shows a P&H 9020 doing the type of operation that I expect. And this 7:36 video even more clearly shows a Marion 8200 exposing a new strip of coal by covering up the mined strip of coal. It also has real audio instead of weird "music." At 5:34 they are using neither a shovel nor front-loaders to fill the haul trucks. It looks more like the type of machine they now use to remove the top layer of an asphalt road before they put a new layer on the road.
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| safe_image for 15:56 video Marion D-57 filmed Apr 2018 |
"The Kosse Mine began extracting lignite (coal) in 2007." [MiningDataOnline]
But gem indicates that it started in 1980! So who is correct?
Those sources agree that the mine supplies the 1.8gw Oak Grove Steam Electric Station. (I've noticed that lignite coal mines evidently need a nearby power plant to be economically competitive.)
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| Photo via Waymarks This source sites 2010 as the opening year. |
Kudos to Luminant, they fund archeological digs of historic sites such as abandoned towns before they erase them from the earth. In 2010 they discovered the grist mill and cotton gin of Headsville. The town was abandoned because the railroad bypassed them. [luminant_headsville] Headsville had two cemetaries. It appears that they dug around the Ebenezer Cemetary, and they stopped before they got to the Head Cemetery. Although Google Maps labels Head Cemetery as a pet cemetery.
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| Thomas Hunter, Jun 2017 |
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| Luminant_relocation_2 Luminant’s D-32 dragline recently completed an eight-mile trek to the new Liberty Mine in Rusk County. "Pioneering a new technique for transporting some of North America's largest earthmovers, Luminant recently relocated four draglines using a state-of-the-art 1,000-wheel vehicle. The mega machines were moved over 30 miles in total to new mining areas across East and Central Texas this past spring and summer. Nearly 60 self-propelled modular transporters, trailers powered by up to nine 600-horsepower engines, were used to move the draglines – the smallest weighing six million pounds and the two largest weighing 13 million pounds each....The draglines were relocated with the help of Mammoet USA South, Inc., a global leader in engineering and implementing solutions for the transportation of large structures and equipment" |
The higher resolution makes it worth repeating this photo.
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| CoalAge "The project, which was three years in the making, included moving draglines at Luminant’s Big Brown mine, Kosse mine and Martin Lake mines to newly developed mining areas, including its still-new Liberty complex. In all, it took two full seasons, and the draglines were moved more than 30 miles in central and eastern Texas." From the context, I conclude that this is either D-32 or D-33. Each is a Marion 8750W that weighs "in at 13 million lb with boom extending 330 ft. [100m]. It took about 1,000 tires to support the weight of the units on their 8-mile and 15-mile strolls to the Liberty mine." D-32 and D-33 were the third and fourth moves, which were done in Aug 2014. Their first move, and the second to ever to move a dragline with SPMTs, was their D-13 dragline. The article calls it a "BI 1350W." But I wonder if it was a B-E (Bucyrus-Erie) 1350W. It weighs 6.5m lbs with a boom that is almost 300' (91m). It was moved with 500 tires in Apr 2014. The second move was their D-52 dragline in the Kosse Mine to the new Echo mining area. Even though it was in the same mine, it still had to travel 7 miles (11km). The BI (B-E?) 157W weighs 8m lbs and has a 300' (91m) boom. This move used 600 tires and was done in Jun 2014. |
This mine must have close to here.
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| Bill Drotar Jr. posted Road Closed!! Luminant Marion 8750 at the now closed Liberty Mine. Rusk County,Texas. Taken within the first years of operation. https://www.photobydrotar.com/Mining-Machinery |
This video not only shows D-32 being moved, but it also shows D-33 in operation.
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| 3:03 video @ 1:29 |
And this is D-31.
Michael Popejoy posted two photos with the comment: "May 2015 Beckville Tx Mine Now Lignite's mined out."
Kitt Keagy: If ur going to post pics tell us what the machines are.
Matt Kaushagen: Kitt Keagy Marion 8750.
Bill Drotar Jr.: Contractor I spoke with said they're going to move the 8750 north over Rt 7 in the near future.
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| 1, cropped |
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| 2, cropped |
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| Austin Wall commented on Michael's post Same machine with new life in Kosse, TX. |
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| Steve Paschall commented on Michael's post. Although I don't know why. Is it another 8750? Nutrien Aurora NC |
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| Bill Drotar Jr. posted Marion 8200 "Delta 36" at Oak Hill Mine. Looking forward to seeing her back together again at her new home. Ralph Gaither: Where is she going? Bill Drotar Jr.: Ralph Gaither a new Luminant mine near Bremond, Texas, AFAIK. Randy Sandrik: The 8200 is the best overall dragline ever built. I loved them and the 8050 I ran. |
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| Steve Paschall commented on Bill's post Nutrien Aurora’s 8200 |
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| Bill Drotar Jr. posted The 3rd Kosse machine. B/E 1570 "D-52" Limestone County, TX Richard Jacobs: That's an original Drummond Coal machine. Kellerman mine. Brookwood, Alabama |
Bill Drotar Jr. posted three photos with the comment: "Luminant Marion 8200 "D-51" being relocated on a Mammoet transporter to a new location south of Texas Rt. 7 near Kosse, TX."
Dan Longstreth: The 8200 I operated in Kentucky, went to cozy Texas, when it was tore down
Jamie Kelly: Dan Longstreth that's it right there !
Brian Fagerland: Wow! That’s impressive! I’ve only seen them cross a highway on top of 30 ft of dirt. [If they walk a dragline instead of using SPMTs, the dragline "shoes" generate more ground pressure on the road.]
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| 1 of 3 photos posted by James Baker Jeffrey Mason: This is at the Kosse Mine. The machine going to Bremond to start digging at the new Luminant Bremond Mine. |
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| Craig Mostyn commented on James' post, cropped Yes I Got this pic today as well |
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| Jeffrey Mason commented on Jame's post, cropped And she’s off into the Wild Blue Yonder!!! |
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| James commented on his post |
Bill Drotar Jr. posted four photos with the comment: "Not even a mark left on the ground. In roughly 11 months, Luminant's Delta 34 is now history. Rusk County, Texas. Dates in captions."
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| 1 Idled, prior to scrapping. 2021 |
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| 2 January 2023 |
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| 3 March 2023 |
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| 4 December 2023 |
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| July 2017 2:10 video in Liberty Mine |
A video about an 8-mile move:
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| 3:03 video @ 1:29 |
Some street views show a better job of land reclamation than the brown land one sees in a satellite image. Note the two vapor plumes next to the tree on the left side. That is probably the Oak Grove Power Station.
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| Street View, Apr 2022 |
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| ussilica_recreation |
They offer a couple of products for improving play surfaces, two sands for sand traps in golf, four products for baseball fields and a product for each of the sports that my daughters have done: volleyball and horse shows.
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| ussilica_recreation_products |
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