There was more strip mining west of here but County Road 175 was the boundary on the west side of this mine. The mine west of this mine was the Peabody Vogue Mine. [rockportky_RiverQueenMine]
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| 1983 Millport and Central City West Quads @ 24,000 |
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| rockportky_TheRiverQueen, photo by Bob Herron; this web page has several more photos. B-E 1650B was built in 1957 for this mine with a 55 yds (80 tons) bucket. The mine had two seams of bituminous coal. "The 1650-B stands 140 feet high. It is equipped with a 145-ft. boom and an 86-ft. dipper handle, enabling it to dump rock and earth overburden nearly 300 feet away from the digging point and to stack it more than 100 feet high. In each pass of its mammoth dipper, the River Queen excavates enough material to fill a room 14x12x9 feet. More than 70 railroad cars were required to ship the shovel from Bucyrus-Erie's South Milwaukee plant to the erection site....Fifteen General Electric motors power the shovel--eleven for digging and four for propelling. The main motors are two 1,500-hp AC motor-generator-set, synchronous-driving units. The main functional DC motors consist of four hoist motors rated at 375-hp each; three swing motors at 187 1/2-hp each; two crowd motors at 187 1/2-hp each; and four 200-hp propel motors." It could complete a cycle in less than a minute. A boom failure was fixed in two weeks. It was replaced in this mine after 10 years by the "Big Digger." But it was moved to work in other Peabody mines. |
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| rockportky_RiverQueenMine The bucket was 125 yd. "In 1982, it set a record for the "Best Run Time" efficiency by being operational for 85% of the time." |
Jack Pippenger posted three images with the comment: "I thought people here might enjoy a couple items I collected in my mining career. The first is from an issue of The Peabody Magazine - Winter 1979. The second is an article about the 3850B boom crash at Sinclair Mine in 1980. The accident was ruled an Act of God as I remember. Sorry for the faded copy. A lot of time has passed since then."
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| 2, see Sinclair Mine |
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| 3, rotated |
William Oldani posted four images with the comment:
Lady's and GentlemenI present you the Fully Digitized Marion 5960-M stripping Shovel aka"Big Digger"It was a Very Enjoyable Undertaking with Lots of Data Imput from James Stine "Shovel Expert"Enjoy!
[He is comparing it to the largest shovel, the Captain.]
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| William Oldani posted Well Here it Is James Stine! The Big Digger and The Captain! Nose to Nose! Dusty Welch: WEO spotted! In a rather tight spot! Hope all the small rocks and grease balls are knocked free or the great WEO could be in for quite a headache![This confused me at first. Then I realized he is talking about the man in the lower foreground that was added for scale. I never really appreciated how big these shovels were until I saw a photo that included a country church. They dwarf a church even with a spire.] |
William Oldani posted two photos with the comment: "A Couple More Angles of Marion's BIGGEST Shovels Ever!"
Gibson Smith: I believe the 5960 had a greater area inside of the house due to the sides being straight without any width changes whereas the captains house was thinner than the 5960 until you get to the rear extensions where it was wider than the 5960 but only by a few feet.
James Stine: The 5960 definitely defends itself next to the 6360. In my eyes, it’s two different technologies just 4 1/2 years apart. The 6360 taught in s a great deal of lessons, the 5960 was the result of those lessons.
William Oldani: James Stine I agree Fully! The Steel used was also better with Alloys that not only allowed strength but Flexibility as Well!
I had heard manganese was added to the Steel, I'm not a metallurgist, but the Marion Engineers that worked on the 5900-M would visit and I'm basing my response on their Data. I know the 5960-M was a Product of the Late 60's and it's design was advanced from the 6360-M, an Early Product of the 60's.
The Look of Boom design between the 2 Machines is apparent with a LOT less steel used on the 5960-M.The Boom Foot Tapper is Completely Different on Both Machines, the Captains width tappers down from the first transition, about 55 ft, while the Big Digger narrows Down over the last 25 Ft where the Open Chord lacing quits. Chord lacing diameter on 5960-M was also Smaller.
Steve Gilmore: William Oldani Adding a pinch of manganese will improve the strength, toughness and ductility of steel but it has little effect on the elastic properties. I’m also not a metallurgist, but I took several metallurgy classes and worked closely with metallurgists for about 40 years. One statement I remember hearing is that if someone found a way to significantly change the elastic modulus of steel, they would be rich. That’s why this discussion caught my attention.
Jacob Hamilton Moore: Also illustrates the fruits of trading tech with BE so they could ditch the rack and pinion. The 5960 had to be so much smoother operating the stick, no?
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| William Oldani posted Keeping it ALL in Perspective! Dennis DeBruler: You should add a country church with its spire. When I saw a photo of a shovel that happened to have a church in it, that is when I finally realized how incredibly big these things were. The front loader compared to a semi is also interesting. |
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| rockportky_RiverQueenMine Peabody Coal had their own railroad that went about ten miles from the tipple to a barge loading facility. |
The tipple was in the lower-left corner of this topo excerpt and the barge loading facility is in the upper-right corner.
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| 1983 West and East Central City Quads @ 24,000 |
They also had an old B-E 450W diesel dragline that was used for a lot of miscellaneous work.
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| rockportky_RiverQueenMine |
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| rockportky_RiverQueenPit In addition to the Big Digger in the foreground, and another dragline (B-E 1260 with 36 yd bucket) in the background, we see the coal loading shovels. This mine did reclaim the land. |
James R Griffin Sr. posted three photos with the comment: "These pictures will show just how much metal had to be replaced on the 5561 during erection. Look on ground at the plates."
William Oldani: I'm guessing this machine was moved? Com'on Griff! Where's the rest of the story?
James Stine: William Oldani , this 5561 started out new at Ken Coal Company’s Ken Mine in Ohio County, KY near the town of Echols. It began working around October of 1948.
In late 1964, the shovel was barged down the Green River to Sinclair Mine and worked there until early 1966. The machine was disassembled in large pieces and moved to River Queen Mine and was back working near the end of 1966. It worked here until late 1969, early 1970 at which time it was deadheaded into the Vogue Mine until late 1971. The machine sat idle until late 1974 when it was moved to the Will Scarlet Mine. I believe this shovel holds the record for most moves/mines worked at.
James R Griffin Sr.: James Stine Another story from the erection of the 5561, the first stiff leg that was put up just got vertical for a moment and started to fall. Everyone within distance of that ran for their lives. It hit the ground and was a tangled mess and was junk.
And it showed the milage when arriving at Will Scarlet!John Schultz: I imagine the stiff leg cranes are a thing in the past also,with all the big hydro cranes able to take their place.
I haven’t heard of a stiff leg since taking the 5761 down in the eighties at River King in Plumb Creek
Paul Jevert shared an Illinois Central Scrapbook post of four photos with the comment:
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Paul Jevert shared an Illinois Central Scrapbook post of four photos with the comment:
Hundreds of coal mines have been opened in the west Kentucky coal fields, but one of the more famous one was Peabody's River Queen in Muhlenberg County. Coal was shipped out both over the IC and via river barges on the Green River. Peabody operated its own railroad between the tipple and the coal barge, and over the years Peabody operated an assortment of Alcos, ex-MP Baldwins and even a couple Geeps. The mine closed around 1988 and has been reclaimed as a wildlife refuge area and National Guard training center. These photos were taken in 1959 when River Queen was going full blast. More info about River Queen can be found at the site below.
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| 1 A Marion electric shovel loads coal in the foreground while in the background a larger crane strips away the overburden. 1959, Cliff Downey collection. |
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| 2 Once mined, coal at River Queen was hauled to the tipple to be washed, screened, and readied for shipped. In 1959 one of the haulers has arrived at Peabody's River Queen tipple with another load of west Kentucky coal. Cliff Downey collection. Rich Westerman: https://youtu.be/DEy6EuZp9IY |
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| 3 Coal at River Queen was shipped out via rail on the IC, and via river barges on the Green River (Peabody operated a rail line between the tipple and coal barge. 1959, Cliff Downey collection. |
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| 4 In 1959 a new LeTourneau-Westinghouse coal hauler arrives at Peabody's River Queen coal mine near Greenville, KY. Cliff Downey collection. Trent Blasco: do you think railroads of today would be ok with off loading cargo from one of their cars they way this was done? I think not! Mark Rickert: Actual it was common and it requires nothing more than a standard carman's tools. Today with cheep rental crane services it has become less common. |
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| Mark Albright commented on the Photo #4 This coal hauler is a design of Ralph Kress “The Father Of The Off-Highway Truck” who worked as a consultant for LeTourneau-Westinghouse. He later worked for Caterpillar then took his bottom dump coal hauler design to his son Ted's company, Kress Corporation in Brimfield, IL. where it is manufactured today. |
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