Big Truck
After a lovely landscape yesterday, here's something from the opposite end of the spectrum. The Wabco Haulpak, above, was an off-road haul truck designed to carry large volumes of overburden or ore in open-pit mines.
The example seen above can be found at a viewing point overlooking the Hull-Rust-Mahoning open-pit iron mine, a very small part of which can be seen in the background. I have been unable to find any details about the model of truck or its load-carrying capacity, but it was clearly considerable! Since 1999 Wabco has become Komatsu.
Behind the truck is a scoop from a dragline excavator, which lifted the material out of the ground and into the back of the truck. Again I have no details for the scoop's capacity.
The Hull-Rust-Mahoning Open Pit Iron Mine is the largest operating open-pit iron mine in Minnesota. It stretches more than 5 km long, 3 km wide, and 163m deep. It was established in 1895 and was one of the world's first open-pit mines.
The mine, located in the Mesabi Range, supplied as much as 25% of all the iron ore mined in the United States during its peak production from World War I through World War II. This prodigious output helped made Minnesota the nation's largest iron ore producer and the US the world's largest steel manufacturer.
The mine became a National Historic Landmark in 1966 when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It still produces 8.2 million tons of taconite pellets a year. Apparently the view point is being/has been moved in 2019 to allow an expansion of mining operations. Hopefully the new location will give some details of the exhibits!
The other tourists give a nice sense of scale, especially the guy patting the rear tyre! Scanned from a negative.
Big Truck
After a lovely landscape yesterday, here's something from the opposite end of the spectrum. The Wabco Haulpak, above, was an off-road haul truck designed to carry large volumes of overburden or ore in open-pit mines.
The example seen above can be found at a viewing point overlooking the Hull-Rust-Mahoning open-pit iron mine, a very small part of which can be seen in the background. I have been unable to find any details about the model of truck or its load-carrying capacity, but it was clearly considerable! Since 1999 Wabco has become Komatsu.
Behind the truck is a scoop from a dragline excavator, which lifted the material out of the ground and into the back of the truck. Again I have no details for the scoop's capacity.
The Hull-Rust-Mahoning Open Pit Iron Mine is the largest operating open-pit iron mine in Minnesota. It stretches more than 5 km long, 3 km wide, and 163m deep. It was established in 1895 and was one of the world's first open-pit mines.
The mine, located in the Mesabi Range, supplied as much as 25% of all the iron ore mined in the United States during its peak production from World War I through World War II. This prodigious output helped made Minnesota the nation's largest iron ore producer and the US the world's largest steel manufacturer.
The mine became a National Historic Landmark in 1966 when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It still produces 8.2 million tons of taconite pellets a year. Apparently the view point is being/has been moved in 2019 to allow an expansion of mining operations. Hopefully the new location will give some details of the exhibits!
The other tourists give a nice sense of scale, especially the guy patting the rear tyre! Scanned from a negative.