Disclosure: We are a professional review site that receives compensation from the companies whose products we review. We test each product thoroughly and give high marks to only the very best. We are independently owned and the opinions expressed here are our own..
Back in September I wrote an Random Image of Week article about Big Brutus and I feel its time to write some more about Big Brutus and share some of the images I took of during my last visit.
History – Big Brutus
The Bucyrus-Erie Model 1850-B Electric Shovel is the official name for Big Brutus and went into operation in 1963 with a shovel designed to dig down 20 to 69 feet to reach the shallow coal seems. Once those coal seems were found, smaller equipment was brought in to remove the coal.
Big Brutus was shipped by 150 rails cars and assembled on site in Kansas. It was retired in 1974 when it became uneconomical to mine coal at that location. Because of its massive size, it was decided it was to big to move so it was left in place and forgotten.
According to Wikipedia, Big Brutus was the only one built. Production of big Brutus was started in June 1962 and was completed in May 1963 for $6.5 Million (it would cost $54,332,897.35 in 2018).
But the story for Big Brutus doesn’t end in 1974. Like many unused and abandoned large excavators it sat abandoned and forgotten where the miners last used it, Big Brutus sat for years rusting. But unlike other excavators, it wasn’t scrapped for metal and materials. In 1984 Big Brutus was donated by the Pittsburg & Midway Coal Mining Company to a mining museum in Kansas. In 1985 Big Brutus became the main attraction for the museum.
Then in 1987 Big Brutus was designated a Regional Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 2018 Big Brutus was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
How Big is Big Brutus?
Big Brutus is huge! Its 79.5 feet long, 58 feet wide, and 160 feet tall (ground to tip of the boom, 16 stories tall). The boom is a 150 feet long. It weighs 11 million pounds. The dipper (shovel) could fill 3 rail road cars. That’s 90 cubic yards weighing in at 150 tons.
Although Big Brutus is the largest surviving electric shovel in the world, it isn’t the largest electric shovel ever built. The Captain Electric Shovel weighing in at 28 million pounds is the largest. That’s triple the size of Big Brutus and is considered the largest land-based electric shovel only to be exceeded by some draglines and bucket-wheel excavators.
Where is Big Brutus Today and Its Current Condition
The first and only time I’ve visited Big Brutus was back in October 2014. Since then I believe they added the Markley Shovel to the museum and placed near Big Brutus. It’s said the Markley is the first of its kind and was a homemade electric shovel that was built around 1920 and was in operation near the mining museum. It is believed that the designers of Big Brutus used the Markley Shovel as their design inspiration.
When I visited back in 2014 I spent some of my time looking at all the equipment. I spent most of my time on Big Brutus. I noticed that there was some restoration work done but for the most part the equipment was in ok condition. It isn’t being ignored but a piece of equipment this large is expensive to maintain even when it isn’t in operation anymore.
I’ve seen more recent pictures of Big Brutus and it looks like its been repainted and some of the equipment may have been cleaned up and painted.
At some point I want to visit again, but its over 5 hours away and will have to plan to do some exploring out in that area.
If you are in the area I do recommend visited the mining museum. When was t
he last time you saw a piece of mining machinery that is 11 stories tall! Its share size is crazy. Just walking around the track system that is almost tall as a grown adult and shovel that is taller than grown adult!
The museum has lot of great information on mining history and the prices are reasonable for a small family to spend a few hours of their road visiting.
The mining museum and Big Brutus can be found at 6509 NW 60th St
West Mineral, KS 66782. Please check their website for hours of operation and pricing.
Sources:
About the Images
The images were shot by hand in the afternoon on a gloomy day with my Sony Nex-3N and a Sony SEL16F28 16mm f/2.8 lens. I then edited the images in Adobe Lightroom. Next, I post processed them with Topaz Clarity to add texture, brighten, and bring out the details in the images. Then I removed the dust spots. Finally, I used Topaz DeNoise to remove the noise from the images.
About James
Leave a Reply