This summer Minserco of Montgomery, WV, began an enormous undertaking – moving a 6.7 million-lb. dragline from the coal fields of Western Kentucky to a limestone quarry in the Bahamas.

The dragline is a 1964 Bucyrus-Erie 1450 with a 60 cu. yd. (45.8 cu m) bucket.

The machine has been parked on a hill overlooking the Green River since 1992. It was purchased new by Peabody Coal Company and spent its first life mining coal at Peabody’s Ken Mine in Ohio County and the Gibraltar Mine in Muhlenberg County, KY.

According to Ken Allen, operation’s manager of the Midwest Operating Unit of Peabody Coal, the strippable reserves were depleted and the machine was parked in 1992.

Peabody sold the BE 1450 to Bucyrus this year. Minserco refurbished the entire machine and repowered it with GE electric motors. It took all summer for a crew of 30 workers on day shift, and 8 on second shift, to complete the restoration of the vintage dragline.

Engineers of Minserco indicated that the dragline would be moved to the Bahama Islands, where it will perform contract mining for Martin Marietta.

In preparation for the move, the 1450 dragline was walked approximately one mile at a speed of 8.5 feet per minute.

Its destination was a 75 by 250 ft. (22.8 by 76.2 m) barge waiting on the banks of the Green River to carry one of the largest machines ever moved down the inland waterways. The barge, and its 3,350-ton (3,015 t) load are expected to spend 4 weeks traveling through inland waterways and the Atlantic Ocean to its new home at the Bahama Rock Mine.

Once the machine is in operation on the island, it will cycle its 60-cu-yd. (45.8 cu m) bucket with a 250-ft. (15.2 m) boom once every sixty seconds.

(Keith Stout is an independent equipment appraiser and owner of Stout Management Inc. in Marion, KY)