|
|
Posted by David Sherman [24.32.202.83] on Saturday, August 22, 2009 at 13:19:46 :
In Reply to: Serious old iron part two posted by Greg in NY [74.44.141.6] on Saturday, August 22, 2009 at 12:25:29 :
That's amazing. I'd sure like to know the story of it. It must be close to 100 years old and looks to all be there. It's strange that it's all by itself, not in a museum, not in a junk pile, and not sunk into the mud and overgrown by blackberries. Whoever "saved" it when it was retired must surely be dead by now because I don't think they've used chain-driven steam shovels for 80 years.
From the small, flat tracks without grousers it looks like it would only be good on hard level ground, such as working in a quarry. It was probably a direct evolution from the track-mounted machines they used digging railroad cuts. In its day it must have been absolutely amazing to men who knew exactly what it took to do the same work by muscle power. I wonder what it cost, relative to wages. Also, I wonder what they would have paid for a Cat 320, say, in 1910 if you could take one back through a time machine.