*Video originally done by the late Ross Bunch who worked at River Queen Surface Mine*

This is the mine I grew up around!!!!

My father worked on this machine during it's life and I have had the pleasure of being onboard this machine once before while it was working. As a matter of fact, it was during the summer of 1985 that I got my chance to ride the elevator up into the Machine House of this massive stripping shovel. The elevator stops on the lower housing level known as the "Doghouse". It will take you to a number of levels such as the Machine House Level or you can ride it all the way up into the interior of the Gantry housing, close to the where the Knee-Action Crowd system is located. The elevator was housed within the "Center Pin" of the shovel in the lower housing and Machine House. This allowed the shovel to swing and operate while one could use the elevator all at the same time. The big thing is being in the elevator and seeing the shovel swinging around while you rise up in the cramped little thing. Some details about the Marion 5960 Shovel:

*--Marion 5960-M Power Shovel--*
-Bucket Size: 125 cubic yard.
-Boom Length: 215 feet
-Boom Angle: 45 degrees
-Overall Weight: 17,825,000 lbs. (working weight)
-Height from Boom Point to Ground: 180 feet
-Crawler Unit Length: 40 feet
-Individual Crawler Width: 8 feet
-Crawler Unit Height: 12 feet
-Dipper Handle Length: 131 feet
-Overall Height: 200 feet
-Swing Horsepower: 6,000 HP
-Crowd Motor Horsepower: 2,500 HP
-Hoist Motors Horsepower: 10,000 HP
-Propel Motors Horsepower: 2,000 HP
-Erected in 1969 at Peabody Coal Company's River Queen Mine, Greenville/Central City, KY.
-Named: "The Big Digger"

Through 1978 it moved 240,000,000 cubic yards of earth, and in 1982 set a record for best operating time in coal industry. The record still stands!

It operated almost 20 years in Muhlenberg County but, has since been scrapped in the time between 1991-1992 by a company out of Evansville, Indiana. There are some remains (parts) buried on the hill it was scrapped on, but the land is now owned by the US Government and the Kentucky National Guard/US Army.

A little tidbit of information is that there was a second Marion 5960 model on the drawing boards that was even bigger than this machine. It's size and proportions were similar to that of the Marion 6360, "The Captain". The reason being because the two machines are not that far off, design wise & size wise, If Marion was to continue producing stripping shovels, they were going to be based on the design of the Marion 5960 because it was the "future" for all shovels worldwide. This machine was the new standard that Marion had set ,but shortly after this shovel was built Marion's entire line of stripping shovels were yanked off the market due to low demand. Companies began buying more draglines due to their cheaper prices, less maintenance issue, stripping design, and other factors. As a matter of fact, newer mines were engineered with the idea that draglines would be doing the stripping, not shovels.