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O&K Terex RH-400 Revolving Structure being ground as Don Campbell scratch builds his next project., originally uploaded by Don Campbell Models.
Mining Equipment – Sometimes I think back to the awesome day I got a cool E-mail from James in Va. James had seen my some of my models on my webpage and he contacted me and asked if I ever wanted to come see the real monster machines. He said he was night foreman of over 100 monster Cat Machines. He said he was the lucky one who was responsible each night for keeping these gentle giants working the 12 hours on his shift.
It didn’t take long for me to send back a E-mail saying , We would Love to make the trip to see the real ones !!
And the was the first time I had ever seen two dozen real Cat
D-11R dozers , over 20 Cat 789C Monster Trucks and two Cat 5230 Mining Shovels in a real coal mine.
A couple years after that we made a second trip to see James and I actually went to work with James, Very COOL !
This summer we have been invited back down again and James said they have some new trucks and some new loaders.
Deb and I are crunching numbers and dates to see if we can work it out or not.
If you’ve never seen these monster Machines sitting idol , let me tell you, it is a real rush just climbing on them.
But to actually see them working and have them pass by you within a few feet and have a D-11R backblading 10 feet from you and feel the earth shake you inside the pickup, that is truly awesome !!
But the best thing of all to you new recent visitors to my webpage , I actually got to drive one of the monster trucks !! and drive a Cat 994D Loader and scoop rocks with it and the coolest thing of all was I got to sit in the seat of a new RH-200 Mining Shovel with a 33 yard bucket and actually scoop rocks with it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT WAS AWESOME !!!!
So as I work in my little workshop and glance at the dozen enlarged mining equipment phots on my workshop walls , it still make me feel very lucky. Thanks again James !! Maybe we will see you this summer (:>)
RH-400 MINING SHOVEL MODEL – Todays picture shows me connecting the side panels and the rear panel.
COLD SUMMER IN GAYLORD – Deb and I ventured out this morning in the cold and wind and drizzle to walk at 6:00am . We are starting to wonder when we will be free of frost warnings . Last night we had frost warnings again every week since the snow melted.
Have a Great Tues.
