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Shovelling with steam

By the time Mary Sue came on the scene in 1929, using steam as the power source for these mighty excavators was starting to go out of fashion.
In fact Bucyrus originally offered the 50-B in 1922, with the option of steam, electric, gas and diesel configurations. It could be mounted on either tracks or the then less popular rails.
This 70-ton model stood out from others because it was one of the first that could be used as a face shovel and adapted as a drag line, obviously with a different boom. It was in production from 1922-1934, by which time 534 had been built. Today it is said that only two examples have survived, both are steam powered, one with oil firing that’s plinthed in California, and of course No 10404 Mary Sue.
Our story really starts with Daniel Parmelee Eells, a prominent industrialist and leader behind the coal-carrying Ohio Central Railroad, and a bunch of his relatives who were very much into banking who went on to create the Bucyrus Foundry & Manufacturing Co., manufacturing coal mining and railway equipment.
John Thompson was employed as the engineer and his No 1 rail steam shovel made
at Bucyrus was completed in 1882 for, coincidently, the Ohio Central Railroad.
AW Robinson took over as company engineer in 1888 and was able to guide it
in the right direction right up to the dawn of
the 20th century.
However, they didn’t just make rail shovels, but also, from 1883, dipper dredgers, which were still in production 70 years later. The
firm also produced railway maintenance equipment, from spreaders, pile drivers,
ballast wagons and so on.
When you are making ‘big’ equipment,
you need extensive premises and at the time Bucyrus could not expand its current site, so moved north to South Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
in 1893.
However, the company had problems with
an unskilled labour force and it took time to expand the sales as the Eells family wanted, who were to be involved in the company right into the 1950s.
Although the company needed some financial support, at the time its products were gaining a good reputation for being well made and they had changed the name again to simply The Bucyrus Co. The range consisted of some 12 sizes of shovels, right up to 95 tons, that all ran on rails.
It was Bucyrus equipment that was used in the construction of the reverse polarity Chicago Canal and when the vast Mesabi Iron ore ranges were opened up, this company was the first choice of equipment and the same could be said of the Panama Canal as well. Of the 102 shovels used on this project, some 77 were from Bucyrus. At the turn of the 20th century, the company’s shovels were being built under licence in St Petersburg, Russia – that came to an end in 1917 – and also in Canada from 1904.
The company continued to expand with its takeover in 1910 of what was its greatest rival, the Vulcan Steam Shovel Co. They were making fully revolving shovels long before many of their competitors. The following year the Atlantic Equipment Co, who had been using designs by AW Robinson so successfully, became part of the empire as well.
By now they used the land that Vulcan had acquired at Evansville, Indiana, for a new factory; here the company’s first full slew excavators were made. At the same time, the class 14 dragline was launched, although Bucyrus had been offering draglines since 1910 following the purchase of the Heyward-Newman design. The class 14 had an internal combustion offered and with crawler tracks, said to be another first. The company had originally offered the Leech brothers ‘endless tracks’ from 1905, but with limited success.
In 1920, Bucyrus launched the Universal range with the 30-B one yard track-mounted machine. It was classed as a first in the industry as it could be used as a dragline or a face shovel, besides crane and grab configurations. It was in 1921 that the 30-B was fitted with a diesel engine, an industry first, and the range consisted of two other sizes – the 20-B and the mighty 50-B, which was steadily improved over the years.
While designs evolved, the company took over the Erie Steam Shovel Co of Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1927, who at the time were the largest manufacturer of the smaller steam shovel. The company changed its name to Bucyrus-Erie and became the largest in the industry. They didn’t stop there as they went on in 1930 to merge with Ruston & Hornsby, creating Ruston-Bucyrus in Europe. Not forgetting that Ruston were the only company that offered a full line of shovels in Europe, having started in 1874.
This 50-B, Mary Sue, was built in 1929 and sold by agent Brande’s Equipment of Louisville, Kentucky, to the Kentucky-Virginia Stone Co
of Middlesboro, Kentucky, for $22,000 (£12,400 today). In May 1929, it was put to work in the Wheeler quarry in Virginia where it stayed until 1951. Kitted out as a face shovel, it has a 26ft riveted boom and a 17ft dipper boom with two-yard bucket. The boiler is placed horizontally across the back of the house (cab). The firebox is to the left with the coal bunker (1900lb) situated outside the house, making it easier to load.
There are a number of steam engines operating the controls, with the largest controlling the drive unit, along with the bucket and boom dipper hoist. The other controls the slewing by yet another two-cylinder unit and the third on the dipper boom defines the depth of the arm, not forgetting the bucket dump engine as well. There is also a Weir pump for the water feed into the boiler from the 500-gallon water tank.
The house revolves from the 7ft 5in turntable with the slewing gear being cut from a solid lump. The 20-ton undercarriage consists of the eight-tracked wheels, of which four are driven from bevel gears; however, no differential is fitted and turning the 50-B has to be done by pulling the rear drive pin out and carefully slewing it around. When in action at Rollag, they laid on the ground some 1000 gallons of water to help slew the giant around , which takes some time to do as the drive is locked in and out a number of times in the turning process.  It was in 1951 that the boiler was overhauled with new stays and so on, but the cost of operation and crew, (you really need three when working fully) prohibited further use and it was decommissioned and replaced with more modern equipment. “Over the years it was never really forgotten,” says Bill Ridicill, who was to play such an important part in the rejuvenation of this and other excavation equipment in the US today.
Bill is ex-president of ACMOC (Antique Caterpillar Machinery Owners Club) and told me that in 1982 the 50-B was examined for possible display and use at the World’s Fair, Knoxville, but the cost of moving it from Wheeler was prohibitive. It stayed in the long grass until Bill Ridicill CEO of Bellview Sand & Gravel Quarry Co at Petersburg, Kentucky, purchased it in 1994 and it was then shipped back to his HQ.
After dismantling it, the shovel was gradually rebuilt. The vandals had not really got to it, but a number of the brass fittings were missing and had to be replaced, and over the years the boiler and firebox were overhauled.
After the through rebuild had been completed and used around Bill’s very extensive site, he decided it really needed to be seen by a larger audience. The 50-B was therefore stripped into three units and brought to Rollag, western Minnesota, where it is part of the excellent Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion site.
This is a permanent venue, which has been going since 1954 and spans approximately five miles, more extensive than Great Dorset! Some 60,000 visitors come each year over the Labour Day weekend in September. There are permanent buildings and equipment on the non-profit site, which includes a standard gauge railway running around the perimeter.
Upon arrival, Bill and his team placed the undercarriage on the ground before the 25-ton house was lowered in place, which took some doing, particularly the meshing of the gears. With all this done, it sounds so simple but it isn’t. On went the boom before all the new cables were reconnected and tested, again easier said than done. They used a 75 and 60-ton crane and a Caterpillar D7T for good measure to assemble.
It was in 2003 that the 50-B, named Mary Sue after Bill’s wife, made her debut at her new home. Since then, a new building has been constructed to keep the shovel indoors, something that’s so important, particularly as the weather in these parts gets below 25 degrees in the winter. Steam shovels do not like to be left unused, as everything stiffens up in a very short time!
Bill says: “That’s the problem with old equipment; we have to spend days repairing it before we can use it, and we don’t have enough operators who know enough about what they’re doing either, which doesn’t help.”
He adds that he is trying to get more
people interested, but with steam particularly, you have to know what you’re doing. Nevertheless, what Bill has done here at Rollag is wonderful, even if it is 1000 miles from his home in Kentucky!
The sight of a steam shovel working is a great experience, particularly when it’s the biggest one in the world. If you ever get the chance to go to Rollag to see this and the other two steam shovels at work, it is well worth it.
The author thanks Gary Boyd-Hope, Bill Ridicill and his team for their help in the compilation of this story.

To see the gallery for this story, click here.