The Classic Machinery Network

Hi

Has anyone ever seen any pictures of the Manitowoc 6400 crawler dragline that Shepherd Hill used at all? Seen it mentioned in books but never seen any pictures.

Thanks
Dave

Hello Dah,
Great subject.I worked for Shephard,Hill & co for 5 years down in Wales,great company & really good payers.
On 26/3/1980.the MV, Terzie sailed from the USA,with the new Manitowoc 6400 aboard.
The Manitowoc 6400 Dragline was the center piece of all the equipment,for Shephard,Hill,but not much is known about it.
The little I know of it is,that it worked up @ their Lowclose open-cast site Nr Merryport,Cumbria, for the duration of the job.It had a Cummins V16, 1600hp (probably a KTTA2300) engine to power the upper works & a Cummins 450hp (probably a KT1150) engine to power the lower works.It had a 15 yard bucket & had Manitowocs,patented Vicon as the main features.(Variable,Independent,Control system)
After the contract had expired,the machine stood idle,fenced off for a long time,with a relatively new RB 195B.The 195 was bought for a steel of a price by Wimpey Mining for their new Potatopot site,which was the extension to Lowclose.I beleive there was a RB 150 @ Lowclose?could anyone confirm please.
The Manitowoc 6400 Dragline,was eventually sold to a company,back in the States.(Does anybody know to who it was sold to)
There is a picture of this Dragline in the book, Open Cast Coal plant & equipment.
When Lowclose finished,most of the plant came down to us in Wales,5 Lima 2400s,5 Komatsu HD785-1 dump-trucks,11 Terex R70 dumptrucks (sound suppressed) some Aveling-Barford Centaur 50s, 10 Aveling-Barford RDO55s,a Liebherr 984 backactor, a Liebherr 974 backactor, some Liebherr coal shovels,various Komatsu 155 dozers.an Aveling-Barford ASG021 grader, a Compairholman drillrig.
Contrary to peoples gossip,Shephard,Hill & Company did "NOT" go bankrupt,no one in the family wanted to take the company on from the original owners,so it was sold to some merchant bankers & Ill let you use your own discretion.
Hope this helps,
Regards,
Mark Williams.

Hello Everyone,
I have some information about some Manitowoc 4600 machines used in the Uk.
Ruddock & Meighan had a 4600 dragline in 1971 on its Knackshaven, County Durham mine.This machine had a Cat 379 power unit & had 7.5 yard bucket.Optional power engines were Cummins VTTA1710, or V71 Detroit Diesels.
Miller had 2 Manitowoc 4600s on their Albert site,in the Wigan area, in 1977.1 was a Dragline & the other was a shovel.The shovel can be seen loading one of Millers Terex R50 dump-trucks.You can see a few pictures of these machines in Opencast coal plant & equipment & sunshine miners.
These machines were in comparison with the Lima 2400B family.
The opencast mines in Pennsylvania USA,are common users of this make of machine & some good movies are on Youtube.
Hope this is of some interest,
Regards,
Mark Williams.

Hi Mark,

Really great information - thanks very much.

I always remember loads of Shepherd Hill kit at the back of Heanor Haulage's yard! 992B's etc

Dave.

Mark,

Forgot to ask - I read that the 6400 had a separate engine for the crawlers. Was it still controlled from the cab - I assume so but have seen a few older US machines where you have to drive the crawlers from the ground!

Dave

Hi Dave,
Yes, the 6400 has a separate Cummins engine to drive the crawlers,I'm almost sure its a Cummins KT 1150,but it could be an NT855,but @ 450 HP,I would think its a KT1150.
I have not heard of any other engines used in the 6400,other than Cummins.The main,Cummins 1600 HP KTTA2300 V16 engine is one big unit.
To control the travel,it is in the operators cab.
I'm not being a smart Alec Dave,but to my knowledge,Shephard,Hill didn't have a Cat 992 loader.They were not really big Cat owners,in the early days they had Cat D8s & towed scrapers & very early Cat 631 scrapers,they had a Cat 16G Grader,3 Cat 637C scrapers,a Cat 245 front dump excavator,bought with 3 Cat 769C dump-trucks for the Isle of man Dam project,a Cat D8N.
They were big users of Lima 2400s, Terex,O&K,Aveling Barford & most certainly Komatsu.They had Komatsu 155 dozers, with & without rippers everywhere.At Ras Bryn Oer & Pen Bryn Oer coal sites,we must have had about 20 Komatsu 155s,over its time.I remember we had a brand new one with a single shank ripper, just for 1 week & it was gone down to ECC in Cornwall on hire.I remember getting some shocking news on that dozer,that on its very first 1000 hour service,it had to have a complete undercarriage replacement,because of the very course english china clay.
Any stories and photos of this great company Dave,is of great interest to me.I will try and post some of mine in the future.
Regards,
Mark Williams.

Hi mark

You may well be right - the 992 may have just been parked with the shepherd kit in hindsight. I remember it because it was the first loader I had seen with steel wraparound tyre protectors and massive chains in the bucket!

In terms of the manitowoc 4600 - I remember dyggor gaylord had one in their yard. It had an unusual white and red colour scheme so assume it came from one of their aqusitions?

Dave

Red and white colour scheme could be Curral,Lewis and Martin ex machine

Hello Everyone,
I found some really interesting information this week,on the specifications of the Manitowoc 6400 & 4600 model dragline & crane models.This wasn't easy to find,so enjoy. Seperatly search for instance Manitowoc 6400 dragline wikipedia & the same for the 4600 model.
The Manitowoc 6400 dragline,contrary to my earlier specs,it has a different model main V16 engine,it has a Cummins KTA3067,still producing 1600 hp.The lower works engine is a Cummins KT1150,6 cylinder & produces 450 hp.
As for your question Dave,the lower works engine is started by the banksman & the travel is controlled by the operator in the cab.
regarding the specifications of the 4600 dragline,which surprised me,there are to many options for me to quote.All being either Caterpillar,Cummins,or Detroit Diesel.I'll leave it for you to check out.
Hope this is of some interest,
Regards,
Mark Williams.