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Oddball Dragline (St. Aidens Mine) May 2015 | Oblivion State Urban Exploration

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Oddball Dragline (St. Aidens Mine) May 2015

Hydro

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Explored with –Raz-

We had put this explore off for months for some reason, however on the way home from checking out how much of Hanson Brick Works was left (NOTHING) we nipped in for a look.

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History;

Meet Bucyrus Erie, the whopping 1200 tonne open cast mine walking dragline. Known as “Oddball†the industrial giant could walk, yes walk, at 0.2mph which doesn’t sound fast but when it’s the size of 60 double decker busses and that heavy i'd say that was pretty impressive.

It was originally built and based in Virginia USA where it served for 4 years before being packed up and shipped over to South Wales in 1952. Since then it has been taken apart and rebuilt plenty of times and has made appearances all across the UK until it came to rest in Swillington (St. Aidens mine). It took a few years out of service after an accident in 1988 when the miners dug too close to the river, effectively turning the mine into a giant pond. £20,000,000 later the mine had been drained and the work there was subsequently completed.

In 1999 a group called the “Friends of St. Aidens†restored the dragline with the help of the national lottery and it made its final slug to its current resting place where it now sits as a museum piece and a monument to the great industrial prowess and power of the National Coal Board.

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If you got this far, thanks for reading (y)

More on my page @ www.facebook.com/seldomseenworldue


 

Urbexbandoned

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Thanks for sharing, always worth checking on a sites progress.

Do like that first shot though.

(y)

:comp

 

Hydro

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Thanks (y) pretty much stumbled across this too!

Shame Hanson has gone, it was a brilliant location

 

skeleton key

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Its always good to see some thing different and very interesting.

Quality mate and thanks for sharing :band:

 

The_Raw

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That's pretty cool, did you not climb the fucker though? I'd be all over that like a rash :D

 

Hydro

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I wanted to but it was unbelievably rusty and knackered. Might have a go in the near future though (y)

 

hamtagger

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Cool little place mate, not seen this one before cheers for posting (y)

 

Urban_Explorer

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another cool share, but as a friendly suggestion i wish u would show more!!! lol

 

Judderman62

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They have open days and they used to, not sure if they still do, let you go inside. It's amazing in there :)

Nicely shot sir :cool2:

 

Session9

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Nice, little bit different.

Had a wee mooch around the one at Stewartby back in 2009. Secca had a room on it, so didn't get too close.

 

Hydro

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No secca in sight on this one, just the odd dog walker to avoid (y)

 
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