Head to Beat’s photostream via the first link for a closer look at the jaw-dropping image above, and you can check out some of the individual models pictured within it via the links in this post or via the search function on this page.
This might just be the most impressive thing you’ll see today. Yes, even more so than whichever bottle cap challenge video has gone viral. This is the Marion 5760 mining shovel known as ‘The Mountaineer’, the first giant stripping shovel ever built and still the eighth largest to be constructed.
Completed by the Marion Power Shovel Company in 1956 The Mountaineer had an operating weight of 2,750 tons, working until 1979 before its scrapping a decade later. This spectacular fully functional 1:28.5 scale Lego replica of the 5760 is the work of Beat Felber of Flickr, powered by nearly twenty electric motors, with twenty-two pairs of LED lights, and controlled by several SBrick bluetooth bricks.
Weighing an estimated 35kgs (over 5kgs of which is steel ballast), Beat’s incredible machine can move and work just like the real thing. Each of the four crawling bogies is powered by a separate Medium Motor, with eight tracks being driven in total. These are steered by four linear actuators driven by another pair of motors, whilst another seven power the huge digging arm’s ‘crowd motion’, ‘swing gear’ and bucket. The drum hoist requires a further four XL Motors on it’s own, whilst a final micro motor powers a little passenger elevator that moves between The Mountaineer’s three floors.
Beat hasn’t just stopped with working functionality though, giving his creation a wonderfully detailed appearance afforded by its immense size, with hundreds of tiles and plates covering every surface to smooth the aesthetics, accurate railings, stairways, machine rooms, control rooms and cabins, plus authentically recreated decals to replicate the shovel’s original livery.
The’s much more to see of Beat Felber’s astonishing Lego recreation of the Marion 5760 on Flickr, where almost twenty superb images are available to view, each of which contains an in-depth description of the build. Head to Beat’s Marion 5760 ‘The Mountaineer’ album by clicking this link to Flickr, and see just how brilliant a LEGO creation can be!
This is Marion 204-M Superfront cable-operated mining shovel, and it’s massive. First built in 1974 by the Marion Power Shovel Company (who also built NASA’s enormous crawler transporters), the 204-M Superfront used electrically driven cables to drive its huge bucket arm and had a working weight in excess of 700 tons. Built for around twelve years the 204-M worked in open mines all over the world, with the last still operating in Asia decades later.
This incredible fully functioning Lego replica of the Marion 204-M Superfront was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr and it comes from Beat Felber who has recreated the machine in astonishing detail. Powered by eight Power Functions motors and controlled via bluetooth thanks to three third-party SBricks, Beat’s 204-M Superfront uses an XL Motor to drive each track whilst two L Motors can slew the entire superstructure independently. A pair of XL Motors power each of the cable drums and the bucket angle and bucket door are electronically powered by another two motors, giving Beat’s model as much articulation as the real Marion 204-M.
There’s a whole lot more to see of this spectacular model at Beat Felber’s Marion 204-M Superfront Flickr album, plus you can read our 5 star review of the SBrick bluetooth controller that makes creations like this possible by clicking here.
