the Bagger 288 KRUPP : The biggest ATV World

An article of Laurent and Séverine (20/02/2008)

the Bagger 288 (and her twin sister Bagger 289) is the largest tracked vehicle offroad world. It is a bucket wheel excavator, built to help coal mining surface. made 1978 Krupp for the mining company RWE Rheinbraun. 5 years have summers needed to build the first of a series of 21 models, still present activities and sold by Krupp. (Bagger excavator mean in German).

Its function is to clear the earth cover in order to clear the coal seams.
The Bagger measures 240 meters long 96 meters high and can clear up 240 000 tonnes per day, for a total weight of 13 500 tonnes.
The giant excavator needs a power supply of 16,5 megawatts. The central body of the excavator can move up 10 meters per minute, is 600 meters per hour. It is based on three sets of four tracks, each measuring 3,8 meters wide.

well Note pods caterpillars hinged on this photo.

The whole working radius is about 100 meters. Five people are sufficient to operate the excavator.

One of the two cockpit, elevators mounted on each side of the horizontal beam

The bucket wheel itself measures 21,6 meters in diameter and contains 18 cups or buckets, with a capacity of 6,6 tons of earth.

Some versions are equipped with elevator to the cockpit. Everything depends probably work for which they are intended. This wheel has fewer buckets.

In 2000, she finished clearing the entire deposit Hambach.
In February 2001, it was moved to the mine Garzweiler, distant from 16 kilometers.

Aboard the Bagger 288 is a huge reel with a kilometer long power cable. As it moves, it was connected to different parts of the industrial electrical network.

The trip is done through a highway, a river (l’Erft) And a railway line.

The excavator has come 22 kilometers to limit the altitude changes, a cost of 15 million marks (7,7 millions of euros), lower cost of moving the dismantling costs.

In 2004, an incident occurred, a bulldozer is found unfortunately for him in the path of the bucket wheel ! Laurent & Séverine, but Pierre-Yves Morvan has sent me a PPS recounting the accident to download here !

the Bagger 288 at work

Note the trailer right, itself equipped with 3 pods of a caterpillar, for which I have little information.

At first the ore is transported by conveyor belts to the center of the machine, then re-routed on the trailer in order to be then transported by a train. (21/02/2008)

here is “trailer”, description we can see the output of the ore to a kind of the process, also sold by KRUPP.
Note the asymmetric crawlers, as the Bagger. (21/02/2008)

The ramp of the trailer may be located at different levels, for example the top of the hole, even if the height difference is important. KRUPP sell various machines that redirect ore even further or higher.

the Bagger 288 is a giant German bucket excavator, which was the largest tracked vehicle in the world for a long time before being overtaken by the Baggers 292 a dredge 293. (info de mars 2019, cf. Wikipedia)

The monster at rest

Model of Lego !

the Bagger 288 attack strata in successive layers.

Screenshot Custom Google Earth marks left in the soil by the Bagger 288 southwest Düsseldorf, authorities have to move more regularly than we think. This image represents almost 8 kilometers wide. The wells thus created are very windy and wind herds are installed.

The video that goes well !

the model (21/02/2008)

In 1991, then in 1996, Revell released to the plastic model of the Bagger 289.

Ladder : 1:200
Length : 985 mm
Height : 553 mm
More than 500 unpainted parts !

At work !

This model has been reworked to increase the accuracy of the original. counterweight in pellets of 200 g were installed in hidden part to prevent tilting “natural” from the whole !

The conveyor trailer was more complicated to finalize the fact that there is very little documentation about it.

The barriers are broken down into 143 pieces on the model ! The painting was tedious… The manual recommends to paint all the yellow barriers, while on the original, only the handrails are painted, like here.

Detail of the dispenser outlet trailer

Detail of the rear axle, ballast was installed at this level.

Detail of the ball of the removable trailer.

The bucket wheel. A priori there are more cables output cockpit on the true. We clearly see the 4 engines 840 kW supply wheel