John Lee from Lampson tells ABHR that since the mid 90s, the business has been moving face shovels, draglines and excavators for mining companies across Australia.
The process typically involves loading, transporting across mine sites then unloading these 800 to 1500 tonne machines.
The main equipment used is sourced from Goldhofer, the Self-Propelled Modular Trailers that Lampson specifically sourced for this purpose, and which have proven their worth over the last 30 years of application.
The first shovel moved by Lampson was a shovel nicknamed “Rocky” at Ravensworth Coal Mine in the Hunter Valley. This little yellow machine walked onto a pair of brand-new 18 axle Goldhofer platforms for a trip across a mine owned bridge and into other parts of the coal mine.
At that point the face shovel was ready for an overhaul, so it was not up to the walk and the SPMT avoided the need for laying the power cables for electricity from one end of the pit to the other.
The longer trailer length spread out the concentrated track-load to allow safe passage across the concrete bridge – and with this successful project the now common term “Digger Move” was created.
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The 90s was an exciting period for invention because also at that time the first Dragline was relocated on Lampson’s crawler transporters.
A concept the Lampson manager at the time Phil Lunn had envisaged for many years prior. The opportunity came from BHP Gregory Coal Mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, where they required 2 of their used machines to be relocated for the growing Blackwater Coal Mine.
The 2550 tonne Marion 8050 Dragline was raised by jacks to allow removal of the tub and walking shoes then careful installation of 3 x Lampson Crawler Transporters.
The CTs were diesel powered track machines with over 1500 tonne capacity each. They were operated by personnel positioned between each of the 4 sets of V8 engines and followed instructions via radio and video screens.
The path between the mines were lightly graded or otherwise pushed out or filled as required to allow passage of the Crawlers with Dragline on top, with a ground bearing pressure of 160 kPa.
The following development of the Dragline Relocation System involved 3 CT-2000’s and a walk-on transport frame that did not require any disassembly of Draglines before loading.
This arrangement has since been utilised on multiple occasions and it significantly minimises the amount of ground preparation required due to the low bearing area of the 2.4m wide crawler transporter tracks.
The speed of travel is also a constant 6 times faster than Dragline self-propulsion meaning the amount of downtime is also reduced before it is back to moving overburden again.
The current day transport of diggers in QLD and NSW sees multiple relocations occurring per month.
In one shift a 20-axle trailer moves a typical 600-tonne excavator with just a few experienced personnel. These trailers are also used to move modules or other over-sized loads onto barges, around sites or during fabrication.
The combination of Goldhofer’s wide deck, 1.6m axle spacing and 45-tonne per axle capacity provide the solution to many transport problems; and with the option of attaching a self-propelled power pack, these trailers are set to remain a tremendously handy tool.