And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
looks like Anjean WV load out. i've driven a triple 7 over this bridge couple times, but stripped down, outside rear wheels off and no bed. the bed comes across on a low boy to spread the tire weight out. its a "bonded" bridge last I know, so no State Road BS, bet that air ride seat busted when he hit bottom, driver has to pass a drug test now, possibly fired, might have his miners card pulled for being a dummy, his boss too. mine inspectors pass out the requisite fines. triples 7's are like the hot rod of rock and coal trucks, they will carry over a hundred tons though gross listed is 77.7 tons, that is a D model, they go pretty darn good, last of the non digital connected trucks, handle like a sports car, you can do great donuts, drifting, speed limiter max's em out about 38mph and it feels like over a 100, and they turn on a dime. once you get used to the clearances and distance on "your off side", to your right as you drive, amazing brake system, good all around truck. A bit bouncy in comparison to the larger series rock trucks, but they have air strut suspension which you can adjust easily and get a smooth ride and adjust how they steer thru your roll center, tire air also helps to adjust them. Sometimes if the CAT mechanic will if you ask, turn up the boost and adjust fuel, engine responds very well, its a honker of a V8, they run pretty mild boost in factory trim, and in WV like at Point Mtn above Anjean here its 3000-3500 ft elv and close to 4000 over at Blue Knob other side of ridge, they get kind of sluggish, really fun and easy to drive truck, and quite comfy up in the cab, can be boring at times but nobody bothers you, most guys want to run a piece of equipment instead. So its hard to keep drivers, but in a strip mine or cleaning plant its the best low drag job bar none. Just drive safe show up on time, they love you. You can go a whole 10 hour shift nobody bothers you once, lot of line up time waiting to load, to read, listen to good tunes, some target practice if you got a cool crew boss, bag a deer in season they are always hanging around the mines, (or not but i dont know anything bout that) or whatever you like really. I got one of those kindles and get in good reading time. lot of young guys they have game boxes and use their cell phones an lot. Its always beautiful up in these mountains, never gets boring day or night, places no one ever see's cause without cutting in a road up in these mountains they are unaccessible, and if you climb, you cant see any view cause its all dense hardwoods, till they clear for mining. Just stunning views, best on earth. So much untamed land in WV. due to the steepness of the mountains and hollows. Quite amazing. So much coal here it boggles the mind, centuries of known coal reseves, and thats just known commercially mineable. We are being lied to like you can not believe about coal. Great stuff, best fuel bar none. Super dence power source, non toxic, mine it with a pick and shovel, need no special permits to truck it, make a million things from it including gasoline propane, medicine fertilizer anything. Its crazy, it is insane tptb are inhibiting its mining and use. A tin of coal cost around $29 bucks, max, to mine, they like it a few buck less, a tin of coal heats your house for a full year. Think about that, $29 bucks, plus the mark up, you can buy house coal here in WV for $35 to a $150, depends on grade source and mark up. Metallurgical grade is usually $200 - $400 depends on purity, BTU's, ash, sulfur etc. I use it in my forge, very nice and puts out serious heat. I get it free from being a miner, as employee they give it to you. Free heat for the shoveling from your truck into your coal bin. Real nice deal, we mix in free fire wood from the logging companies, they give it away, rejects at the log landings.
@KurtP, not much to get your surface miners card, its a 40 hour class, like $300 bucks or less, usually at some guys house, its pretty low drag, and then a basic written test, pass that you get a miners card. They have you begin as a "red hat", after so many hours mining, like a year, you pass as a black hat with a simple OK to a mine inspector your a good and safe coal miner. Training is all on the job. And you recieve a record of all your training certs for running equipment to being a welder, those go with you till you die. But mostly its a big clan in WV, everyone knows everyone just about. I retired recently but a rock truck driver was paying from $19 to $24 an hour, more overtime than you can work, its a hard job that way, usually 6 day weeks and minimum 10 hour days. Operate more than one piece of equipment pay goes up, mechanics and electricians pay very well, $25-$35 plus they pay for your tool truck upkeep with a per-diem and monthly tool allowance. Get sent all over WV different mines. I started out deep mining, loved it but after the Sago mine disaster my wife was a wreck so I changed to surface mining as a welder above ground. Deep mining is awesome to me, incredible underground. It is truly another world. I ended up working in the coal mines for a portable rock crusher and coal cleaning plant company my last years. That was a great job, two man crew, one runs a loader, CAT 988's with a big coal bucket and a track hoe oporater, run a say CAT 350 or smaller, feeding tock or coal into a crusher, loader takes the piles from under the belts of a portable screener. The give you a truck, pay u from your front door to your front door flat rate 15 buck an hour. Paid around a 3rd more than a deep miner gets all said. No vehicle costs or fuel costs, that adds up to a lot of extra. And the work was very nice and serene, might go a year and not see the boss, and they cashed your check and handed it to you on your job site in an envelope so you did not need to hit the bank each payday....
Fifty years ago, or so, in another rainy California winter the state/city in San Bernardino needed rock to shore up the banks of the Santa Ana River going through town. My dad's company started hauling the rock using pit trucks from the nearby gravel pit, not street legal but with someone changing the lights in their favor at every intersection it was working. One of the out bound trucks broke down along the road. It didn't mess up any bridge but the truck did sink through the pavement.
my crew used to spend friday delivering paychecks, paid a whole day no matter what. We'd have 30-40 grand in cash in pay envelopes on the front seat sometimes. That was a serious pleasant low drag job, long as you put rock or coal on the ground steady the owner loved you. Just two guy crew, get along well and its nice conditions all around. Now i hear pays gone up considerably, mine owners begging for miners, i see signs along the toad with 3-5 grand sign up bonus in cash for experienced black hats. Its a real different world coal mining. Not like anything else. You mess up your gone no second chances, u can get black listed or they pull your miners card. Thats it. Get a DWI your done. A felony - gone. Fail a drug test, see ya. Do something dumb, adious. And everything wants to kill you. Be periods time pass a miner gets killed every few days or weekly, its usually a dumb simple mistake kills you, mostly failure to follow mining safety regs and procedures. Worked in whats called a highwall miner, craziest rube goldberg contraption ever imagined. So many ways to loose a limb or die it was like constant combat, but it is the fastest method to mine coal, rig i was on about a week before i got on it set a world record for most coal mined in 24 hours non stop. They put out so much coal, I measured it off the stacker belt, 65 foot high, fill a 21 yard coal bucket on a CAT 998 on 1.24 minutes, when the miner car operator was going full tilt i would fill those triple 7's, with 4 foot side boards, with 100-110 tons coal in 1 minute 45 seconds and never catch up till we would shut down to move over to the next hole. It bores in horizontal off this huge launch plarform that walks sideways, follows a counter around a mountain, a bench cut in at each coal rib, you add or subtract coal cars that have a big belt, that moves coal from the miner car face to a belly belt on the platform, you load-unload these 35 foot cars with a 988 loader with this big ass pizza pan that slips under the cars to lift and move them. The most insane craziest thing I ever seen with my eyes. 12 hour shifts, hot shifts, 3 shifts a day miner never stops, its a chinese fire-drill when the miners bus shows up. We had one guy get a 8 inch carbide bit on the cutter head go thru his eye socket out his skull, guy actually lived, his whole face is made from titanium mesh that replace crushed bone. Got caught between the blast shield and cutter drum filling the gear box with oil. Another launch, had a methane explosion, spit 14 cars, the number one car and 70 tin miner out the hole, went thru the cab of the miner operator made of 1 inch AS400 impact plate. Concussion wave from the methane detonating at the face killed all the pad crew, think it was 4 guys. Word was somebody rigged a methane detector that kept shutting down the miner, crew boss wanted to keep production going. That kind of thing kills a lot of miners. So driving a Triple 7 is like a gentle-mans job. Stay in the armored cab, keep your seat belt on all times, and you are pretty much indestructible inside. Those trucks are really super rugged like a tank around the cab, they have to be, because your under a straight up vertical highwall of overburden, a rock wall thats from 30-100 foot high, its the unbroken wall left after blasting, and a highwall can fall, huge pieces of wall can fall without warning. A large piece of shot rock can tumble down from were the D11's are pushing it to expose a coal rib, another 777 can smash into you say its icy, and one starts sliding in winter its hard to stop from wrecking of it gets away from you. You never now whats gonna try to kill you. A hydraulic line lets loose cuts your fingers or leg off. So many ways to die every minute, more dangerous than those crab boat guys by a lot. Thats why they like you if your safe, and everyone tries to watch out for everyone else every minute, that actually saves most miners more than anything, kind of a brotherhood thing.
Welp, at least it landed on its feet, or tires, as the case may be.
ReplyDeleteThe company that owns the truck has a pretty big bill coming, between recovering the truck and replacing the bridge.
ReplyDeleteNorfolk Southern coal cars. That roof behind the cars with lights might be a loader on private mine property.
ReplyDeletelooks like Anjean WV load out. i've driven a triple 7 over this bridge couple times, but stripped down, outside rear wheels off and no bed. the bed comes across on a low boy to spread the tire weight out.
ReplyDeleteits a "bonded" bridge last I know, so no State Road BS, bet that air ride seat busted when he hit bottom, driver has to pass a drug test now, possibly fired, might have his miners card pulled for being a dummy, his boss too. mine inspectors pass out the requisite fines.
triples 7's are like the hot rod of rock and coal trucks, they will carry over a hundred tons though gross listed is 77.7 tons, that is a D model, they go pretty darn good, last of the non digital connected trucks, handle like a sports car, you can do great donuts, drifting, speed limiter max's em out about 38mph and it feels like over a 100, and they turn on a dime. once you get used to the clearances and distance on "your off side", to your right as you drive, amazing brake system, good all around truck. A bit bouncy in comparison to the larger series rock trucks, but they have air strut suspension which you can adjust easily and get a smooth ride and adjust how they steer thru your roll center, tire air also helps to adjust them. Sometimes if the CAT mechanic will if you ask, turn up the boost and adjust fuel, engine responds very well, its a honker of a V8, they run pretty mild boost in factory trim, and in WV like at Point Mtn above Anjean here its 3000-3500 ft elv and close to 4000 over at Blue Knob other side of ridge, they get kind of sluggish, really fun and easy to drive truck, and quite comfy up in the cab, can be boring at times but nobody bothers you, most guys want to run a piece of equipment instead. So its hard to keep drivers, but in a strip mine or cleaning plant its the best low drag job bar none. Just drive safe show up on time, they love you. You can go a whole 10 hour shift nobody bothers you once, lot of line up time waiting to load, to read, listen to good tunes, some target practice if you got a cool crew boss, bag a deer in season they are always hanging around the mines, (or not but i dont know anything bout that) or whatever you like really. I got one of those kindles and get in good reading time. lot of young guys they have game boxes and use their cell phones an lot. Its always beautiful up in these mountains, never gets boring day or night, places no one ever see's cause without cutting in a road up in these mountains they are unaccessible, and if you climb, you cant see any view cause its all dense hardwoods, till they clear for mining. Just stunning views, best on earth. So much untamed land in WV. due to the steepness of the mountains and hollows. Quite amazing. So much coal here it boggles the mind, centuries of known coal reseves, and thats just known commercially mineable. We are being lied to like you can not believe about coal. Great stuff, best fuel bar none. Super dence power source, non toxic, mine it with a pick and shovel, need no special permits to truck it, make a million things from it including gasoline propane, medicine fertilizer anything. Its crazy, it is insane tptb are inhibiting its mining and use. A tin of coal cost around $29 bucks, max, to mine, they like it a few buck less, a tin of coal heats your house for a full year. Think about that, $29 bucks, plus the mark up, you can buy house coal here in WV for $35 to a $150, depends on grade source and mark up. Metallurgical grade is usually $200 - $400 depends on purity, BTU's, ash, sulfur etc. I use it in my forge, very nice and puts out serious heat. I get it free from being a miner, as employee they give it to you. Free heat for the shoveling from your truck into your coal bin. Real nice deal, we mix in free fire wood from the logging companies, they give it away, rejects at the log landings.
What kind of experience do you need for that?
DeleteThe way you talk might make it worth taking my CDL-A up there.
Thanks for all the interesting information
Delete@KurtP, not much to get your surface miners card, its a 40 hour class, like $300 bucks or less, usually at some guys house, its pretty low drag, and then a basic written test, pass that you get a miners card.
DeleteThey have you begin as a "red hat", after so many hours mining, like a year, you pass as a black hat with a simple OK to a mine inspector your a good and safe coal miner. Training is all on the job. And you recieve a record of all your training certs for running equipment to being a welder, those go with you till you die. But mostly its a big clan in WV, everyone knows everyone just about.
I retired recently but a rock truck driver was paying from $19 to $24 an hour, more overtime than you can work, its a hard job that way, usually 6 day weeks and minimum 10 hour days. Operate more than one piece of equipment pay goes up, mechanics and electricians pay very well, $25-$35 plus they pay for your tool truck upkeep with a per-diem and monthly tool allowance. Get sent all over WV different mines. I started out deep mining, loved it but after the Sago mine disaster my wife was a wreck so I changed to surface mining as a welder above ground. Deep mining is awesome to me, incredible underground. It is truly another world.
I ended up working in the coal mines for a portable rock crusher and coal cleaning plant company my last years. That was a great job, two man crew, one runs a loader, CAT 988's with a big coal bucket and a track hoe oporater, run a say CAT 350 or smaller, feeding tock or coal into a crusher, loader takes the piles from under the belts of a portable screener. The give you a truck, pay u from your front door to your front door flat rate 15 buck an hour. Paid around a 3rd more than a deep miner gets all said. No vehicle costs or fuel costs, that adds up to a lot of extra. And the work was very nice and serene, might go a year and not see the boss, and they cashed your check and handed it to you on your job site in an envelope so you did not need to hit the bank each payday....
Watch out for that first step.
ReplyDeleteFifty years ago, or so, in another rainy California winter the state/city in San Bernardino needed rock to shore up the banks of the Santa Ana River going through town. My dad's company started hauling the rock using pit trucks from the nearby gravel pit, not street legal but with someone changing the lights in their favor at every intersection it was working. One of the out bound trucks broke down along the road. It didn't mess up any bridge but the truck did sink through the pavement.
ReplyDeleteDad did this once driving a tractor across a bridge.
ReplyDeleteBridge surveys: still a thing.
ReplyDeleteThe bad new is, the bridge is out. The good news is, the new bridge is already in place and just needs paving.
ReplyDeleteDam
ReplyDeleteGreat read. Spent a gob of time in WVA. Good and hard working people.
ReplyDelete-Snakepit
my crew used to spend friday delivering paychecks, paid a whole day no matter what. We'd have 30-40 grand in cash in pay envelopes on the front seat sometimes. That was a serious pleasant low drag job, long as you put rock or coal on the ground steady the owner loved you. Just two guy crew, get along well and its nice conditions all around.
ReplyDeleteNow i hear pays gone up considerably, mine owners begging for miners, i see signs along the toad with 3-5 grand sign up bonus in cash for experienced black hats.
Its a real different world coal mining. Not like anything else. You mess up your gone no second chances, u can get black listed or they pull your miners card. Thats it. Get a DWI your done. A felony - gone. Fail a drug test, see ya. Do something dumb, adious. And everything wants to kill you. Be periods time pass a miner gets killed every few days or weekly, its usually a dumb simple mistake kills you, mostly failure to follow mining safety regs and procedures. Worked in whats called a highwall miner, craziest rube goldberg contraption ever imagined. So many ways to loose a limb or die it was like constant combat, but it is the fastest method to mine coal, rig i was on about a week before i got on it set a world record for most coal mined in 24 hours non stop. They put out so much coal, I measured it off the stacker belt, 65 foot high, fill a 21 yard coal bucket on a CAT 998 on 1.24 minutes, when the miner car operator was going full tilt i would fill those triple 7's, with 4 foot side boards, with 100-110 tons coal in 1 minute 45 seconds and never catch up till we would shut down to move over to the next hole. It bores in horizontal off this huge launch plarform that walks sideways, follows a counter around a mountain, a bench cut in at each coal rib, you add or subtract coal cars that have a big belt, that moves coal from the miner car face to a belly belt on the platform, you load-unload these 35 foot cars with a 988 loader with this big ass pizza pan that slips under the cars to lift and move them. The most insane craziest thing I ever seen with my eyes. 12 hour shifts, hot shifts, 3 shifts a day miner never stops, its a chinese fire-drill when the miners bus shows up. We had one guy get a 8 inch carbide bit on the cutter head go thru his eye socket out his skull, guy actually lived, his whole face is made from titanium mesh that replace crushed bone. Got caught between the blast shield and cutter drum filling the gear box with oil. Another launch, had a methane explosion, spit 14 cars, the number one car and 70 tin miner out the hole, went thru the cab of the miner operator made of 1 inch AS400 impact plate. Concussion wave from the methane detonating at the face killed all the pad crew, think it was 4 guys. Word was somebody rigged a methane detector that kept shutting down the miner, crew boss wanted to keep production going. That kind of thing kills a lot of miners.
So driving a Triple 7 is like a gentle-mans job. Stay in the armored cab, keep your seat belt on all times, and you are pretty much indestructible inside. Those trucks are really super rugged like a tank around the cab, they have to be, because your under a straight up vertical highwall of overburden, a rock wall thats from 30-100 foot high, its the unbroken wall left after blasting, and a highwall can fall, huge pieces of wall can fall without warning. A large piece of shot rock can tumble down from were the D11's are pushing it to expose a coal rib, another 777 can smash into you say its icy, and one starts sliding in winter its hard to stop from wrecking of it gets away from you. You never now whats gonna try to kill you. A hydraulic line lets loose cuts your fingers or leg off. So many ways to die every minute, more dangerous than those crab boat guys by a lot. Thats why they like you if your safe, and everyone tries to watch out for everyone else every minute, that actually saves most miners more than anything, kind of a brotherhood thing.