(By Greg Rourke) – Barn finds. Blah blah blah, we’ve heard it all before. How about a quarry find? And not exactly a “find”, as it was never really lost. Did we mention it was almost entirely submerged in water? Yeah, it was almost completely under the drink.
This video was shot in the 70’s. It looks to be an episode of a television show. It seems a steam shovel built in the ‘teens ( the ‘teens from the twentieth century, not the current teens ) worked a quarry of some sort, and stayed there until it outlived its usefulness. Apparently the quarry also became obsolete, and was allowed to fill with water. The top of the boom stayed above the water, like a lattice shark fin. Hence, not “lost.”
At some point a few guys decided it needed to be rescued, and quit being a navigation hazard. They sent a few scuba divers down to get a good look at the old girl and decided if it was worth saving. They figured they needed to knock the boom off of it, and remove the boiler, then crane the sunken beast out. Brian will need a cold shower after seeing the Diamond T wrecker they use to slacken the cables on the boom. Imagine swinging a fifteen pound BFH under water to knock out a few pins that haven’t moved in over 40 years.
They finally get it ashore, we see it was operated on rails, rather than on crawler tracks. They get the old guy who last operated it to watch the operation. They get it to a shop to begin restoration. The boiler gets sent out to the factory that produced it new for a proper inspection and pressure test. They decide it’s in remarkable condition, and suitable for 80 PSI of steam.
Finally they get it all together and ready to steam up. Have you ever smelled the sweet smell of a coal fired boiler? You should. Anyway, they get the boiler stoked, steam pressure, and they start operating it. Hissing, clanking, enough open gears and cables flopping around to give an OSHA inspector a grabber. Still not near any dirt, just a dry run. Did all go as planned? I won’t spoil the surprise.
You’re going to need some popcorn, a couple’a two-tree beers (Chicago-ese, remember?) and about 30 minutes.
