Marion 6360, also known as The Captain, was a giant power shovel built by the Marion Power Shovel company. Completed and commissioned on October 15 1965,[1] it was one of the largest land vehicles ever built,[2] exceeded only by some dragline and bucket-wheel excavators. The shovel originally started work with Southwestern Illinois Coal Corporation, but the owners were soon bought out by Arch Coal. Everything remained the same at the mine except for the colors which were changed to red, white, and blue. Like most mining vehicles of extreme size, Marion 6360 only required a surprisingly small amount of men to operate, a total of four consisting of a operator, oiler, welder, and a ground man who looked after the trailing cable.[1]
The shovel worked well for Arch Coal until September 9, 1991, when a fire broke out in the lower works of the shovel.[1] It was caused by a burst hydraulic line that was spraying the hot fluids on an electrical relay panel.[1] This fire caused a great deal of damage to both the lower works and machine house.[1] Afterwards, engineers from both Arch and Marion Power Shovel surveyed the damage and deemed it too great to repair, and the machine was scrapped one year later in the last pit it dug.
The only Marion shovel that compared (in size and scope) to "The Captain" was the Marion 5960-M Power Shovel that worked at Peabody Coal Company's (Peabody Energy) River Queen Surface Mine in Central City, Kentucky. It was named the "Big Digger" and carried a 125-cubic-yard (96 m3) bucket on a 215-foot-long (66 m) boom. It was Marion Power Shovel's second largest machine ever built and the third largest shovel in the world. This "sister shovel" was scrapped in early 1990 in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.
