Robson's Mining World - lots of pictures - The Whistle Post

TrainNut · #1 (**permalink**) 01-21-2007, 11:21 AM

Yesterday, we drug the travel trailer out to a place called Robson's Mining World near Aguilla, AZ. My dad is an old engine nut and volunteers to "play" with everything so they have running examples during shows. Picture number one is a corner view of what you see when you first enter the main street.

Next up, since I need to keep this train related, you can see an old mining train type thing.

The rest of the pictures don't really have much to do with trains directly, but since mining and trains often went hand in hand, hopefully you can make an exception. Next up, there was this huge motor with a little wrench attached to the side of it. Any guesses on how big that wrench is? I'll post the answer later.

Lessee, now comes quite a few vehicles. The first two were a couple of characters. The one on the right was not running at this show but my dad says he will have it running for the next one. It's actually an old dump truck that is operated by a chain lift. The one on the left, we did get started and took it out for a spin. What a blast! It took me three hours to wipe the grin off my face after that ride. Unfortunately, as we were trying to back it back in under the barn, the whole shifting linkage broke off and we had to park her where she stopped. Off to the blacksmith with the broken parts and a short while later she was ready to be put back together.

A couple more trucks... the one on the left was operating... the one on the right was not.

And, a bunch of engines... ALL of which were running, making noise, and one diesel that made an incredible amount of smoke.

This one was my favorite, a 1919 White. Last year, evidently they towed it all over trying to get it start with no luck. This year they did not even try. Too bad.... I wanted a ride in that one!

This was the neatest little bulldozer type thing. It was designed real low to fit inside of a shaft. The bucket actually rides up over the cab on rails and dumps the contents into a cart following behind.

And as you can see it is getting late in the day. This last one is a cute little dump truck. Can you imagine how tight the turning radius is on this one?

Don't forget to give me a guess on the size of that wrench mentioned up above!
If you liked these pictures and want to see a few more, let me know.

Seaboard · #2 (**permalink**) 01-21-2007, 12:08 PM

Wow! Cool! Thats a nice bunch of mining equipment there. I'm guessin that rench looks to 10" to 12" wide at the head and 20" to 27" long, Iv'e seen a similar engine that had 4 cylinders instead of 3 and ranged from 340 to 380 HP. That bulldozer is actually called a Mucker, an oversized one at that. There usually smaller than that. There used to clear dibree off the track after they blast a tunnel end to exstend the tunnel even further. I like those trucks to

TallDude · #3 (**permalink**) 01-21-2007, 05:28 PM

Cool stuff Trainnut!! Thanks for sharing!

TrainNut · #4 (**permalink**) 01-21-2007, 11:55 PM

Well I know that the suspense is probably killing you on how big that wrench is

so check it out!!! That should give you a pretty good idea of the size. As far as weight... I dunno. It took almost everything I had to get it up onto my leg like that. Down on the open end, it was at least 2 inches thick.

Trainman1965 · #5 (**permalink**) 01-22-2007, 05:20 AM

Now that is what i call cool. Thanks for letting us see them.

ak-milw · #6 (**permalink**) 01-22-2007, 10:43 PM

Train nut,
Great stuff, that dump truck looks like it could be an old chain driven Mack. Thanks for sharing!!

TrainNut · #7 (**permalink**) 01-23-2007, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ak-milw

Train nut,
Great stuff, that dump truck looks like it could be an old chain driven Mack.

Bingo! How right you are.

TrainNut · #8 (**permalink**) 04-15-2007, 01:25 AM

Today I went back out to Robson's Mining World to help my dad play with the engines and stuff before they close up for the summer. Since I've already swamped you with pictures from this place, I won't bore you with too many more. Today I was feeling a little artsy and the first two pictures reflect that.

Lastly, remember way back in this thread, I had a picture of a 1919 White and I said I really wanted to ride in it but it did not want to start? Today, they got it running. Turns out, the carburetor was gummed up something fierce (Thanks for your help on that Olly!) My dad and I took it out for a spin! What fun. Definitely my highlight of the day. On the way back, the clutch was so hard to push in that my dad got tired and had me finish bringing it back to the shed and back it in and put it away for the season. It boggles my mind to think this truck was created 50 years before I was even born and at 87 years old, it still can stretch out for a little drive. That's my mom and dad tooling around in it in the picture!