BAGGER 1473 / 258 - HISTORY AND BACKSTORY
Bagger 1473 / 258 is a bucket wheel excavator or “schaufelradbagger,” built by the heavy machinery company Lauchhammer in East Germany in 1964 to operate in gigantic open pit mining operations in the DDR. With an impressive length of 171.5m, reaching a height of 50m depending on the angle of the boom/counterweight and up there with the heaviest "non-self propelled vehicles" in the world weighing in at approximately 3850 tonnes, due to needing an external power source to function. Mounted ontop of eight gigantic caterpillar tracks, six under the base and two under the conveyer bridge section.
Similar to me after a heavy night on the piss, it was able to move at a whopping six meters per minute. And as such was unlikely to be breaking any land speed records.
I'd also like to mention the name/number, the plaque on the side of the bagger says Nr. 258. But through online research I've found several sources saying it was actually called Bagger 1473, can't find any solid source other than random blogs/wikipedia so I've chosen to write both numbers just in case. Could potentially be a difference in the number while in production during the days of Soviet east Germany and the name post-reunification of Germany after the wall fell.
Or maybe I'm just talking out of my ass, either way, Bagger 1473 / Bagger 258 / Giant fuck off rusty playground 42069, who knows.
Bagger 258/1473 in operation, picture credit and date unknown
From 1965 to 1999 this chunky boy messed shit up in the Tagebau Meuro fields in Brandenburg, owned and operated by the state owned "Lausitzer und Mitteldeutsche Bergbau-Verwaltungsgesellschaft (LMBV)" company. Bagger 258 / 1473 was operating in the Hörlitz sub-field between 1965 - 1970, the Meuro main field between 1970-1988 and finally the Großräschen sub-field between 1988 - 1999, supplying brown coal for local factories and power stations for 34 years until the Meuro open cast mine was closed in 1999.
Bagger 258/1473 in operation, picture credit and date unknown
Between 1999 - 2002 Bagger 258 / 1473 sat unused but maintained. Due to the land damage and massive water debt caused by decades of mining the LMBV company were required to begin rehabilitating the area, a process which is still ongoing to this day. The tilted embankments were flattened, and former landfills were removed or secured. The former open-cast mine infrastructure was dismantled and some ware preserved. In addition, the mine water was raised and cleaned. The newly created areas of the post-mining landscape are used for leisure and energy production, primarily solar and wind. The remaining scars were filled with water to create multiple lakes with the biggest being the Großräschener lake, aswell as the Lausitzring motor race track being completed on a refilled area of the Hörlitz sub-field in 2000.
Großräschener sub-field lake rejuvination project, during/after (Pictures from Meuro mine Wikipedia)
In 2002 it was finally decided that Bagger 1473 / 258 would be decommissioned due to the cost of upkeep, moving it for use to other still active mining fields would be near-impossible without disassembling the behemouth and moving it piece by piece, which would have been far too expensive considering the machines age and newer bucket-wheel excavators being far more efficent (Bagger 288 for example). The municipalities Senftenberg, Großräschen, and Schipkau decided on a joint action to preserve the opencast mining machine. Between 29 August to 15 September 2003, Bagger 1473 was moved approximately 8.5 kilometres (5.3 mi) from the Meuro mine to a spot just outside the town of Schipkau, where it would serve as a monument to the area's former lignite mining. The machine was moved across industrial roads and railways owned by the LMBV.
Bagger 258/1473 in operation, picture credit and date unknown
THE CLIMB & EXPLORE
A friend of mine visited the Bagger back in September, ever since seeing his pictures of it I had it in the back of my head. A disgustingly beautiful monument to Germanys industrial past (and present, I suppose), due to time constraints with work I had basically one shot at this. I sorted rountrip flights to Leipzig airport, landing at 3PM and flying out the following day at 9PM, initially I was planning this all as a quick solo trip. However I happened to mention what I was doing to a close mate at work, who called me an idiot and then agreed to join.
Dan isn't really an "explorer" or whatever we're called, but he joined me in sending it up an iced out snow covered crane on a lads trip to the alps a few months back, after getting sloshed watching England beat Senegal.
If that isn't an adequate CV I don't know what is. He was instantly involved and excited, what could go wrong? Be more like Dan.
the (drunk) italian (crane) job, dec 2022
So, two idiots vs one big bagger boy. We landed in Leipzig and hit the town, had a few beers, a romantic candlelit dinner and headed to bed early as we had to be up by 5AM to make the train. The price to rent a car was an absolute scandal so we opted for the train to germansoundingplace-enberg, a tight 10 minute connection and then another train to Senftenberg, the closest station to the Bagger. Instead of following google maps, politely following the roads and adding significant walking time, we opted to just crack on through the forest in the vague direction of the monstrosity, we made it up and down a few hills before seeing our first glimpse of it.
"fuck thats big"
Up and down one more valley and through a boggy field in my poor second hand airmax until we finally got within eyeshot of the pathetic looking fence surrounding it. Around 8AM, completely quiet, no wind and clear blue skies, what more could you ask for. We approached the fence and I decided to head in first, took off my bag and camera, handed it to Dan and scrambled over. As soon as I hopped in I noticed a gaping hole not 5 meters away from us, for fuck sake.
Heading up the Conveyor bridge first.
Conveyor control cab, ft. birds nest
Conveyor leading down to the main section
A constant reminder to watch your step
Anything resembling a cable had been stripped/stolen long ago
The connection from the conveyor section to the main section
Heading up the main tower
The Lausitzring motor race track in the background
Up top
Dan on his way up
The solar/wind farms as seen from the top
Looking down towards the front
Dan heading off to the rear, counterweight section
The cab for the crane
The walkways on the counterweight section were an absolute maze to get from A to B, so we took some shortcuts
Heading down to the center
Lunch break
Continued in comments due to attachment cap
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