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Talked to a retired operator at the diner in Duluth about the old bucket ladder dredges.
He said, 'We could hear every rock and log in the chain. You felt the whole machine talking to you.' Made me realize how much we rely on screens now. You can't feel a vibration through a monitor. Anyone still running an older rig where you have to listen and feel more than you look?
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aarons362mo ago
Read about a 'death rattle' in the chain meaning a link was about to snap.
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mason28312d ago
Used to think all that talk about machines talking was just old timers romanticizing the past. Then I spent a summer running a 1960s dragline and learned real fast that every groan and shudder means something. That kind of feedback loop with the equipment makes you respect the guys who got it done without any digital help.
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cole_bailey852mo ago
That line about feeling the whole machine talk to you... that's it exactly. My old backhoe has a hydraulic whine when a line is starting to go that you feel in your teeth before you hear it. What was the biggest 'tell' on those dredges? Like, was there a specific sound or shake that meant 'stop now' before something broke?
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