05-25-2010, 08:30 PM
What era are you modeling, Les? I worked at the Eagle Mountain Iron Mine owned by Kaiser Steel in the early 1970's. They had 110 ton KW Dart earth haulers to haul the ore out of the pits into the crusher and pelletizing plant. I think they had only had those trucks for a year or two, maybe even less when I went to work for them. Their previous equipment were 65 ton articulated trucks. It seemed like within 10 years mining operations were using 250 ton trucks in open pits. The point is that the more modern the equipment, the bigger it will be. The shovels went up in size to match the bigger sized trucks as well. I think the only thing that didn't get bigger was the dynamite!