Squadron of Cat D11’s!

by Nick Drew | Mon 21 Jan 2019

Squadron of Cat D11’s!

Our good friend from Down Under Gary Steen has been a regular contributor to this blog for many years and recently another flurry of emails arrived in my inbox of which some of the content, I’m delighted to share with our readers.

In the UK its rare to see two Caterpillar D11’s working together so can you imagine seeing a fleet of 23 in action! Well that’s the scenario at Gladstone Port in Queensland, Australia which is one of the regions most natural deep-water harbours.

The D11 dozers which actually now tally 24 following the addition of an all blue model raising money for men’s mental health, are all fitted with specially modified coal blades for pushing and carrying the coal into hoppers for loading onto ships by conveyor belt. They also feature extended panels on top of the ROPS structure to protect the cab from the tailings falling off the belts in addition to helping to shade the operators from the extreme heat.

The port has 90 stockpile zones which handle around 42 different coal types. The majority of coal handled at the Port is coking coal, which is exported to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Italy and France for high quality steel manufacturing. Approximately 30?% of the coal exported through our Port is thermal, which is exported to fuel the boilers of power stations in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Israel. One thing is certain, there is plenty to keep these big Cat’s busy and what a sight it must be to see them all in action.

The Digger Man Blog thanks Gary Steen for sharing these photos with us. We will have more from Gary later this week.

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