Re: 483/480 Exrta West

Bill Scobie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> These are very interesting photos but where would
> this equipment be going.. these are big machines
> and I can't see where they would be going. They
> would make great loads in the model world.

Assuming the photo is indeed from 1941, during WWII, it seem likely to me that production of a couple of large excavators would be for a project 'approved' by the various government agencies that determined industrial output in wartime. One thing going on at that time was the reworking of the [former] Durango lead smelter site into its new role as production site for Vanadium Corporation of America. Later, extraction of uranium from vanadium tailing began in 1943, per page #2 of this report: [www.osti.gov]

Vanadium was considered a strategic mineral, and the Federal Government had established a vanadium purchasing program during WWII: [tucson.com]