Rader Sidetrack Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 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]
> rs-area-was-great-producer-of-vanadium/article_d31
> fc02e-79c8-538c-bdf4-e1708981bd22.html

I will post some pics of this movement. The loads did continue west out of Chama. Interesting info Radar.

William
aka drgwk37