Largest vehicle ever built, the Bagger 293

I went through and found all the baggers I could find mining in Germany. There are nearly 40 of them pictured in google earth.

Largest_vehicle_on_earth-Bagger.kmz (3.39 KB)

WOW! That thing is huge!

Here is a video of a Bagger 293 Bucket Excavator in a German Coal Mine.

That thing is amazing, and it's apparently electric as well. Gotta love German engineering.

Good Post Todd!

Have a look at ensuing image which I had posted in (now frozen) GEC; This is same your place-marker #34 at Garzweiler Open Pit Mine.  The question raised in my post "Is it Bagger 293?" still remains unanswered. Can you or someone else confirm it.

If not, has Bagger 293 been in spotted GE? If yes then which one is it out of 37 marked by you? Wikipedia says it is at Hambach but I couldn't identify it. 

Nor the picture in the first post, nor your picture (CuriosJM) are showing the Bagger 293.




^ That is the Bagger 293, and I believe it is the one on the "LargestVehicle_Bagger-1" spot or "LargestVehicle_Bagger-2" spot in the file created by Todd

It's interesting to turn on Historical Imagery and watch the way mines are dug and eventually returned to farmland. You can also see how these monsters migrate around the region, though none if the imagery I looked at showed one in the process of going cross-country. Their time is numbered as Germany goes more and more to solar power, pretty impressive for such a cloudy country. But the mining may continue anyway for sale of coal as an export.

May 8, 2015 18:53:43 GMT Hill said:

It's interesting to turn on Historical Imagery and watch the way mines are dug and eventually returned to farmland. You can also see how these monsters migrate around the region, though none of the imagery I looked at showed one in the process of going cross-country. Their time is numbered as Germany goes more and more to solar power, pretty impressive for such a cloudy country. But the mining may continue anyway for sale of coal as an export.

This is a picture of the Bagger 293 in the process of moving towards a new mine, but yea unfortunately it looks like there isn't a Google Earth image representing this

May 8, 2015 5:07:27 GMT Todd said:

Todd it is always a good practice to cite the image source. The above image is available on multiple web pages/blogs, however the original seems to be at Flickr. It could be Bagger 293.

May 8, 2015 19:32:42 GMT ndrqu said:

This is a picture of the Bagger 293 in the process of moving towards a new mine, but yea unfortunately it looks like there isn't a Google Earth image representing this

ndrqu since you have also not cited the image source, I am not sure how authentic is your source. However as per forbes.com dated March 12, 2007 above is the picture of Bagger 288. A comment on identical picture in Flickr also says that it is Bagger 288.

May 8, 2015 18:45:21 GMT ndrqu said:

^ That is the Bagger 293, and I believe it is the one on the "LargestVehicle_Bagger-1" spot or "LargestVehicle_Bagger-2" spot in the file created by Todd

Similarly I have doubts if the above is Bagger 293. In absence of source it is difficult to check it's authenticity. Moreover above image is reverse (mirror image) of the originals found in Wikipedia and Flickr. As per Wiki it is Bagger 288.

Following image is the authentic image of Bagger 293 as it has been copied from the manufacturer's (TAKRAF) web site; 


As per Wikipedia the manufacturer TAKRAF generally refers to it (Bagger 293) as excavator type SRs 8000 and as per Webpage of TAKRAF" ..... the biggest machine built, the Tenova TAKRAF SRs 8000, has a weight of 14.200 t and moves 240,000 m³ of overburden per day."

As per their Reference PDF Document the machine is at the Open Cast Mine, Hambach. So my (wild) guess is that the Bagger 293 in GE is #18 in Todd's placemarkers.

You are right, in both my pictures we are seeing the Bagger 288, because you can see the KRUPP's logo, and the Bagger 293 is from TAKRAF.

However, Bagger 288 and 293, as for 281, 285, 287 are almost identical, and I don't think there is a way to see the slight differences from GE

I agree ndrqu it is not possible to recognise Bagger 293 till we have a higher resolution imagery or till Google decides to send their GSV camera team to these mines.

Great! - Happy birthday Todd! ( :