G,day.....I have just discovered this site and one of the first things to catch my eye was this thread on 660's. In 79/80 I spent nearly 2 years operating a 660 for Thiess at the Tarong power station site in South East Queensland. From memory I think there was 5 on site, about 40 scrapers all up. These 660's I first saw as new machines at Phosphate Hill awaiting to start work when the mine was commissioned. At that time Thiess were building the rail line from Duchess to the mine (this was in 1975). These machines were built another metre in their bowl length and hungry boards on the sides. I dind't have anything to do with phosphate but it must be pretty light. The mine was mothballed and the machinery did not get used so were bought by Thiess.
When I was operating them the hungry boards had been removed. At an early stage of the job they were weighed with a load so that they had a more accurate estimate of what was being moved. My machine came in at 153 tons, can't tell you what the scraper weighed by itself. After 631/633's these machines rode like a limo.
Our haul was about 5 klm. one way and it was 8th gear most of the way. Orders were every and everything gave way to the 660.s. With that weight and speed braking was virtually nonexistent
. Three D9's were used for loading, though at one stage there was a shortage of dozers and two Komatsu 355's were hired (memory is a bit worn, I think they were 355).
Must go....Have a good one....John.
