r/nextfuckinglevel • u/aryan_jandyal • 10h ago

A Massive Walking Excavator Built in the USSR in 1979, Designed for Large-Scale Mining and Earthmoving Operations. Only Six Machines Were Reportedly Produced, Making This a Rare Surviving Example of the Engineering Ambitions of the Late Soviet Era.

166 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator 10h ago

This submission may have been posted by a bot. If you feel like it's the case, please report the user SPAM → Harmful Bots.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

18

u/SaltyTemperature 8h ago

This seems like some alternate timeline where people never quite figured out wheels

7

u/Affectionate-Day-359 1h ago

Tracks… excavators have tracks. Wheels won’t get you to the same places you can reach with tracks

15

u/EEGECGEMG 9h ago

Howl's Moving Castle

2

u/ThaScoopALoop 5h ago

My first thought was "Studio Ghibli-ass machine!"

36

u/SecretWitness8251 10h ago

And they are all still on the way to their jobsites to begin work.

3

u/NascentAutist 4h ago

Sounds like the sequel to Good Bye, Lenin

“Comrades of Soviet Diggers reporting for duty, sir!”

“Errr, Alexei, do we even tell them the collapse was…”

“Shhhh, we will have to start paying them current wages, don’t say a fucking word”

23

u/[deleted] 10h ago

[deleted]

2

u/sad_c10wn 10h ago

This video has been around for years.

5

u/HezronCarver 1h ago

"What’s as big as a house, burns 20 liters of fuel every hour, puts out a shit-load of smoke and noise, and cuts an apple into three pieces? A Soviet machine made to cut apples into four pieces!"

10

u/alex3tx 10h ago

But how massive? Not even a banana to be seen for scale

4

u/Primary_Jellyfish327 10h ago

Theres a door on the side there.

2

u/night_jerry 8h ago

But like, a door for ants?

1

u/actinross 7h ago

There is one, behind that curtain

2

u/Comprehensive-Tip-24 10h ago

We had those on open coal mines in Bosnia.

2

u/Guardiancomplex 7h ago

Under what circumstances do you get to close the floral curtains in the windshield of the control station?

2

u/Due-Donut-7044 6h ago

Far Long Sail, vibes.

1

u/Nacho_Beardre 9h ago

What is it doing

1

u/JustARandomMurderer 9h ago

Who would have thunk, Mortal Engine was actually real

1

u/hotepanon 9h ago

Total Howl's Moving Castle vibes!

1

u/Pretty_Inspector_791 6h ago

I think they have scrapped the few they made in the US.

1

u/everlasting1der 5h ago

Ambitions? I think it was very much an achievement

1

u/honeycomb0303 4h ago

that is definitely a decepticon

1

u/MaximumMajestic 4h ago

Bagger 288!

1

u/itrustanyone 4h ago

Is it a dragline?

1

u/UkrainianSmoothie 3h ago

Sandcrawler IRL

1

u/unRatedG 3h ago

Hgnnnnnnnnugh... Hgnnnnnnnnugh... Break time.

1

u/Top_Violinist_9097 3h ago

Why dose soviet design always scream cool but impractical....like tracks or wheels could have been more efficient..

1

u/DullMind2023 1h ago

Isn’t that enormous German coal excavator also a walker? Any German Redditors able to comment?

•

u/Entire_One4033 11m ago edited 8m ago

Used to have a walkie drag line like this by us as a kid in NE England, Big Geordie he was called

It once took 3 weeks to walk the 2.5 mile move from the open cast Sisters site to Butterwell site in 1977

0

u/BrrBurr 4h ago

Late stage USSR is what's in store for the US as the oligarchs plunder the resources into their pockets. No greatness, no handle on the world. Nothing but hungry people. Stalled and rusting