A large, pre-War utility machine used in surface mining and excavating, the dragline is essentially a mobile building with a large excavating bucket on one end. Dragline excavators are the second largest land vehicle in Appalachia, dwarfed only by the Rockhound. The strip-mining operations in the Ash Heap utilized a towering excavator to remove and reposition the overburden above targeted valuable minerals. A large bucket is suspended by a wire cable, which is lowered to the material to be excavated. Once complete, the operator lifts the bucket and transports the material to its destination. Instead of wheels or treads, the dragline uses a pair of massive legs to slowly lift off the ground and reposition itself as needed.
A broken piece is utilized in the construction of the Crater.
Several pieces of draglines and broken variants are found scattered around Appalachia.
Behind the scenes[]
The dragline is situated in the same location as the real world Hobet 21 coal mine in Boone County, West Virginia. Until the 2010s, the mine was the largest mountaintop-removal coal mining operations in the state, utilizing a dragline excavator for intensive surface mining.
