Amazing! – Krupp “Bagger 288”

Last week I started the “Amazing!” series off with one of the tiniest beasties nature has to offer so it seemed fair that I give this week to one of most impressive and gigantic mechanical monsters mankind has imposed on our little blue-green marble.

Pictures of this machine has been floating around the net for years and often gets written off as a well made Photoshop creation. The sheer scale and massive “saw” blade on the arm do make it look like a work of mechanical fantasy but it is quite real. It’s not a one of a kind either as the ‘288’ is part of a fleet of 21 such excavators operated by RWE Germany. The ‘288’ is the largest but several smaller versions are quite common in the industry.