Komatsu and Hitachi star in the first of Steven Vale's films about the hydraulic excavators to be found at work in Britain's surface coal mines.

In Wales, Steven recorded a couple of 250-tonne PC 3000s, the Dash-6 currently being the biggest and newest Komatsu excavator in Britain. They dwarf the Cat 777F dump trucks they are loading with overburden. Not far away a Demag H185S also loads overburden.

The biggest Hitachi excavators currently at work in the UK are the EX 1900s which Steven also recorded in Wales. They come in at 190 tonnes.

Among the face shovels and backhoes at work in Northumberland are the O&K RH 120-Cs, still going strong after twenty years. Some of them feature industry-leading noise- and dust-suppression technology. These popular workhorses are joined by the very first Cat-powered 120-Es in Britain.

Britain's surface pits continue to extract substantial quantities of coal from sites previously worked underground. How this is achieved with dedicated machinery is the theme of this absorbing programme.
 

  Approx 79 mins