Big sucker!

The "blowers" were all sizes.  This was a larger version.

We deviated from the red car door track a little and came across this machinery in operation.

Claystone rubble from the mine is brought to the surface via a series of pipes and a super-powerful vacuum "blower" (mounted on the blue heavy-duty trailer).  We sat in the car and waited (waited, waited) for the hopper to spill a load into the truck.  It is a sign of how long we waited that the shot is cropped across the truck's wheels, rather than being more properly framed.

The airport is quite close to this point and later in the day we met other miners who speculated that the operator of the blue "blower" was actually mining beneath the airstrip!