Letourneau Overland Trains

[Countryboy]

I was watching Modern Marvels (Monster Truck Tech) and they spoke of Bob Chandler's monster truck, Bigfoot V (see below). I had always wondered where he got those tires from as they appeared to be pretty unique and I had never seen any like them. He got them off a Letouneau Overland Train that had been abandoned for scrap.

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link (http://www.bigfoot4x4.com/more5.html)

Here's some pictures of the train...

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link (http://www.bigfoot4x4.com/more5.html)

Some information I have found on the train....

In 1962, the Army tested a machine known as The Overland Train at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. It was designed to carry equipment and supplies over both on- and off-road terrains. The train consisted of the control car, ten cargo carrs, and two power generating cars. It was 565 feet long and could haul 150 tons of cargo. The control car also contained living quarters for a crew of six, complete with sleeping, eating and sanitation facilities....

The train had a power car which provided power to the whole thing,
including rather elegant living quarters, very modern cooking facilities, and even an automatic laundry. The men who worked on it called it a mobile city....

One feature of the train was its near perfect tracking. Where it was driven on sand, the tracks looked like they could have been made by only two wheels, even around a curve....
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link (http://www.roadtripamerica.com/wheels/overland.htm)

[Lashlander]

I saw that show. That thing is cool! Good post.:thumbsup

[Countryboy]

Here's some more....

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link (http://www.garbee.net/~cabell/photosmisc.htm)

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[King of Obsolete]

northart on the ACMOC bb posts pictures of the one in alaska all the time. learned alot on it. very huge machine.

thansk

[wrenchbender]

Thanks Countryboy I've always wondered about those tires myself. Just figured they were made especially for the Big Foot truck I was wrong again anyway thanks

[544D10]

I have an old BigFoot VHS tape where Bob Chandler actually talks about the junk yard where he first saw those tires. At first he said he didnt want them because they were to expensive and a few years later he came back and they were still there and offered the guy half of what he had previous and got them. Its pretty interesting that he didnt know what he was going to do with them but he just wanted them.

[surfer-joe]

U.S. government used these big haulers to build and supply the DEW Line radar outposts in Alaska and northern Canada. In Rhode Island around 1967 I had to work in a strategic mineral depot for a while and there were about twenty of those huge tires in storage. We never saw the machines themselves, but they had a lot of parts for them in the depot. Rumor was that the machines were used down in Antarctica as well.

[Countryboy]

northart on the ACMOC bb posts pictures of the one in alaska all the time. learned alot on it. very huge machine.

thansk

Feel free to add to the thread with more pictures KoO......:D :drinkup

Thanks for the comments guys. The show said they were heavily used on the North Slope......not sure the exact location of the Slope :beatsme .

The videos on the Modern Marvels showed the train sitting there in the snow with all the wheels completely visible but the guys walking beside the machine were knee deep. Some serious flotation there..... :cool2

[surfer-joe]

Little history on the DEW Line construction. There is more at: http://www.lswilson.ca/dewhist-a.htm

CONSTRUCTION STORY IN BRIEF:

Nowhere has man undertaken so difficult a construction job, Only those that were intimately associated with the construction project can know the extent of the difficulties the construction people overcame, the hardships they endured and the intense effort they applied to build this surveillance system.

The DEW Line - short for Distant Early Warning Line - is an integrated chain of 63 radar and communication systems stretching 3,000 miles from the northwest coast of Alaska to the eastern shore of Baffin Island opposite Greenland. It is within the Arctic Circle over ts entire length and for much of the distance crosses country hitherto unexplored.

Much of the responsibility was delegated under close supervision to a vast number of subcontractors, suppliers and US military units. It has been estimated that by the time the DEWLine was completed, some 25,000 people had been engaged directly in planning and building it.

A target date for completing the Line and having it in operation was set for 31 July 1957. This provided only two short Arctic summers totaling about six months in which to work under passable conditions. The bulk of the work would have to be completed in the long, dark, cold Arctic winters.

From a standing start in December 1954, many thousands of people with countless skills were recruited, transported to the polar regions, housed, fed and supplied with tools, machines and materials in order to construct physical facilities - buildings, roads, tanks, towers, antennas, airfields and hangars - at some of the most isolated spots in North America.

Military and civilian airlifts, huge sealifts during the short summers, cat trains and barges distributed vast cargoes the length of the Line to build the permanent settlements needed at each site. In all, 460,000 tons of material were moved from the US and Canada to the Arctic by air, land and water.

As the stacks of materials at the station sites mounted, construction went ahead rapidly. Subcontractors with a flair for tackling difficult construction handled the bulk of this work under Western Electric direction. Prodigious quantities of gravel were produced and moved. Concrete was poured in the middle of the Arctic winters, buildings were constructed, electricity, heat and water provided, huge steel antenna towers were erected, airstrips and hangars were built. After the buildings came the installation of radar and communications equipment: then the thorough and time consuming testing of each unit individually and of the system as an integrated whole.

Finally all was ready and on 31 July 1957 - just two years and eight months after the decision to build the DEW Line, was complete and turned over to the Air Force on schedule - a complete, operating radar system across the top of North America with its own dependable communications network.

The DEW Line extends east and west at roughly the 69th parallel. On the average, it is about 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle and 1,400 miles from the North Pole. Its western end is anchored on the northern coast of Alaska. With only a handful widely separated villages (Point Barrow, the largest), it is a remote and desolate section. But in comparison with the area along the DEW Line to the east, it is densely populated and highly developed. Once you leave the Mackenzie River (BAR-C) and head east, you find only an occasional RCMP post and Hudson's Bay store, plus a few settlements of migrant Eskimos. For all practical purposes, the 2,00 miles between the Mackenzie and Baffin Island are uninhabated.

Construction work needed to build housing, air strips, hangars, antennas and towers was done by subcontractors. In all, over 7,000 bulldozer operators and other tradesmen from the US and Canada worked at breakneck speed under conditions so difficult it is a wonder the job was completed in such a short time.

Scores of commercial pilots, flying everything from bush planes to four-engine ships, were the backbone of one of the greatest airlift operations in history. Helping them were US Air Force crews of the giant "Globemasters" and "Flying Boxcars".

The stations are of three types: main stations, auxiliary stations, and intermediate stations. The main stations are the largest. Each one is a complete, self contained community, set in the middle of nowhere. Like any community in the US or Canada, each station has its own electricity, water service, heating facilities, homes, work buildings, recreation areas and roads. The Arctic has dictated what the buildings look like, how they are built and even in what direction they face.

Instead of a group of separate buildings, the typical main station is essentially two long, low buildings connected by an enclosed overhead bridge, forming the letter "H". At one end, set on steel stilts, is the radome - a weather tight dome covering the radar antenna. Nearby are the huge "reflectors" that provide radio communication with the outside world.

Living quarters, recreation facilities, radar and radio equipment and power and heating plants are all within the main buildings. For stations at the western end of the Line, buildings at a deactivated Navy camp in Point Barrow were converted into workshops where prefabricated panels, fully insulated, were put together to form modular building units 28 feet long, 16 feet wide and 10 feet high. These modules were put on sleds and drawn to station sites hundreds of miles away by powerful tractors - a cat train.

Each main station has its own airstrip - as close to the buildings as safety regulations and the terrain permitted. Service buildings, garages, connecting roads, storage tanks, warehouses and perhaps an aircraft hangar complete the community.

At the conclusion of the construction efforts there were unconfirmed rumors that the overall cost for construction of the DEW Line, excluding equipment, transportation and construction of the DEW East Section, exceeded $750 Million dollars. Construction of the DEW East sector to connect Eastern Canada (DYE-M) to Eastern Greenland (DYE-4) started in 1959 and was completed and turned over to Federal Electric Corporation for O&M in 1961. This completed the connection of this defense system with the Iceland Defense System.

Puget Sound and Drake (PS&D), construction contractor out of Seattle, Washington, was the contractor responsible for construction of the Line from LIZ-A in western Alaska through BAR-C in Western Canada at the mouth of the Mackenzie River.

Interior Airways was the airlift contractor, flying C-46's and DC-3's from and to Fairbanks and the Line. Lateral transportation was accomplished by most anything that would fly. Recognize, the intermediate sites runways were merely 1,000 feet in length, the auxiliary sites 3,000 feet and the main sites at BAR-M and POW-M, 4,000 feet (later extended to 5,000 feet). Stationed at BAR-M was a DC-3, two Cessna 180's, a Norseman and an old C-45 trainer from WWII. Located at POW-M was a similar contingency of aircraft - and both sectors serviced each other as need dictated. Although the primary mode of transportation for personnel, mail and small cargo was via airlift, the primary method of delivering cargo though out the construction phase was sealift and/or cat train. Each winter, after the ice had frozen to about 60 inches, a cat train would be dispatched both east and west from both BAR-M and POW-M to the in between sites delivering, fuel, equipment and construction materials. A cat train would consist of a number of crawler tractors pulling a series of sleds containing the materials to be delivered, plus a bunkhouse, kitchen and fuel (spare parts) for the crew and equipment maintenance.

It was not uncommon for C-124's to land at either BAR-M or POW-M loaded with large cargo destined for the construction program. In the fall of 1956, a C-124 misinterpreted the beacon at POW-1 as POW-M and landed on the 3,000 foot runway at POW-1. It got stopped without damage but had to remain there until about February 1957, when an ice runway about 6-7000 feet could be constructed.

The employees lived in Jamesway tents (about 10X12 ft) containing 2 double bunks and housed up to 4 employees. Heat was provided by a gravity fed kerosene heater (made from a 55 gallon oil drum). Fire was the most feared possible incident. Stove "ticklers" were employed around the clock to go from building to building (including the sleeping tents) each hour to "tickle" the stoves - knocking down the soot to prevent explosion/fire. The construction camp had a centralized out house (honey bucket) and shower. Needless to say it was necessary for one to be fully clothed to utilize these facilities.

To off set these uncomfortable conditions was the excellent dinning facilities and of course the outstanding pay. It was not uncommon for an employee to be paid $3,000. per month via the high-time and over-time rates of pay. One thing that amazes me to this day is how simple, efficient and easy the administration and payroll systems were in those construction days. Today we utilize interactive computers yet must maintain a considerable payroll staff. In early 1957, within the BAR Sector, PS&D had over 250 construction workers finalizing the construction efforts and most all bargaining types (Union) getting paid weekly. Time included regular time, high time (working off the ground), over time, call outs, hot-time (working on live electrical systems), etc. The payroll and checks were manually constructed, by hand, and each employee paid weekly, by one each John, the Paymaster and one clerk. There was little to no administrative efforts. The Management and Administrative Staff for this 250 man work force consisted of the Superintendent, Personnel Manager, Paymaster, and one clerk.

[Countryboy]

Great information Joe :drinkup .
That info didn't happen to come with any pictures did it? :confused: :D

[hoeman600]

I have picts of my wife sitting in one of the tires will scan and post it tomorrow. I usedto build monster truck tracks . also crewed for digger and helped build SUDDENIMPACT when john seasock owned it bob chandler is one of the nicest guys uou could ever meet:usa

[hoeman600]

my own monsters:drinkup

[Countryboy]

Nice trucks. :thumbsup

[surfer-joe]

Countryboy, I did not see any pictures with the account that I posted here, but I did not really examine the complete website, there may be some pics there, will check when I get the chance.