1956 LeTourneau LCC-1 Sno-Train - video and photos

[Jon]

1956 LeTourneau LCC-1 Sno-Train, an example of an Overland train. It's parked at the Yukon Transportation Museum in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...n_fullsize.jpg


1:03 video:

Note the 120" tires, which were later used on Bigfoot 5 in 1986:




More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overland_train

Previously:

1964 Tree stomper by R.G. LeTourneau
Pre-hydraulic LeTourneau front end loader
Arctic convoy to the DEW Line with giant Mack trucks

[ranald]

The tires look a lot like lawn ones on a mower/tractor. Must have worked though. the diameter would have a lot to do with it, I suspect: the old diameter verses width.

[Frank S]

I don't know how many of the land trains were built but one like the one in the video is located in a field about a 100 miles outside of Fairbanks 1/4 mile from the pipeline
THe pictures were taken by my partner with the truck and trailers just last week

[MeJasonT]

I've seen "Ice Road Truckers" so why was the train not such a great invention and still used.
It doesn't look like many of these were lost compared to big rigs. i get it that driving across frozen lakes is probably a bad idea but is it not a bad idea anyways.

[Frank S]

I've seen "Ice Road Truckers" so why was the train not such a great invention and still used.
It doesn't look like many of these were lost compared to big rigs. i get it that driving across frozen lakes is probably a bad idea but is it not a bad idea anyways.

At the time period the land trains were used Highway transport trucks were comparatively small by today's standards 180 to 238 HP was the norm. Tandem drive axles were not even the standard. a lot of highway trucks still ran single drive with a tag axle, and only the military or mining & logging trucks had all wheel drive
None of the roads far up north were paved and only a select few a little farther south were even graveled.
A road in the far north might be nothing more than a cut trail hardly any snow removal equipment was available and that was limited to being dozers
A 50 inch snow fall meant nothing moved not even dog sleds until it froze and packed.
Freight could be transferred directly from a ship at a harbor or from trucks to the land trains then transported over and through seemingly inaccessible areas.
As the horsepower of road trucks increased and roads were graveled some even paved (Sorta) maintenance equipment and snow removal equipment evolved the need for these behemoths diminished as the economics scale of transferring freight onto them shifted in the other direction. In the far north regions say Whitehorse and farther north or a few of the 100s of small Islands that are inhabited getting freight to them can only be done at certain times a year either by boat when the rivers are flowing or by ice road in the dead of winter. How would you like to live where the sun sets for the final time in mid November and doesn't rise again until February There are places where that does happen it could be 100 days between sunset and sun rise other than just a faint glow to the south.

[MeJasonT]

Thanks Frank,
Makes sense I suppose.
I have worked in the arctic circle north of Norway in the Oil industry, the 100 days without light doesn't screw me up half as much as the 24 hr day light. my body see's dark as the signal to sleep. Strange but working night shifts never bothered me either way. I've also worked down at the other end (Antarctica) In the Falklands and South Georgia, I also had the pleasure of working on MV Earnest Shackleton the antarctic survey vessel - luckily not six months away from home. Its a strange boat, it has a class system on-board - Senior officers and managers, ships crew and then the grunts with separate mess rooms and lounges for each. Sad, so 18th century. It wasn't that bad when I was in the RN.

[Frank S]

Thanks Frank,
Makes sense I suppose.
I have worked in the arctic circle north of Norway in the Oil industry, the 100 days without light doesn't screw me up half as much as the 24 hr day light. my body see's dark as the signal to sleep. Strange but working night shifts never bothered me either way. I've also worked down at the other end (Antarctica) In the Falklands and South Georgia, I also had the pleasure of working on MV Earnest Shackleton the antarctic survey vessel - luckily not six months away from home. Its a strange boat, it has a class system on-board - Senior officers and managers, ships crew and then the grunts with separate mess rooms and lounges for each. Sad, so 18th century. It wasn't that bad when I was in the RN.

You know the times when I was working in extreme cold (well extreme to me that is) -40c with howling 50 MPH winds for some reason I seemed to stay thirstier than working in the deserts of kuwait. Almost afraid to drink very much of anything because natural body functions would get in the way of working.

[wizard69]

Imagine turning one of those into an RV. Literally a go anywhere vacation solution.

[Frank S]

Imagine turning one of those into an RV. Literally a go anywhere vacation solution.

Or you could have one of these

Well maybe not

[MeJasonT]

This is well worth a watch

I know the Lambert Family, unfortunately Douglas is no longer with us.
It hasn't taken very long for for his record to be beaten with the likes of Formula E.
scary how fast the technology has improved over a short space of time, Our mental government wants everyone in the UK to drive electric cars by 2020.
Shame about never owning the batteries - they are rented and a fee is charged against them every year. where a car depreciated by £1500 a year the additional rental of +£2500 for batteries, its now in the realms of printer ink. People living in poorer areas of the UK (ie not London) will end up not being able to afford a car, these areas are also those where investment in local transport no longer exists and the infrastructure is in decline. A car really is essential as individuals from these areas are the backbone/workers making the products so the moneyed idiots can come out with such stupidity. I guess we don't worry to much about radicals in the UK as our leaders are far worse, at least in March Europe wont be adding there 10 cents.