Book available now on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFL91FX6.
Category: LCC-1-Sno-Train
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U.S. Army Transportation Logistics Train Concepts with the Sno-Train and Tournamotive
An archive video recently released buy the U.S. Army Transportation Museum shows several logistics train concepts, including the Sno-Train. The video, created by The United States Army Transportation Research Command, shows several early train concepts, including a small dozer with covered wagons with wooden wheels.
Early covered wagon trains pulled by a mechanical dozer Later concept drawings closely mirrored LeTourneau’s Tournamotive Trackless Train concept, which was his first.
R. G. Letourneau’s tournamotive trackless train concept art. Image courtesy R. G. LeTourneau Museum and Archives at LeTourneau University. The video shows four concept drawings similar in design to LeTourneau’s. The first two drawings depict wheeled trailers with a tracked control car. The later two drawings in the video show a wheeled control car.
The video concludes with a little over a minute of the Sno-Train maneuvering over snowy terrain near a body of water. The following images were captured from the video, which was likely filmed in Houghton, MI, USA. The Sno-Train was in Houghton for testing at the Keweenaw Field Station of Snow Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment (SIPRE) from March 1956 to the end of May 1956.
All images in this blog post were captured from U.S. Army Public Domain video posted by the U.S. Army Transportation Museum unless otherwise noted.
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How do you Sell a Sno-Train?
Well, you can sell it on eBay of course! When the Sno-Train’s owner past away in 2009, his son was left to liquidate the machine. There were a number of bids on the Sno-Train. Ultimately, a man in Whitehorse, which you can read about in my book, bought the Sno-Train and had it trucked on numerous flatbeds. The machine was transported at great expense from its home in Alaska to Whitehorse, YT, where it found its near-forever home at the Yukon Transportation Museum.
eBay.ca listing for the Sno-Train -
The Sno-Train in Greenland
When the Sno-Train arrived in Greenland, it logged over 2,000 miles across the Ice Cap. Several men that were stationed in Camp Tuto, Thule Air Base, and others captured these images of the Sno-Train.
Image courtesy of John Davis. Above: The Sno-Train travels across the CAT train road with a Goodyear tired based Thompson Trailer towing what appears to be a wanigan. The horizontal bar atop the Sno-Train’s front car, or control car, is a radar unit.
Image courtesy of Joe Cahill Above: The Sno-Train in Greenland pulling a wanigan and Thompson Trailer. The “ICE CAP LIMITED” on the snow cowl was more of a hazing than anything else. It did not last too long.
Image courtesy of Arnold Haynes Above: One last image of the Sno-Train in Greenland with Arnold Haynes standing in front of the massive Firestone 120x48x68 tires.
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Recovering the Sno-Freighter with the Sno-Train
On the Alaska Freight Lines Sno-Freighter’s third journey resupplying the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line stations, it jackknifed and caught fire. The machine sat immobilized for five years in a valley east of Eagle, AK, just inside the Yukon Territories. The United States Army and the Sno-Freighter’s owner set out to recover the Sno-Freighter; they connected the Sno-Train’s electrical system and a portable generator (to unlock the wheel motors) to the Sno-Freighter. Both machine’s wheel motors were powered by the Sno-Train’s 600-hp Cummins VT-12 engine.
The Sno-Train (rear) providing power to the Sno-Freighter (front). Image courtesy Augustin (Marty) Martinez The Sno-Train struggled to get moving at first. But, a CAT provided an initial tug up a hill, when moving forward from a dead stop, or when the load was simply too much to overcome. You can read more about this story in my book – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFL91FX6.
Sno-train moving through a stream bed while recovering the sno-freighter. Image courtesy Augustin (Marty) Martinez -
R. G. LeTourneau’s Overland Trains: a complete history is now AVAILABLE
I started writing this book in February of 2020. Two and a half years later, I have captured the most complete Overland Trains story ever published. Buy the book now on Amazon.com (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFL91FX6).
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Sno-Train with Army Leadership
The Sno-Train was routinely shown at military ceremonies and publicity events. Seen below is Brig. Gen. Chester V. Clifton, Deputy Chief of Information for the Army. His right shoulder is touching the Electric Drive Driver unit, which is a cluster of three gears that provide a gear reduction.
This image came from the Firestone Archives and published by the Firestone News Service. The image was originally published on July 17th, with an undetermined year.
Image courtesy Firestone archives -
Sno-Train at the Yukon Transportation Museum July 2020
During the course of the last two and a half years, I’ve been contacted or I have reached out to nearly a hundred or so people. Some of these contacts have developed into friendships with flights out to visit, lunch visits in the Tacoma, WA area, social media communications, letters or packages, or simply emails. I first reached out to Patrick Jacobson (https://www.instagram.com/patrickjacobson/) nearly a year ago about some of his photographs. Yesterday, he messaged me with nearly two dozen Sno-Train photographs he captured during his visit to the Yukon Transportation Museum (YTM) (https://www.instagram.com/go_ytm/) this week. Patrick, thank you for keeping me in mind and as you visited the Sno-Train and the YTM!
Image: Patrick Jacobson The rear view of the Sno-Train shows the jib crane, winch, and fuel tank. The bar extend parallel to the ground and rear attaches trailer number one.
Image: Patrick Jacobson Here is a better view of where the jib crane attaches to the Sno-Train.
Image: Patrick Jacobson Here is one of my favorite images that Patrick took at the YTM. You get a clear shot of the top of the jib crane and fuel tank. If you look towards the front of the Sno-Train, you can see the transparent observation dome which was replaced after it arrived in Whitehorse. Don’t forget the Firestone 120x48x68 tires. Those tires are four feet wide and 10 feet tall.
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A Draft Cover for the Overland Trains Book
I have been working on the Overland Trains book cover this last week. This is a draft cover and title so far. September 12th is the tentative release date. The cover image was taken by Les Millen, with use permissions provided by George Millen.
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Tentative Book Pre-Release Date – September 14, 2022
I have been working on the Overland Trains story for the past two and a half years. It has taken me hundreds of hours, if not thousands to complete the book to where it is now. At some point, you have to put a stop to adding the minutia and get out the book. Based on the current book’s draft state and editing, I set a target pre-release date of September 14, 2022. The book will be released on Kindle (sans images) and a high quality color gloss paperback.
New information about the Overland Trains are found or sent to me every month. Quite often someone will message me on social media with an obscure document that shows a piece of the story, while another might be a mind blowing connection between people or the machines. On July 5th, 2022, I received a parcel from a man in Alberta, Canada that just opened up a can of historical worms.
The original documentation sent to me spelled out the sale of the Sno-Train in 2010 to its current owner with several dozen photographs and emails. I knew about the sale and a few of the details, but not to this level. The provided documentation opened up more rabbit holes for me to follow, while completing the sales history in the Sno-Train chapter. These new data have been incorporated in the rough draft of my book.
Overland Trains 