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Hi Folks!

Some time back, while Tumbleweed was at YPGs, he posted a photo of a very large wheeled vehicle/train system. Tried looking for the post and couldn't find it. Guess it was back on the old site.

I was half watching a History channel show last night (Tuesday) on Monster Trucks. I heard something about a DEW Line resupply vehicle and stopped to see what they were talking about. There was some film footage of that monster train driving through deep snow along with a few shots of the inside. The cabin area had a kitchen and bunk beds for the crew and passengers. The train was used to resupply isolated DEW Line stations up through the early 1950s.

Remember TW's monster train system? The guy who own's the "Big Foot Ford" trucks found some wheels and tires in a junk yard from one of the cargo trailiers. That is were the wheels and tires that are on Big Foot Number Five came from.

Hey Mark! Do you still have the photo of that monster train? If so, add to this tread so newer members will understand what I am talking about.

O/T Spot Report!
Sgt, Scouts Out!

P.S.
For those who are to young to remember or even know about the DEW Line.
DEW = Distance Early Warning Line was a line of radar stations build acossed the frozen north of Canada to detect in coming Soviet Bombers. Very early Cold War fear and the start of Norad.
Norad = North American Air Defense Command, better known today as the location of Star Gate Command.

Roy you're making me feal really old having to explain the DEW line to the youngsters

Jeff Lewis

(They probably think it stands for Demented Elders Writing, don't even get me started on Texas Towers))

Check out this link, Roy

www.roadtripamerica.co...erland.htm

Hi Roy
If you look up letourneau overland train on a search engine you find some interesting pics of this rig especially when it was being tested in Alsaska.
Good Luck
Shane

Getting even more OT, a lot of those abandoned DEW radar sites are still there. Visted only by blizzards and polar bears. Each thumbtack on this GE image pinpoints one.

[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t205/dennismenace56/DEW.jpg?t=1178745909[/img]



I zoomed in on one at random. This is CAM-A3A with its' C-130 landing strip. Summer sunshine! Probably only 30 below!

[img]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t205/dennismenace56/CAM-A3A.jpg?t=1178746001[/img]


If anyone needs a travelling companion to visit those "cold war" relics....Don't call me!

- Dennis_Smith

Getting even more OT, a lot of those abandoned DEW radar sites are still there. Visted only by blizzards and polar bears.

There are DEW line sites that have been taken over as North Warning System sites. Not many but a few, mostly because they were so well located. The NWS is mostly remotely operated from the South. It has better coverage than the DEW line. There are regular Canadian Ranger visits by snowmobile patrols, to check for damage and sign the register book. No need to lock the doors because someone might need to take shelter in a blizzard. And it justifies a week of government pay for a dozen men in the Inuit villages.

There are some really big oversnow vehicles used by the oil companies to service their off shore and on shore installations. There are tourist buses on tundra buggies for people to go see polar bears in Churchill Manitoba (the only seaport on the Prairies). No pictures of the oil company machines, but the name Flextrack Nodwell comes to mind as a Canadian manufacturer.

Double OT what would the temperature be in say,... August?

- JWB2

Double OT what would the temperature be in say,... August?

Daily average would be about 5-10°C (41-50°F), according to Environment Canada at www.climate.weatheroff...ct_e.html.

As Maple Leaf stated, a few of these have been able to be adapted to the new Northern Warning System but most are abandoned and pose a potential ecological problem. As a result DND has contracted out the decommissioning and removal of these facilities across the Arctic.

See: www.dcc-cdc.gc.ca/engl...r_dew.html

Cheers! Bruce

If anyone's interested in more DEW line history, there are many stories and photos at:

www.lswilson.ca/dewline.htm#C




This photo from a 2003 vist to the abandoned 'Icecap 1' Greenland.
www.lswilson.ca/dye2visitjul03.htm Story by Michael Lamendola, photos by SSgt Cathy Perretta