Book Review Of The Day

[other dog]

Rob bought a motorcycle, so I decided maybe I should buy myself something. I'd seen a book called "18 Wheels North to Alaska" mentioned in one of the free truck magazines you see at truckstops so I ordered it from Amazon last week and read it today.

Really good book. The author is 82 years old- maybe 83 by now- and still does some trucking.

He tells the story of the the snow train convoy in 1954. It was the first run for the special built LeTourneau snow train. It pulled 5 trailers, each one 16 feet wide and 40 feet long. They also had a number of big Mack trucks with 600 hp Cummins engines pulling 60' trailers that were 12' wide. Unfortunately, the LeTourneau locomotive caught fire during the journey and was burned beyond repair. 4 of the the big Macks were later sold to a coal mine. The author, Cliff Bishop, went later to retrieve the LeToureau and trailers. He said he saw it years later just south of Fox, Alaska and as far as he knew it's still there.

So, with this info I get on Google Earth and sure enough found it! Here's the street view picture from Google Earth, plus another one I found online...pretty neat, eh?

[hatcity]

If Oprah don't say it, I don't read it.

Last year on Ice Road Truckers they had a little story bout then trains. The hot chic (in a trailer type ) was talking about the road they made

[Gambi80]

If Oprah don't say it, I don't read it.

Last year on Ice Road Truckers they had a little story bout then trains. The hot chic (in a trailer type ) was talking about the road they made

Saying she's hot is a bit of a stretch too...but definately broke up the monotiny of bearded Canadians, eh?

Anyway, I can't imagine the stones of those guys who did it back then. Nowadays we get bitchy if the a/c isn't working or the ultra-shift is malfunctioning.

[other dog]

Saying she's hot is a bit of a stretch too...but definately broke up the monotiny of bearded Canadians, eh?

Anyway, I can't imagine the stones of those guys who did it back then. Nowadays we get bitchy if the a/c isn't working or the ultra-shift is malfunctioning.

yeah, they started in Alaska and went as far as due north of Michigan. They had a plane marking the general route by dropping colored stakes that were weighted on one end so they'd stick in the snow, guides on the ground marking the best route for the road, then cat dozers clearing a trail, more cat dozers widening the trail, then the snow train and trucks, at about 70 below zero. Like he said, sounds easy enough on paper, right?

What they were doing was installing an early warning radar system on the Arctic Ocean.

[other dog]

here's some pictures of the Macks and the book's cover.