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12 minutes ago, B MACK said:

I just stumbled upon a really cool video of big heavy duty Macks hauling to the DEW line in 1956,   Sorry , I was not able to down load it to post it.              Look up " Artic Convoy with Giant Mack Trucks ".       

https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/45925-mack-trucks-presents-bulldog-convoy-in-the-arctic/?tab=comments#comment-338484

 

  • Like 2
On 6/19/2018 at 12:19 PM, glitchwrks said:

Interesting read about one young man's service and adventures on the DEW line:

http://www.dewlineadventures.com/

That was a grew read, I cant imagine young men doing this today 

 

Paul 

Excellent read here about the whole convoy, the famous Letourneau (sp?) "snow train",  ice roads, and early trucking in Alaska in general. I saw this book advertised in a truck magazine and ordered it from Amazon several years ago, great book.

DSCN5402.JPG.a0d64bf37d9e4af9342b502c59b31db1.JPG

  • Like 1

Producer of poorly photo-chopped pictures since 1999.

Fellas, has to be out of print, but decades ago I bought a book at a library sale called Dennisons Ice Road, apparently this guy Dennison was the first to have a regular route long before "Ice Road truckers" that served all the little communities near the artic circle. There are said to be hundreds of pieces of mostly heavy equipment that fell through the ice as the drivers had no scientific way to determine the ice thickness early or late in the " season"!

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On 6/20/2018 at 4:05 PM, mrsmackpaul said:

That was a grew read, I cant imagine young men doing this today

I stumbled on that site from the guy's personal site -- he was one of the first operators on the first commercial digital computer sold in Canada (one of my other hobbies is computer/tech history). There are still men and women starting out on similar journeys nowadays, from NOAA postings in the arctic circle to remote mountaintop observatories in South America, to research and scientific missions in Antarctica. We just don't get to hear about them over the noisier, "viral" junk that the news prefers to spread.

  • Like 1
2 hours ago, BillyT said:

Fellas, has to be out of print, but decades ago I bought a book at a library sale called Dennisons Ice Road, apparently this guy Dennison was the first to have a regular route long before "Ice Road truckers" that served all the little communities near the artic circle. There are said to be hundreds of pieces of mostly heavy equipment that fell through the ice as the drivers had no scientific way to determine the ice thickness early or late in the " season"!

Still available at Amazon.com Billy- better grab it now if you want one though.

DSCN5403.thumb.JPG.984acf38f0dc8e6342e581d12e0eed20.JPG

 

Producer of poorly photo-chopped pictures since 1999.

I just ordered a used hardcover for less than 4 bucks from thrift books and .99cents shipping. It looks like a good read thanks for the post about it. When I was a young kid I read two books bulldozer and tmodel tommy after we got the computer I looked around and bought reprints and I reread them every so often.

8 hours ago, other dog said:

Excellent read here about the whole convoy, the famous Letourneau (sp?) "snow train",  ice roads, and early trucking in Alaska in general. I saw this book advertised in a truck magazine and ordered it from Amazon several years ago, great book.

DSCN5402.JPG.a0d64bf37d9e4af9342b502c59b31db1.JPG

snotrain-2.jpg.fc196d4fafb7a84e993899c91ce604ad.jpg

Producer of poorly photo-chopped pictures since 1999.

9 hours ago, glitchwrks said:

one of my other hobbies is computer/tech history

After my father got out of the Navy in 1963, he went to work at Univac in Blue Bell, Pa. and worked on Univac when they had boatloads of NASA/Apollo money. He was a machinist and mostly worked on printers and other hardware. Met Admiral Grace Hopper once. 

TWO STROKES ARE FOR GARDEN TOOLS

1 minute ago, 1958 F.W.D. said:

After my father got out of the Navy in 1963, he went to work at Univac in Blue Bell, Pa. and worked on Univac when they had boatloads of NASA/Apollo money. He was a machinist and mostly worked on printers and other hardware. Met Admiral Grace Hopper once. 

He's probably familiar with the Vintage Computer Federation museum's UNIVAC 1219B, then -- I believe the one they've got is badged as a Navy fire control unit (for large deck guns on destroyers, etc.). I want to say it was built in 1965, so that would've been right at the correct time frame.

  • 4 weeks later...

Fellas, has to be out of print, but decades ago I bought a book at a library sale called Dennisons Ice Road, apparently this guy Dennison was the first to have a regular route long before "Ice Road truckers" that served all the little communities near the artic circle. There are said to be hundreds of pieces of mostly heavy equipment that fell through the ice as the drivers had no scientific way to determine the ice thickness early or late in the " season"!

now I see where Clark got there 91000lb hub idea from which they did'nt remodel till the 70's. Mack's were a much stronger planetary rear end set up than the Clark's. (needle bearings for pinion gears and "O" rings for sealing) instead of PERMATEX which went hard under heat and leaked worse than the green leakers that were  powering them.

On 7/16/2018 at 8:01 PM, BOB DINGSDALE said:

1710 wasn't out yet but they did have the V-12 1486s Cummins

I just looked in my book to see if it said anything about the engines, and they were 600 hp. Cummins. I got to reading and one of the biggest problems  on the whole trip was with broken axles in the trucks, due to the extreme cold. And on more than one occasion when they would get one one the massive trucks stuck they broke an inch and a half cable trying to pull it out with bulldozers. The trailers they were pulling were 12 feets wide and 60 feets long. Gross weight over 300,000 lbs. Amazing! I've got to read this book again, i've read it twice already.

Producer of poorly photo-chopped pictures since 1999.

It also said that two of the giant Macks were sold to a coal mine in Alaska, but nothing about the rest. I wonder if any of them still exist?

Producer of poorly photo-chopped pictures since 1999.

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