From: Marc Strangfeld (mjstrangfeld@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Aug 16 2005 - 11:28:15 PDT
Mike
The Land Train was built be Robert Gilmour Letourneau.
Letourneau was a genious. R.G. is credited with a
great number of inventions such as: the bulldozer
blade, ripper, modern scraper (ie, Tournapull), rubber
tired dozer, electric wheel, the use of large rubber
tires, and of course the Land Trains. He also was one
of the first manufacturers to use gas, and later,
electric welding when most other companies were still
using rivets. Before dedicating his work to
manufacturing he was a large contractor, building many
roads and dams throughout California as well as the
road through Hoover Dam (you can still see the
original road off to the side as you come up from the
South on Hwy. 93. I highly suggest his autobiography
"Mover of Men and Mountains" it's still in print but
usually has to be special ordered. You can also find
copies on Ebay. A book that provides some detail on
the Land Train is written by Eric C. Orlemann it's
called "Letourneau Earthmovers" The Land Train you
ask about was called the TC-497 Overland Train MkII,
it had four Solar 10 MC gas turbine engines rated at
1,170 hp each. Freight capacity was 150 tons.
Overall length was 572'. The Army took delivery in
February 1962 only to never use it because it was
obsolete by the time they got it. Supposedly the
front control car (locomotive) is preserved in Yuma,
AZ at the Yuma Proving Ground Heritage Center.
Hope this helps some,
Marc
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