Editing Overland train (section)

===VC-22 Sno-Freighter, the DEW line===
[[File:LeTourneau Snow Train.jpg|thumb|LeTourneau Snow Train]]
During this period the U.S. and Canada were in the process of developing the [[DEW Line]], which was located in areas with no roads, few airbases, and in areas where the sea ice often prevented ships from accessing the sites. On 15 April 1954 the company demonstrated VC-12 to the US Army Transportation Research and Development Command, or TRADCOM, proposing that the system would be useful for [[logistics]] operations in the arctic if equipped with more wheels.

TRADCOM offered funding to create the '''TC-264 Sno-Buggy''', which had eight huge {{convert|120|in|m|adj=on}} rubber tires, arranged in pairs and driven by four motors powered by a single [[Allison V-1710]] engine running on [[butane]]. The resulting vehicle has an enormous amount of tire area to vehicle weight, allowing it to float on the [[tundra]] and snow. First unveiled in June 1954, the Sno-Buggy was sent to [[Greenland]] for testing.{{sfn|Orlemann|2001|p=64}}

Alaska Freight Lines of [[Seattle]] had contracted with [[Western Electric]] to provide 500 tons of equipment to the DEW stations being built in the [[Alaska]] sector. Hearing of the VC-12, on 5 January 1955 they signed a contract with LeTourneau for the construction of the '''VC-22 [[Sno-Freighter]]'''. The contract called for a single locomotive and six cars able to haul 150 tons, cross rivers up to {{convert|4|ft}} deep, cut through snow drifts and operate at temperatures as low as {{convert|-68|F|C}}. The locomotive provided AC power from 400-hp Cummins NVH-12 engines, powering its own four wheels and the five four-wheeled trailers, forming a {{convert|274|ft|m|adj=mid|-long}} train.{{sfn|Orlemann|2001|p=67}}

Since the VC-22 was based almost entirely on existing parts from their 6x6 vehicles, even the tires, the company was able to deliver it with surprising speed. It was completed on 17 February 1955, painted, and then sent to Alaska on the 21st. The vehicle served well throughout 1955, but in the second season of use a fire consumed the locomotive's power generation section and the remains were pulled out of Canada.<ref>Cliff Bishop, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ui0yQQAACAAJ "Eighteen Wheels North to Alaska - A History of Trucking in Alaska"], Publication Consultants, 2009 pp. 51-52,71-74</ref> When Alaska Freight Lines's contract with Western Electric ran out it was soon left to rot. Today it sits abandoned outside [[Fairbanks, Alaska]] near the [[Steese Highway]].{{sfn|Orlemann|2001|p=67}}

On their own initiative, LeTourneau took the basic VC-22, changed the engine to the 600-hp VT-12, and changed the trailers to side-dumping bins to produce a '''Side-Dump Train'''. The six-wheeled locomotive also had its own bin, and could operate independently. Completed in October 1955, the company was still under the moratorium period and could not sell it for earthmoving, and the train saw no orders.{{sfn|Orlemann|2001|p=67}}