Arctic Monster - Inside The Abandoned 1950s “Sno Freighter” That Even Had a Living Quarters!
324,494
Published 2024-08-02
The "Snow Freighter" was once the largest, most insane vehicle ever made: a vast 'trackless train' designed to traverse some of the most hostile environments on earth and part of a series of incredible vehicles designed by the LeTourneau company.
But what happened to the Snow Freighter and why is it now abandoned on a lonely highway in the north of Alaska? I travelled there to find out.
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00:00 - Intro
01:57 - Thanks Odoo!
03:42 - Building the DEW Line
05:34 - No One Builds it Like LeTourneau!
07:11 - The Snow Freighter
08:11 - Arctic Service
10:00 - Disaster Strikes
10:44 - Abandoned
11:37 - Tracking Down the Sno-Freighter
18:10 - Climbing Inside
22:15 - Costs & Failures of the Sno-Freighter
27:44 - Waffling on a bi
All Comments (21)
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Build a hassle-free website and see how Odoo can help you! www.odoo.com/r/10c Thanks again to the Gold Daughters for letting me visit! Remember that the Snow Freighter is in a poor state and should not be climbed in or messed with! Seek permission before going close to it.
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Calum pushed the limits of his marriage to bring us this video on the limits of logistical engineering. 😂
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this thing belongs in a museum and its frankly depressing its rotting
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I feel like any vehicle with a forward canted windshield/front is an automatic yes from me. That angle just gives me all the feels.
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I work in Alaska and I've been driving past that thing for the past 20 years. There's also another one in Whitehorse, Canada at the transportation museum
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This is what I want from YouTube, thanks Calum.
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Never let "the Cook" drive. There is a very good reason they're not called "the Driver".
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The voice over microphone has an arrow so you know he has spent enough time talking into the wrong end to find necessary to draw a huge arrow on it. 😂
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13:43 I'd be willing to bet that those tires would still hold air. If I had the $$ I would go there and buy what remains of that thing, repair it and get it all running because I believe that there are even more opportunities to use this it 'up' there. So cool, your videos always rule the class.
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This has been one of my favorite YouTube sagas. It still boggles the mind that with the expense and effort to get the snow train up there and operating that they didn’t fully train the entire crew to properly drive it and allowed an inexperienced person to be in control.
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I worked for LeTourneau as a machinist in the Longview plant for almost ten years. It was my good fortune to get to know some of the guys that had worked there for 40 or more years before they retired. Working there is something I will always be proud I was able to do.
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I love the graphics and images of old diagrams in this video, I spent so much time as a kid looking thru books and magazines and being amazing by these huge machines. Thanks for the follow up, really great stuff.
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This deserves to be restored and displayed just like the other.
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Oh man, 11:48 when Google Maps transitions into a drone shot ... how cool is that!! Breaking the fourth wall ... Amazing!
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You're such an underrated YouTuber bud... Proper videos, interesting and really well made.
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I work at a gold mine just north of there- I drive past it almost every day, but didn't know much of its history. Great video!
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Wish this could be restored and put on display in a museum. This is a marvel of engineering!
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7:13 - I love the old school cut-away drawings! The barrel roof was caved in well after the fire. Using Google Street View, you can find 2009 & 2011 that show it almost intact.
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I just Googled "Letourneau House machine", and that thing is wild. Basically a steel mould, for an entire, re-enforced concrete house, created in a single pour, with thd whole thing on wheels; A giant, house-sized Dr Suess machine, that lets you roll up to a location, and lay a house, like a hen lays an egg. Apparently the house-pouring process took 24 hours.
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"It's wheely big!" Nice. This is the way, never be sorry for your puns.
