TRACTOR TRAIN LEAVES
650-Mile Journey In Antarctica The largest Antarctic tractor train in history—more than I.ooo,ooolb—left from the United States Little America station on Monday on a 650-mile journey across the Rockefeller Plateau to the Byrd I.G.Y. station, according to a report received in Christchurch yesterday. The train comprises seven tractors towing 12 20-ton sleds and three wanigans, one snocat towing one two ton and a half sled and one crevasse detector. The powerful tractors weigh nearly 40 tons each and travel on wide tracks to prevent sinking into the snow.
Major Merle Dawson, an Army polar expert who blazed the trail —now called Army-Navy drive—to Byrd station in November, is with the train and will check the crevassed area before the train proceeds across. The summer thaw and the ice movement may have weakened the crevasse crossing.
If necessary Major Dawson will blast out old crevasse fillings and refill them.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19580122.2.50
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28491, 22 January 1958, Page 8
Word Count
151TRACTOR TRAIN LEAVES Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28491, 22 January 1958, Page 8
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.