The World's Largest Overland Vehicles - LeTourneau's Land Trains

UPDATE - I did it! I tracked down one of these overland trains and visited it IRL. Check it out: https://youtu.be/KpWv68xECrY

In my summer after the 2nd grade, my Dad (RG's son) came home unexpectedly in the middle of the day and told me to jump in the car. As we pulled away I, of course, asked where we were going... "You're gonna' go for a ride like you've never been before and will never go again!" We then proceeded to the proving grounds at the factory where a bunch of Army Brass and other dignitaries were assembled around the final Snow Train (as we called it). He hoisted me up in the cab and took off "once around the park"... 8 years later I spent my summer testing the world's largest front-end loader that you referenced in this amazing video. My heartfelt gratitude to you for these amazing memories...

My dad worked for RG in the early 60s. We even lived in one of his Quonset huts (ex WWII hospital) in Longview. My dad was a diesel mechanic and worked on the scrapers building Stemmons Freeway in Dallas and the tree crusher. He told me about the land trains, but he was assigned to other projects. When a company leased equipment from RG, the lease came with a dedicated mechanic and that is what my dad did. The unique aspect to his work was having to possess a combination of mechanical and electrical skills due to the unique combo of diesel powered electrical wheel motors. I am going over today and play this for him. Cheers from Texas.

I worked construction in Alaska in the 1990s and we used a huge LaTourneau forklift to lift concrete bridge girders. It was a strange machine. The noises and movements it made are so unlike other construction equipment, it really seemed so odd and fascinating.

Thank you for honoring Mr. LeTourneau. One other thing of interest is that he wasn’t getting the quality of engineers he wanted, so he started his own engineering school. LeTourneau University is highly regarded as one of the premier engineering schools in the country. There is a museum at the university in Longview that is amazing to tour.

Used to work for the Letourneau rebuild Facility. They had some interesting ways of doing stuff. In his day they made their own steel as RG couldn't find what he needed to make what he wanted the way he wanted to. He even made his own bolts. He had a 3/8 fine thread double lead screw. It looked just like a 3/8 NF thread bolt but a bolt of the same size would not fit it. A 3/8 NF tap would match up with the threads on the bolt but the bolt would not thread into a hole tapped with it. Think of a bolt that had one thread started at 0 degrees of the bolts circumference and then another thread that started at 180 degrees. yes 2 different threads at 180 degrees apart. Rebuilt so many different things there. He designed and built his own motors and generators, both DC and AC. all of the components. They did all of their machining work in house. You got it all right, spot on, and correct as best as I can remember.

I met R.G.Letearno in mid 60s in Bowling Green Ky. He was trying to Recruit a friend Henry Vernon that had helped him make a Jungle Clearing machine. I was 14 yrs Old and got to spend a couple hours with this Very Kind Uplifting Man. I had no idea his accomplishments until I read his book few years later.

As a young lad the Amtrak Wars captured my imagination. Imagine my surprise at finding out such outlandish science fiction vehicles were actually in use decades before I was even born. Thanks for the extra ramble at the end. Love your work, clearly you do too, thanks for sharing it.

One amazing feature of RG was his refusal to let others stop him. His designs required very thick steel plates, but his total purchases were small compared to other users, so he had low priority to get deliveries. His solution was to build his own steel mill. He built an electric arc furnace for melting, bought molds to cast ingots, and made a 10 foot wide rolling mill to produce the plates. I got to visit the plant in 2010 ( a rare event) for a job interview. Coming from major steel plants the shop looked a little jury-rigged to me, but it WORKED! It even had a vacuum degasser, which produced some of the highest quality plate in the world for very demanding end uses. A remarkable man.

Ten minutes in and it's a delight as ever, engineering obscura at it's finest. Thanks

You've hit another one out of the park! Well researched, interesting and your VO conveys the information in a clear and concise manner. I'm loving your longer format documentaries, I always feel a bit smarter after watching them. I'm just now watching the outro. Well done!

Thanks for this. I am a grandson of RG and knew info on these trains but really enjoyed this video and it filled in a good deal of history for me.

I didn’t recognize the train until you mentioned that it’s currently in Fox Alaska, and then I realized that I used to drive by it almost every day and I had no idea the story of how cool it was. Excellent video!

Calum, please don't stop doing documentary peices. I truly love them, and would love to see more on what ever mechanical misfit and unique creation catches your eye and ear.

His machines may have been outlandish in size and ludicrous in purpose, but you have to admit that R. G. LeTourneau was little short of a mechanical genius.

From 2004 till 2021, I rebuilt hundreds of letourneau generators, DC and AC motors, and many other devices for various machines still in use today. Old technology, but it will get the job done.

I operated Letourneau Log machines converted to lift and move ocean container in the 1980 on the Railway here in Canada. Once you got used to operating them, you could move a lot of containers in 8 hours we had 3 of them. They would pick up 70,000 lbs with no problems. They would burn a lot of fuel though running at 2100 rpms steady to run the generator.

Born in the 50's and growing up in the 60's it seemed anything imagined could be built. Lived near the Big Muskie dragline and my agriculture class got to tour it. The DEW line construction always a favorite subject of mine. Retired and living in Thailand this was just the type of content to make my day. Thank you

For those curious about letourneau's plant in longview, it was sold to joyglobal and eventually acquired by komatsu. The buildings are all still there and to my knowledge are still running pretty well. Love to see videos about it!

As someone who lives in Fairbanks, I appreciate that you discuss the Arctic conditions, without being sensationalistic about them.