SERVICING THE THAT BUILT THE

By Harold McKeever

, N YORK 3600 EW
r [EDMONTON 1215-iv

.LOW/ER POST 151 LIARD RIVER WHITEHORSE TESLIN

8.. 1
-'22

172.

EMPERATURES that went down to 76 below zeroa 1,500 mile highway to build through almost impenetrable forestand nothing to live in but tents, or quickly constructed huts. That gives some idea of the terrific job facing the Army and Civilian contractors, in building the Alcan Highwaya military road over which a stream of men and munitions is now flowing to smash the Japs. It's a story of high courage, engineering skill, and the adaptation of ingenious mechanical ability to automotive service problemsproblems that had to be solved with the help of lathe, welder and other shop equipment with which good mechanics make new parts out of old ones. Some day the Alcan Highway may be the world's most interesting road for touristsa road dotted with hotels, resorts, camps, service stations and hot dog stands. Today, however, it is strictly a military highway, and, at that, a very arduous one to travel. Consider, for example, that the round trip from Chicago to Fairbanks is 8,000 miles and you have some picture of the distance, while the highway itself is 1,500 miles from the end of the farthermost rail line in
(Left) The author beside one of the sgin posts on the Akan Highway (Right) An unusually straight streteh of the great highway

At first over ten thousand engineer troops lived in hastily erected tent ramps. Later tent. were winterised or replaced by warm insulated huts

Snow is windrowed along the outer shoulder as a safety aid

Northwestern Canada up to Fort Nelson and White Horse, and on into Fairbanks, Alaska. Yes, the same general methods that keep cars and trucks running in your own home town were used to keep tractors, bulldozers and other road making equipment in operating condition, but

it couldn't have been done without that vital something that inspires men to win against all odds. Take for example a night in November with the temperature down to zero and buck private grease monkeys working through the night in bitter cold with lanterns, to lubricate service trucks bare-

handed in half open pitsand nary a grumble or gripe. Consider also a bunch of lonesome boys in the Northwoodsten thousand of them from the engineering regimentsmany of whom hadn't seen a woman in seven months. And the story of Alcan also brings the memory of a fine young Captain who

took pity on the author of this article and kept him over night in his tent at a point five hundred miles up the highway when there was no other place to sleep. "Look," said the Captain, revealing a thumbed radiogram which said: "Congratulations on a job well done." But what it left unsaid was how this Captain

This "Caterpillar" track-type tractor hauls a trailer-load of supplies over on unfinished pioneer road

Fleets of dozers widened the pioneer cut by side-casting trees, roots and humus to the clearing edges. This Is a Caterpillar diesel with LeTourneau angledozer.

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31 could spend the period of spring isolation, getting set to build road at the earliest moment of summer. Tons of machinery parts were flown north, by bush flyers who set snowshoed planes down on frozen lakes. Similar drama was enacted at the other entry points. Up in Alaska one contractor flew fifteen hundred men into the interior to get going. How They Went At the Job The first idea in planning actual construction was this: The U. S. Army regiments would build a rough pioneer "tote road," and civilian contractors would come in and build a wide parallel highway of a more permanent character. That's the way work was started at the southern end. But in a few weeks all hands saw the necessity for joining forces and "working like hell" on the best possible single road. Actually, the Army pioneered about 85 per cent of the road, and the contractor outfits followed in their wake, widening, straightening, cutting down steep hills and strengthening the roadway with gravel. Contractors pioneered four stretches amounting to about 200 miles of excellent highway. Some of their work matched the Army's for speed, resourcefulness and war-spirit. When it came to actual construction the American bulldozer was king. Bulldozers and choppers felled probably ten million trees, to clear a 60 to 100 foot patch through the dense forest. First a bulldozer operator attacked the woods along a line of trees which the surveyors had tagged with red rags. With his sharp 'dozer blade he severed shallow side roots (northern trees have no big tap roots) then pushed the trees over, clearing a narrow path a few hundred feet ahead. Next came a half dozen more tractors, which scraped trees, roots and forest humus to one side like piles

Diesel tractor with blade grader, grading section of the highway

and his boys had felled trees, hewn logs and thrown a 200-foot trestle across an icy, turbulent river in three days and nightsall accomplished through an ingenious scheme and with meager equipment, yet without getting a single man "dunked." World's Biggest Roadbuilding Fleet The interesting fact about Alcan's construction is that no new tricks were used. Just time-tried American roadbuilding methods, employing standard models of American tractors, bulldozers, scrapers, power shovels, air compressors and trucks. Aided by fifty-five American and Canadian contractors under the U. S. Public Roads Administration, the Army "ganged up" on the job, blazing trail simultaneously from many working fronts, with the biggest fleet of roadbuilding equipment in history. Back in the States, long before the 1942 spring 30

thaw, the vast, intricate job of planning supply lines and strategy and assembling and shipping equipment, camp supplies and troops had been organized and gotten under waya dramatic chapter as yet practically untold. The wilderness was invaded from three working basesat the southern end; at midpoint via Skagway and the narrow-gauge rail line over the mountains to Whitehorse; and into the Alaskan end through the port of Valdez. Knowing that time was the essence, the first U. S. Corps of Engineer troops entered the southern end a month before the scheduled time of the awful bottomless spring thaw that hits the north country. In this month, working and living out in the blizzards at 25 to 40 below, our soldiers scattered great quantities of equipment and supplies along through the woods to Fort Nelson, establishing base camps where the men

Cheeking the bulldozer hydraulic control on one of the heavy unite

of giant matches, leaving the full width clearing in their wake. Then along came the big hauling scrapers, and soon a semblance of a road took form. Graders put on the remaining touches, aided by quantities of gravel shoveled and sledded and dumped onto the roadbed to cover the muck.

Supplies Always a Problem

Throughout all this melee were the supply movements. Supply-lining, here as in the African campaign, was a problem of staggering difficulty and immensity. Even ahead of the first bulldozer floundered pack horses laden with paraphernalia for advance camps, and detachments of pontoon troops lugging boats and trestle panels for fashioning temporary floating bridges. So fast did the advance construction crews build at times, the surveyors often had trouble keeping out ahead. One surveyor told me, "We worked in one shift until we dropped, whereas the advance construction crew worked in two 11serv

t7 jjy

Small tractors were very handy around the tamp. This is an International with a Bueyrus-Erie dozer

A bridge like this was all in the days work

Combination gas, oil and grease truck

icing one of E. W. Elliott :2, Co.'s shovels

hours shifts. It got so we didn't dare pitch our tents near where the road was coming through, for fear the big electrically lighted tractors would crash in on us in the dark." This surveyor, by the way, revealed something of the complete isolation and vastness of the British Columbia wilderness by telling how he and his party had paddled canoes 236 miles along winding streams to get to their task, seeing only three cabins in the whole distance. Needless to say, this spectacular job involved many problems of automotive service and maintenance. Cold starting and crankcase dilution were serious problems, and motors were often kept running sometimes weeks at a time because of the difficulty of starting. Cold weather also played its tricks on metal parts, snapping off wheel spindles made of steel that gave no trouble in ordinary climates. Then there was lubrication failure, frozen and locked brake drums from passage through half-frozen fords, and all of the miscellaneous troubles that 33

"gang-up" on men and machine when temperatures drop. Take for example the welding of five hundred truck springs just an indication of the rough going and the arduousness of the job. Some five thousand motorized units were in use. The Army's equipment was
"Repair itrebuild itmanufacture it, if necessary!" in the slogan in Okra Construction Co.'s shop on Mean Highway. Here at the left Is a sprocket for a crusher drive which wan restored by welding broken and worn teeth. At the right is a home-made companion sprocket, rut from 1in. steel plate; it will be finished by inserting a splined bob, made from a 4-Inch-thick piece of

Motor

Service

July, 1943

35

Dowell Construction Co.'. Mean repair shop was also a "factory" for war-scarce part.. This fellow is threading a boltone of hundreds made from bar stock. Heads were forged on in the blacksmith shop

largely new, but that used by the contractors consisted of all makes and ages of used machinery, overhauled for the purpose. Often there were mechanical casualties, for this was no sissy job, and the Army considered the sacrifice of hundreds of machines a small price to pay for refinishing a road by winter. Tractors rolled down banks, truck frames buckled, axle housings were smashed riding ruts, and motor failures laid up many machines, but the vast majority were kept moving by the work of the men who operated the portable repair shops. Each regiment was responsible for the upkeep of its outfit, and most repairing was done right where the machines

broke down, using tool kits with which the regiment was equipped. Timber Aframes and tripods for lifting out engines or raising tractors for track repairs were a common sight along the road, and each regiment had a heavyduty wrecking truck, while additional hoisting equipment was constructed by setting up timber A-frames on front bumpers. In spite of an AA-2 priority rating, there was often a shortage of parts, but the order was to keep all units going as long as possible, the junking of units for spare parts being permitted only as a last resort. Convertible welding trailers were available, and welders who built up worn surfaces and restored broken parts were star performers. Small regiment repair shops worked wonders, rebuilding, converting, and making parts that could not be otherwise obtained. The size of the contractor equipment outlay is indicated by the fact that one management firm alone had over 1,400 major pieces of rolling equipment. In addition to their own outfits, this outfit was supplied with a great quantity of machinery transferred from CCC camps of the western states. Among these were 300 tractors equipped with scrapers, bulldozers or trailbuilders, 1,000 trucks, 125 air compressors with drilling accessories, 55 power shovels, 200 electric light plants, 65 portable repair shops, mixers, rollers, pumps, trailers and other equipment. The contractors also had the ad vantage of having many experienced operators, and they also had more elaborate central repair shops at their project headquarters. Typical of the well-equipped (but never large enough) repair aand machine shops was that of Okes Construction Company at Fort St. John. It included one 12 in. and two 16 in. lathes, a large and a smalldrill press, a surface grinder,
(Continued on page 82)

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Motor Service

Barrett

Using Generator with Magnet Charger

Question: "I operate a magneto service station in connection with my tractor repairing. I received one of your magneto books, written by Jack Beater. "I have an Eisemann coil tester, a test bench built by American Bosch, and a Cowie Charger. I'm well satisfied with my equipment, and I'm using a storage battery with the charger. "In the booklet I received from you I see where a car generator works very satisfactorily. I would like some more definite instructions on how to make such a hook-up, the type of generator to use, wiring instructions, etc." Grant Chapman, Brook, Ind.

the field is grounded, and in that case the external wire would go from the F to the G post of the generator. The switch is not absolutely essential, but could be included, since when you shut down the motor that drives the generator, the current will automatically stop anyhow, and there is no battery in the circuit to discharge. Mr. Beater's book suggests approximately 18 amperes at 18 volts, and you could check this by inserting an ammeter at the place where the switch is shown and putting a voltmeter across the magneto charger terminals. A little higher voltage or greater current would do no harm, and a little less would merely make the charger slightly weaker.

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Answer: In Mr. Beater's book he suggests that a 6-volt generator of fairly large capacity be used. Possibly you can pick up one which was designed to be used with a voltage and current regulator, and in the sketch we have indicated such
MAGNET CHARGER <SWITCH

The Alcan highway

(Continued from page 34)

ARE AVAILABLE FOR. QUICK DELIVERIES

ruling, we will be pemitted to

N
GROUND CONNECTION ON GENERATOR FRAME

Circuit of generator and magnet charger

a generator. Of course, the regulator will not be needed, and the wire that ordinarily went from the Field post up to the Regulator, will be connected to generator frame. That is, it will be grounded. This is assuming the circuits are as shown. In some cases the internal connection of

large planer, milling machine, shaper, seven piston pin grinders, seven piston grinders, drum lathe, three portable electric welders (gas driven), electric-driven shop welder, four acetylene outfits, two steam cleaners, modern electrical test bench, portable hoist, armature lathe, two forges, greasing equipment to handle eight vehicles at once, and a 50 kw A.C. light plant. The shop was run on a 24-hour-a-day basis, and handled hundreds of novel repair and part making jobs. Yes, the Alcan Highway is finished, although it is just the start of one route from America to Tokyo. But the spirit which carried this job to completion is the same spirit that will finish the bigger job of restoring to America the safety of that freedom she so much cherishes.
(Photos courtesy Cater pillar Tractor Co. and of "Road & Streets." Harold McKeever i3 Associate Editor of this publication.)

Under a recent govern otter for sale to brake service shops, a limited number of the famous Barrett Brake Dokters, drum lathes, gauges, hone sets and reliners. Since our production is restricted, deliveries will be made according to priority received with order.

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