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Alaska Highway, Vehicles and Equipment


notinfringed
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I just finished scanning an album from a soldier who worked on the Alaska Highway. There are lots of pictures of vehicles and equipment. I think the soldier may have been in the motor pool, but I am not sure. I know he was tasked with unloading equipment from the trains from some of the inscriptions on the backs of pictures. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to start a post for pictures of vehicles from the building of the highway. I know I have at least one other album covering the Alcan, and when I get it scanned, I will add some from there as well. I do not have a good editing program, so please forgive a lack of editing on my part. Anyway, the first set are of a staging area where the equipment was unloaded from rail cars. The development date on the back of several of the photos is July 1942.

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On the ground and ready for use:

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Does anyone know what this vehicle is? I am not familiar with is.

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I'm not sure what the two tow trucks are pulling, but it must be extremely heavy. I believe the front truck is assisting

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That is awesome, incredible what The US did in such a short time, figure this was less then 2 years into the war and this was just a small theater and that is a huge pile of equipment.

Great pics

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Another odd tow. notice the dolly under the rear truck:

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A civilian bus. I am guessing it was used to ferry workers. I can't see any other reason it would be in a GI motorpool:post-2011-0-83233600-1420007814.jpg

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My all time favorite military vehicle. Dodge WC-53:

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Jeep "after a bath down at the dam" according to the inscription on the back:

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Minor ouch, but it may have been enough to scrap this WC-53. The same truck can be seen in the pictures of the boneyard I will be posting shortly.

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Two more of the boneyard, and the last two from this album.

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I'm not sure the driver walked away from this one:

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I will try to get to the other Alaska Highway album in my collection in the near future. In the mean time, please feel free to post any Alcan vehicle pictures here. Also, any links to other sites with info, etc.

 

Levi

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doinworkinvans

Thanks for posting these! All those old trucks are so sexy...they don't make lines like that anymore...but that Dodge is the absolute best!

 

Daniel

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Johan Willaert

Minor ouch, but it may have been enough to scrap this WC-53. The same truck can be seen in the pictures of the boneyard I will be posting shortly.

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Just FYI the WC53 was the CarryAll version of the 3/4 Ton series...

The picture shows a CarryAll of the 1/2 Ton series which would make this most probably a WC26 (or WC10 or 17)

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Really nice pictures.

I have the kersey-lined trousers of Lt. Col. Owain J. Hughes, Army Corps of Engineers, who participated in the construction of the Alaska-Canada Highway in 1942.

 

Erwin

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