Hi-Rail with a difference

Numerous companies produce equipment to convert vehicles so that they can travel on both roads (highways) and railroad tracks. Hence the name Hi-Rail. Major railroads have quite a fleet of these adaptations, ranging from pick-up trucks to heavy maintenance vehicles, and private constractors also have this type of equipment.

CN in Halifax is doing right of way brush clearing, using either hired equipment or a contractor with its own equipment. Last weekend there was a variety of hi-rail farm tractor conversions parked in the southend. There was a New Holland TM115, a John Deere 6145R and a John Deere 7430. Farthest from the camera was a Cat wheeled backhoe. All appeared to be fitted with brush cutter equipment.

Hi-rail wheels, mounted front and back are raised and lowered hydraulically, and the tractor's driving wheels propel the units, as they are approximately the same guage as the rail. In operaiton the tractors' front (steering) wheels are usually lifted off the tracks by the front flanged rail wheels.

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Classics old and new

A recent road trip turned up a couple of classic brands.

It is a long time since General Motors produced a full line of trucks from Class 8 on down. Since they agreed to sell their remaining heavy truck line to Volvo in 1986, they have only built mid-range GMC trucks, up to about Class 7.
In their heyday however they had a good share of the Class 8 market particularly when they replaced the "Crackerbox" Jimmy in 1969 with the GMC Astro and Chevrolet Titan. The trucks were very modern looking, contained novel ergonomics in the cab and eventually included Cummins and Cat engine choices in addition to Detroit.

The GMC Astro was always the more popular, and GM eliminated the entire Chevrolet truck line in 1981 - mostly because Chev dealers wanted to sell and service cars and not to be bothered with heavy trucks.
The GMC Astro continued in production ending with the 1987 model year. At that point, after a few years of White GMC, (using the White cab) they changed over to Volvo designed trucks.

This GMC Asto carries a Nova Scotia Antique Auto plate - and so it should - and  appears to be in mostly original condition.(The big rad was introduced to accommodate Cummins and Cat engines)

As Volvo took over White in 1981, the parent of Autocar, they phased out the classic model in 1987 and the WhiteGMC replacement in 2000.  However another company bought the Autocar name and the White Xpeditor cab in 2001 and began producing an Autocar branded truck again - this one strictly for the vocational market - with the Xpeditor low cab forward.

They have since expanded the line with more models and variations, including a military refueler.

Likely from the Greenwood, NS air base, this refueler was outside the fence (but not AWL) for service. It also looks fairly recent, so is by no means an antique, even though Autocar is the oldest North American truck brand still in production.

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More contrasts

This giant MAN RV from Switzerland is on the last leg of an aborted North American tour. It's various previous odysseys are covered in the owner's website, bluedove.ch. The site is all in German, so may pose a challenge to follow (for me included). The owner decided to cut short his tour in northwestern Ontario, having seen enough of endless Canadian bush.

By clicking on the pictures on the web site various galleries open up showing how the rig was built and the trips they have made.

From the web site I did learn that the MAN is a model TGM 18.340 4X4 BB. It has a torsional frame that allows the box body to flex independently of the cab. The inside of the body is quite spectacular.

The RV body was built by F. Woelcke GmbH + Co KG  of Heimsheim, Germany.

And now for something completely different.

Spotted in a Walmart parking lot a pair of aged Mercs, with little if any interior finish appear to be for those who really want to rough it. They are early Westphalia conversions of the late 1970s or early 1980s era. Mercedes Benz introduced this van line 1977 and ran it essentially unchanged until 1986. Thomas Cook Travel had a stable of these for rent, and it is possible that these are from that fleet.

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Endless Variety

There seems to be no end to the variety of German based RVs that continue to appear. Today's catch was a real contrast.

 The Fiat Ducato based Dethleffs Globetrotter Esprit is just one in a huge range of RVs built by the Dethleffs company. This one appears to have been much travelled based on the stickers affixed to the back.

More stickers on the front have been worn off, but it has certainly done the Transamerica and much of the US. I can also detect several from Asia including VietNam, Singapore and Thailand. There is also Egypt and Russia.
 

 The Mercedes Sprinter parked next had lots of stickers on the back but was otherwise exceptionally clean looking. It is a Riesemobile Luxor model that sleeps two on a raised platform in the back with kitchen and bathroom in the middle, and a table behind the driver seat (which swivels round to form a dining area.) Reisemobile also produces a variety of Sprinter based RVs. This is not their smallest offering - they offer a several short wheelbase models too.

Classic DIVCO and new feeder

Some contrasts today in Burnside. Scotsburn had a classic DIVCO in their lot - not delivering milk anymore, but it looks like it still could.

DIVCO (Detroit Industrial Vehicle Company), founded in 1926 produced this design from 1939 until the company folded in 1986. Subtle differences, particularly in the shape of the fenders and window frames, were about all that could be used to distinguish older and newer models. The allowed for standee operation and right had drive.
The majority served for daily dairy deliveries and since they used ice to keep the milk and dairy products  cool they usually rusted out quite rapidly. This one has been equipped with a roof top A/C unit, so will likely last longer. Traces of yellow paint around the hood lead me to suspect its history is perhaps not with Scotsburn, but another company within the Saputo Group.

Meanwhile at the Navistar International dealer this brand new HX sports a Walinga feed body. The tank contains several subdivisions, with hydraulic gates and pneumatic unloading system to deliver animal feed. It is much more common to see these as semi-trailers than as straight trucks.

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Snow Groomers

Just when I thought summer had finally arrived, a fleet of snow groomers suddenly appeared. I guess you need to be prepared for next winter, but it is a bit unsettling to see these rigs on bare pavement.
Without trying to settle the argument about who invented this type of tracked vehicle, there are four different manufacturers represented and one conversion company, and there may be room for a few more.

Pisten Bully claims to be the largest manufacturer of snow groomers, and has a wide range of models - this is a small one. The company is an offshoot of the old Kassbohrer bus manufacturer (sold its Setra bus line to Diamler in 1995) and is based in Germany. It was established in 1969.

Prinorth, based in Italy, was founded by the race car driver Ernst Prinorth in 1951. Through a complex set of mergers and acquisitions, it is the successor to Bombardier's industrial vehicles division.

 Favero Lorenzo was founded in the 1980s, also in Italy, and is the builder of this Snow Rabbit 3X.

Tucker, founded in 1942 and based in Oregon makes many types of tracked snow travel vehicles, including passenger carrying types. Their registered trade mark Sno-Cat  must be one of the best known names in the  business.

I am assuming this is a Soucy Track conversion of a John Deere 6155R tractor. They build track systems for nearly every make of farm tractor available.

The two oldest contenders for tracked vehicles go well back:


Tucker

I caught this Tucker dozing in a pasture near Edmunston, NB in 1994.

 
It had enjoyed a second career grooming snow mobile trails. Miraculously its Tucker, Sno-Cat and Medford, Oregon name plates were still intact.



Bombardier

Before it was a recreational vehicle the Bombardier Snowmobile was the only form of motorized winter transportation in many parts of Quebec.

This was a typical unit from the 1950s. Often used as school buses (some with a plywood body) they were fitted with skis on front in the winter.

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Houston we have a BIG problem

This trucker, with a very clean looking KW, had a BIG problem this morning. After loading a Krone BIGX700 forage harvester (or silage cutter) the plank outrigger on the drivers side of his low bed broke. From information I could find on line the unit weighs about 13.5 tonnes.

This obviously placed the load in an unbalanced state. Fortunately he had just exited the pier 30 area of Halifax waterfront and some help arrived. I would like to know how the problem was solved, but I couldn't stick around.

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Iveco not going to Alaska (with an update)

According to the route map posted on the passenger door of this German French Iveco, the unit has made a straight bee line across North America at about the 49th parallel. The map shows that much of Europe, southern Asia, Australian and New Zealand have been visited and that it came up through Central America after crossing the Pacific by ship. 

The sticker on the back shows that it has been a certified for New Zealand with a self-contained sewage unit for visiting protected areas. The cautionary "left hand drive" warning sign may also be required in New Zealand and Australia.

It turns out this unit visited Australia and New Zealand in 2015, and in fact DID visit Alaska this year and are now on their way home to Germany.
The truck was delivered by ship to Buenos Aries last October and has since done the Pan-American tour. That is described on another map, posted on the "stern".

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Slipprier Volvos

Celebrating 35 years since introducing the integral sleeper, Volvos are getting more aerodynamic all the time.
A line up at MacKay's, the Volvo dealer in Truro, NS shows off some of the new features.

From the right, the new VNL model with new front end and LED lights. This appears to be the VNL 760 (70 inch long, 96 inch wide sleeper) with the new expanded metal look grille.
To its left is a unit without the new grille - maybe last year's model.
On the far left, with the dump body is a VHD 300, set back axle, off-highway model.

Also on MacKay's lot was this unit:

 It appears to be a VNR400,  with 42 inch no-rise sleeper, intended for regional, rather than long haul work. On its right is the day cab version, VNR300.

As with other units on the lot, many were delivered in "kitchen appliance" white.

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New Macks

Dealers are displaying the new Macks, and MacKay's in Truro, NS is no exception, with several models on their lot.

A few of the new Anthem models were lined up ready for (I hope) company paint jobs to cover up the factory white.

Although most advertising for the new Anthem model shows the sleeper cab units, it was interesting to see a day cab. It is also the one with the chrome rad trim, whereas the sleeper unit has flat black only.

A Granite with drop axle was also in the line. It appears in red - a popular colour for several local owners.

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Pete dualies

On a recent road trip I spotted two twin steer Peterbilts, only a few miles apart.

First was this weathered unit from Dyno Nobel . The custom built unit delivers and places explosives.

The second was a shinier unit towing a three axle trailer, and fitted with its own HIAB crane.

Its load was a number of concrete septic tanks and fittings, which could certainly weigh down a normal straight truck.Nova Scotia regs allow 16,000 kg on the tandem steering axles, and 18,000 kg on the tandem drive axles. Pony trailers are allowed 21,000 kg on triple axles. The overall 23m length maximum is the same as conventional tractor trailers.

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Iveco-Magirus - rare bird swoops in

A remarkable RV arrived this week from Germany. The base chassis is an ex-military low mileage Iveco-Magirus dating from about 1988. The owners says it was stored for years, fully lubricated and had less than 20,000 km on it. Magirus, a well known German maker of fire trucks, once built a full line of trucks, using parent company KHD's Deutz engines - some air cooled. In 1975 Magirus became part of Iveco, and the trucks carried the Magirus Iveco brand in Germany until the end of the 1980s. At that time Iveco parent Fiat dropped the Magirus name on all but fire trucks. So the Iveco Magirus brand name was marketed just more than 10 years and there hasn't been one built in 30 years. The 110 16 model  4x4 was the most popular military model, so they were once common, but I image are getting to be pretty rare now.

That's not the only unusual feature of this rig. The owner built out the body over a five year period, saving the cost of a new vehicle, but also building exactly what he wanted. The rig is now off across Canada and the US to Alaska, then will embark for Patagonia.

Bon Voyage!

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