tc-497 or long things which are long (10. 888)

Via Things magazine, we are directed towards the experimental overland train that the earthmoving company LeTourneau developed for the US army as a supply-chain solution to quickly dispatch equipment and materiel to remote locations without roads or tracks. Each carriage was equipped with its own electro-diesel motor to contribute in tandem to the locomotion and also benefitted from regenerative breaking, short configuration pictured but any number trailers could be inserted between cab and caboose. Under the code name Project OTTER (Overland Train Terrain Evaluation Research) in 1961, the TC-497 was prototyped and trialled in hopes of establishing the DEW (Distant Early Warning) Line, a series of radar substations stretched over Alaska and Canada to detect incoming Soviet bombers during the Cold War and was suggested that instead of traditional (hybrid) internal combustion engines, the convoys would be nuclear-powered. Ultimately, the project lost out to ever larger cargo planes and helicopters. Learn more at the links above.