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Alaska Cat Trains

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
This is Western Geophysical's Arctic Survey Unit: Cat Train 001.jpg
 
They have perhaps the most wide variety of Arctic equipment assembled anywhere in the world.Cat Train 002.jpg
 
The Blue units in the background are the actual "Cat Train". roughly 10 of these will be pulled across the frozen tundra by a modified Cat D7, D8, or D9 dozer. they have sleeping rooms, Showers, bath facilities, laundry facilities, a Diner, a medical unit, a communications unit, and power generation equipment.Cat Train 003.jpg
 
Each Train will accomodate about 50 workers. They will work 7 days a week, 12 hour days for several weeks at a time. Cat Train 004.jpg
 
They will be accompanied by a massive fleet of specialized snow vehicles that carry Sizemic Survey Equipment. This equipment makes a very accurate and detailed Sonar type picture of the geologic formations down several miles.Cat Train 005.jpg
 
The Electronics of the equipment is carried in these larger track rigs. A crew of laborers will lay out cables on the snow enough to cover about 40 acres at a time. Then a machine will generate a vibration that sensors will pick up and record.Cat Train 006.jpg
 
The DATA they will generate will be analyzed by the client's Geologist who wil generate a map of where they want wells drilled. The Drilling company say's the day's of finding a "Dry Hole" are history. Their accuracy in within a centimeter. Cat Train 007.jpg
 
They will drill a group of 20 to 50 wells side by side, only 10 feet apart, that go down 2 miles and out radially as much as 5 miles, giving a total length of the well at some 7 miles. Cat Train 008.jpg
 
Today it's -20 out and the crew will be working here until the snow cover starts to melt which won't be until june or july. More pics to come.Cat Train 009.jpg
 
A count of the equipment: 8 Tucker Terra's, 12 CAT Dozers, some with steel tracks, some with rubber, 8 of the large tracked trucks, make unknown, 4 or 5 of the articulated tracked tractor(Red) John Deer?, 3 Haglunds, 20 "Cat Train" cars, and some 6 tanker sleds. I'll try to get a more accurate count and the makes and some other pictures later this week. They have several complete Divisions like this operating in the greater Prudhoe Bay area.
 
Big red tractors are Case IH spent many hours running those in the fields of SW MN...
 
I wonder what type of truck that is that has the white cab over engine, red cargo container with the mattracks? Its the truck parked next to the big Case IH tractor in the last photo.
 
Good Morning! it's -26 this morning at 5;30 AM and we will reach our LOW at about 10:00 AM. The Big units in question are NOT equipped with Mattracks. They are a specially built vehicle. I'll find out today what make they are. It used to be that the favored vehicles of Western Geco were Nodwell and Foremost, which is all one company in Canada that has built this type of specialty equipment for many years. Foremost has produced esentially a "Monster Truck" that wears tires similar to the modern mosnter trucks. But they started producing them in the 40's or 50's, long before the current 'Fad'. Nodwell is Foremost tracked vehicle division. Check out their web site. They build the largest of the tracked vehicles.
 
Good Morning Lyndon,
Great pictures! -26 man that is starting to get cold. Those vehicles in the pictures. Do they keep the engines running all night or are they pretty much staying where they are at for awhile? (no little excursions) Can you get some pictures of the inside of one of those train cabins? The whole concept is pretty cool. Stay warm and safe.
 
Re:More Alaska Cat Trains

They are " On The Move" This morning. It's an impressive array.[/ATTACH]
 

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Fleet of Cats getting ready and "On the Go"[/ATTACH]
 

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This is what they used to use heavily, monster Foremost Wheeled vehicles.Cat Train 2 010.jpg
 
That last picture doesn't do justice to the Foremost trucks, I'll have to try getting some other picts. This should be the Cat Train crossing the road.[/ATTACH]
 

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These should be the sizemic electronics support vehicles:[/ATTACH]
 

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