Great Snow Cat Stories: The Story of Brooks Olson's ST4

[Lyndon]

The trucker who hauled 4 ST4's for me from Grand Prarie Alberta, along with the "Mother Lode" of NOS parts that belonged to Northwest Tell out of Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory, tells his friend in Prince Rupert BC about the 'Load' he just hauled to Seattle, WA. The 4 machines arrived ON thanksgiving. So the Guy in Prince Rupert has an ST4 and is looking for a parts & service manual which I sent him. A year or so later he calls me back up and wants to know if I would like to buy his Snow Trac. I already had 12 or 13 snow cats of various makes and wasn't really that interested. So next the guy wants me to look for him an Inflatable boat, which I know absolutely nothing about, but he assures me that they are much more readily available in the "Lower 48" than where he lives in Canada. I didn't have much luck finding an inflatable boat, but in the mean time he locates this Brand NEW one man hovercraft in california and has it delivered to my place in Washington. So I load it up on my trailer and make the 1800 mile treck up to Prince George and then on to Prince Rupert. The road to Prince Rupert sucks! The Canadian Officials give me a bunch of grief at the bourder. They basically didn't want me bringing in the Hovercraft. I get to Prince Rupert and the guy admits that he would have had a hard time importing the Hovercraft himself, oh yes, and he's RCMP!(Royal Canadian Mounted Police) So now I've smuggled in a vehicle for a cop! Didn't feel to good about that, but I headed home with the ST4 in it's place and didn't have any problem getting back into the states. So I get the machine fixed up and sell it to a guy up at Stampeed Pass in Washington, who uses it to get to his winter play place cabin where we held the first ST4 owners Meet back in 94. The owner, a Larry Blum painted the machine the same bright yellow/green that the state painted lots of it's equipment and he kept it right next to the Rod departments headquarters to keep down on vandalism. It has a nice silver roof rack and I used a really great picture of it in an add I ran in Hemmings Motor News. This led to the Head Mechanic at Hemmings Museum in Vermont contacting me for a service manual and in turn I got a private custom tour of their facility. Eventually the owner of the "Prince Rupert" machine Larry Blum, sold it and purchased a larger LMC. His neighbor bought it as they had a new born infant and needed reliable transportation in and out of thier cabin which they lived in year round, also at Stampeed pass. A couple years later they bought a "MATT TRAX" set for their 4 wheel drive and sold the Prince Rupert machine to the guy that recently posted pictures of it on the Forum. The Prince Rupert machine was originally purchased new by the airport in Prince Rupert BC to service a remote antenna site that was a mile or so away from the runway. So now someone out there knows the long chain of events that led his machine to him. But the story of "Cold Bay" another Airport snow trac is far more interesting!

 

[BigAl]

Re: Great Snow Cat Stories:

Geez Lyndon ,
What a great story !

When I was at your place in Washington with Mike ( Snowcat Operations), why did'nt you come over to the hotel and tell it to me as a bedtime story ??? I guess no body really cares if I sleep well or not .....

Now can you tell me another bedtime story about "How I saved the Snow Maiden with my KT7 from the "Bad Snot Trac people" who wanted to take advantage of her undercarriage and how she rewarded me by showing me her Gear Drives !"

PLEASEEEEEEee.............

 

[Lyndon]

**COLD BAY**
Bill Guthrie calls me up one day and gives me a tip on an ST4. "Lyndon call this woman, she's got one of those snow trac's you collect, here's her number" right away I recognized the Alaska (907) area code. So I call Helga Gravit thinking it's an individual and I get:" FAA, Cold Bay", I proceed to inquire about the shape of the machine, does it run? NO. Generally I don't buy anything "Sight unseen". I like to look over anything I'm putting down a chunck of money on. Anyway to keep a long story long, To me a parts ST4 is worth 3000$, I figgure the 18 wheels are worth 100$ each and the 4 pulleys off the Variator are worth 500 each so thats 3800$(18X100 + 4X500= 3800). But the Machine was in Cold Bay Alaska. Cold Bay is in the Aluetians, about half way to Russia. The Aluetians are over a 1000 miles long. From the most eastern part of alaska to the tip of the Aluetians is over 3000 Miles, further than the distance from New York to San Fransisco! I live in Washington near Seattle, but I work in Alaska, Prudhoe Bay which is 1000, maybe 1500 miles in another direction. So how am I going to get this thing home?

 

[Lyndon]

There's a ferry that runs out to Cold bay, but it's seasonal. The ferry goes to Anchorage, from there I will have to borrow or rent a trailer and take the machine to Seward alaska where it would go on a barge to Seattle. But the ferry stops running in the winter which is approaching. At the time I was home in Washington and I proceed to drive over to the GSA regional offices that are handeling the auction of the FAA's used equipment. It looked as if the transportation was going to run about 1800 to 2000 dollars so I only submitted a bid for 1000$ to keep under my ceiling limit of 3000$. About a month later I was back on the "Slope"(nickname for the prudhoe bay oil fields) and one of my roomates back in Washington informs me that I won the bid for the cold Bay machine. So I call up Helga Gravit and inquire if there's a gas station or tow service I can get to haul the Snow Trac off the FAA's property and deliver it to the Ferry. There's NO gas station in Cold Bay! But they suggested I call this father and son that have an excavating business there. So I call up Gary, forgot his last name, and he says "sure we can take care of that, but don't put it on the Ferry, put it on the Sally J". Whats the Sally J? It's a service ship that brings food, fuel, and supplies to and from the Cold Bay and some of the other Islands that goes directly to Seattle. so he gives me the number of some shipping outfit in Seattle that operates the Sally J. When I called them that said"Oh you've been talking to Gary..) seems everybody knows everybody! "Yeah we can handel that" Now bear in mind that I'm doing this from a man camp 350 Miles North of the Arctic Circle, and not within 1500 miles of either the point of origin or the destinitation. Every call requires about a 28 digit sequence for my phone carrier!

 

[Lyndon]

Re: Great Snow Cat Stories:

Now the Sally J runs out of Seattle, hits various of the Alutians going up and back to Seattle. So I get this call, seems that they 'forgot' to put the snow cat on the ship on their way up. Apparently they just radio in when they are passing by and if there's no mail or stuff to drop off they sail on the the next place. They agreed to pick it up on the way back down which they did. When it arrived in Seattle my buddy Earl, was waiting with his car trailer and they set in on with a fork lift. The bili for Shipping? 600$ FAR OUT! I had originally alloted 2000$! The Cold Bay ST4 still had FAA Plates, and all the FAA Cold Bay markings which they usually scrape off, remove or paint over. AND it had the nicest hood I have ever seen on an ST4. I've seen over a hundred ST4's. It also had Seats with The Westermaskiner symbol imprinted in them. These are some of the only ones of these I had ever seen. Cold Bay was pretty rusty under the bottom and in the engine compartment and the engine had been totally run out. It had so little compression that when you turned it over with the hand crank you couldn't feel a thing. I'd never seen an engine that run out.

 

[Lyndon]

Re: Great Snow Cat Stories:

It had been run on the beach and had alot of corrosion. One of the Tracks was trashed and part of the suspension was bent. It stayed in my collection for several years without getting any attention except that I kept it inside and protected from further damage. Over the course of the next few years I accumulated every part necessary to restore it to perfect factory condition including Brand New Factory Tracks still in a crate, and a correct 1600 VW industrial motor, Decals... It looked pretty sad. Then one day I was delivering this Fully restored Track master that was bright red to some folks in a town in Washhington called Goldendale and a nicely dressed gentleman farmer in a nice looking pickup stopped me at a light and wanted to buy the trackmaster that I was hauling and I had to tell him that it was already sold. A year later I ran an Add for this other snow cat in the Heavy Equipment Trader and I ended up selling this real nice Bombardiere Bombi also from alaska, that had a 5 man cab on it, to that farmers(actually he turned out to be a retired mason and general contractor) neighbor. He called me up, and I agreed to fix the cold bay machine for him. I had it sand blasted, and ton's of welding and surgery on the roof, and did a refit comprable to some of the finest one's shown here on the Forum. This was about the 9th or 10th ST4 I had restored so I was getting pretty good at it. The new owner wasn't much interested in the FAA Cold Bay markings and I almost cried when they sand blasted them off.

 

[Melensdad]

Re: Great Snow Cat Stories:

Lyndon, do you have any photos that show FAA markings on a Snow Trac? Were they the standard orange/red color or some special color?

Did the FAA spec them out a certain way? Any special equipment on an FAA Snow Trac or were they pretty much stock units? For what purpose did the FAA own Snow Tracs (runway inspection, general transportation, some special purposes?).

 

[Pigtails]

Re: Great Snow Cat Stories:

Lyndon,
I was wondering where you have been lately.. You have such an interesting life... Stay in touch and share more stories.

 

[Lyndon]

Cold Bay was Dull Yellow and I gave the only original photo of it before restoration to the current owner, James something, real nice man. The FAA in alaska purchased several Snow Trac's for airports located all over alaska. I tracked down about half a dozen and they were all the original red Snow Trac color. they were all "big Wheel" machines that had the 3 belt tracks. When I got done with restoring Cold Bay it had: Real show car paint job, correct factory decals, new wiring, new springs, a custom interior, new instruments, a beefier alternator, and a superior exhaust system. On ST4's the early machines came with the exhaust spitting out the drivers side near the snow thrower flap, roughly in the middle of the tracks. This arraingement was not very good. First of all it left black spots on the track. And when you stopped and left the engine running on nice days and had the drivers side wing window open the exhaust came into the cab! Not so hot. The Champions of the exhaust problem were undoubtedly Northwest Tell, the Phone company for the Yukon and NorthWest Territories in northern Canada. They owned and operated more Snow Tracs than any other company/ski area or individual on the planet. Snow Trac sales records indicate that CN (Canadian Railways, parent over the Canadian phone companies) purchased some of the very first machines, as well as the some of the very last machines, almost 1/5 (20%) of the entire production. Somewhere in Whitehorse is a picture of some 200 machines parked together and this was only the machines assigned to that area. Maybe I can run an add in the Whitehorse paper offering a reward for the picture! Anyway, they came out with the final fix on the exhaust which is to run it underneth and up the back on the hinge side of the door. At first they ran it up the side of the door that opened and peope wanted to grab on to it getting in and out of the machine. These were retorfitted with a expanded metal guard. The orange machine most recently listed on the forum looks like an old CN machine to me. CN Machines even made it into the Snow Trac advertising literature. One of their earliest purchases can be easily spotted on the year of manufacturer production chart posted elsewhere in this Forum. It's the only year that they produced 200 machines, half of which went to Northwest Tell. No other year does the production exceed about 130 machines.

 

[Lyndon]

In answer to your questions Bob, the FAA Painted on the lettering, attached white with dark blue lettering FAA License plates ( which I saved ) no special color. Snow Trac's standard color is red. New and Replacement parts come Red. Customers who wanted a different color painted them themselves or they got another color ON TOP OF RED. About the only exception to this was the Nato and British Military machines. They were not equipped with any special equipment. Almost all the machines delivered to far northern climates had the optional gasoline fired heater. What they were used for: Snow Tracks were used to attend Radio towers. The Radio Antennas of an airport were always on the nearest high hill, but far enough away from the runways as not to be a clearance issue if possible. So was the case at Prince Rupert in Canada as well as dozens of sites across Alaska. When the Radio equipment needed servicing, rain or shine you needed to climb some gnarly mountain road that might not have been plowed.
Greetings " Pigtails".
PS: Cold Bay has a good home now I believe. The gentelman that purchased cold bay had an impressive antique car collection and Cold Bay get's to live inside with the other restored antiques.>
The next story will be about Bill Harnish's Track Master ALAIS "The FBI RIG" which was allegedly used to search for DB Cooper!

 

[Pigtails]

Re: Great Snow Cat Stories:

Thanks for sharing..

 

[Lyndon]

The very first posting in this thread should read: "The Story of Brooks Olson's ST4"

 

[Melensdad]

The very first posting in this thread should read: "The Story of Brooks Olson's ST4"

It does now, wonder how that happened

 

[Snowcat Operations]

LYNDON,
Write a book! I want my signed!

 

[Lyndon]

I've decided to "Dress-up" this article now that I've become adept at posting pictures. This and another existing thread will provide support material for a new Thread that will be appearing soon.... But it's a Surprise!
Cold Bay Really is "OUT-THERE"

 

[Lyndon]

This is the Airport where the Cold Bay Snow Cat came from. It was built as a result of the invasion of the Aleutians during WWII by admiral Yamamoto. This diversionary attack on Dutch Harbor was Thwarted by a P40 Stationed here.

 

[Lyndon]

Located at 55deg12' 33"N 162deg 42'51"W it is WEST of Hawaii.

 

[Lyndon]

Later, as the Cold War ramped up they built a "D.E.W. Line" Station here. They were an advanced early warning system in case the Russian attacked. They were often reffered to as "White Alice".

 

[Lyndon]

Cold Bay has the 5th largest Runway in Alaska and was designed to be used as an emergency landing strip for B52's carring 'Nukes' that were kept in the air 24/7 for many years as a deterant to Nuclear War. As of 2000, around the time I got the ST4 from here, the population was 88 Residents!

 

[Lyndon]

Some of the aviation activities at Cold Bay. A commercial airliner that flew into the Ash Cloud of one of Alaska's many active Volcanoes made an emergency landing here some years back. It lost all 4 engines.

When I get home from Alaska, in about 10 day's, I will dig out the actual photos of the Cold Bay ST4. I should have 'Before & After' Photo's.

 

[mtmogs]

Very cool Lyndon. I saw a show on DISC that talked about the history of Cold Bay, and what a challenge it was to build the airstrip...and what a challenge it can be to land there given the mountains and micro-climate.

 

[Lyndon]

As the crew of KLM Flight 867 struggled to restart the plane's engines, "smoke" and a strong odor of sulfur filled the cockpit and cabin. For five long minutes the powerless 747 jetliner, bound for Anchorage, Alaska, with 231 terrified passengers aboard, fell in silence toward the rugged, snow-covered Talkeetna Mountains (7,000 to 11,000 feet high). All four engines had flamed out when the aircraft inadvertently entered a cloud of ash blown from erupting Redoubt Volcano, 150 miles away. The volcano had begun erupting 10 hours earlier on that morning of December 15, 1989. Only after the crippled jet had dropped from an altitude of 27,900 feet to 13,300 feet (a fall of more than 2 miles) was the crew able to restart all engines and land the plane safely at Anchorage. The plane required $80 million in repairs, including the replacement of all four damaged engines.

During a 1989—90 series of eruptions, Redoubt Volcano, Alaska, spewed enormous clouds of ash. Ash blown from this volcano on December 15, 1989, nearly caused a 747 jetliner (KLM Flight 867) carrying 231 passengers to crash. Partly in response to this near-fatal incident, the U.S. Geological Survey organized the first International Symposium on Volcanic Ash and Aviation Safety. This 1991 conference in Seattle, Washington, focused attention on ways to reduce the risk volcanic ash poses to the world's rapidly increasing air traffic.
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