#trackless train

TC-497 Overland Train, Mk II by R.G. LeTourneau (1962). The LCC-1 was so successful that the US Army contracted LeTourneau for a larger version. The TC-497 Overland Train Mark II has four 1,170-hp Solar 10MC gas-turbine generators, one in the control car and three others spread out along the train. At 572 feet long, it is the longest trackless train ever built, able to carry 150 tons of cargo at 20mph. Each car now has four steerable wheels. Steering commands are sent from the control car to each set of wheels in turn, timed so that they turn at the same points where the control car turned. The vehicle performed perfectly in testing, but the US Army abandoned it before it saw service, as it was rendered obsolete by the introduction of the Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane heavy-lift helicopter.

LCC-1 Sno-Train (Logistics Cargo Carrier) by R.G. LeTourneau (1956). The LCC-1 combines the 10 ft high wheels of the Sno-Freighter with the power system of the Tournatrain to produce a locomotive with a 600-hp diesel generator, and three cars capable of carrying a payload of 45 tons. It was used by the US Army in Greenland and Canada throughout the 1950s, and now has a permanent home at the Yukon Transportation Museum in Whitehorse, Yukon.

VC-12 Tournatrain by R.G. LeTourneau (1954). The VC-12 "trackless train" is an articulated vehicle with eight cars having a total of 32 independently driven electric wheels, able to carry up to 140 tons. Power for the wheels comes from a pair of 450-hp gasoline generators. Each car is steered automatically so as to follow the same path as the front locomotive.

The MGM Trackless Train was quite literally a promotional vehicle that the studio put together in the 1920s in accordance with President Herbert Hoover's advancement of a national highway system. Designed to look like a locomotive, the "train" featured an engine, cab, dining/sleeping car, and operated like a truck on rubber tires. An open-air caged truck followed with a presumably heavily sedated Leo in tow. The sprawling cross-country trip from New York to L.A. spanned 1925 to 1926 and included a few European detours along the way.