Monday, April 23, 2018

Mary Ann and Rebecca... D8 dozers that served at McMurdo Station... built in the 50s specifically for work in Greenland and Antarctica, with 54" wide tracks, and 30k pounds towing ability, about 25% more than regular D8s



the others that were at McMurdo were named Pam, Big John, Linda and Colleen

Pam and Colleen left Antarctica in 2013, Mary Ann stayed until 2014.

They'd previously had their blades removed by Russ Magsig and crew. There had been plans to ship Colleen north in 2012-13, but that was cancelled because of the width of the Bailey bridge from shore to ship http://www.southpolestation.com/mcm/1314/14photos1.html






Thanks a lot to Dennis!

5 comments:

  1. I dont want this to turn into a similar Divco milk truck incident...

    But its 54" (inch) tracks not 54' (feet)...

    How did a single comma become the icon for feet and quote mark (double comma?) become the icon for inches anyhow?

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    1. not a comma, it's an apostrophe. Then a quote mark. See? I can correct people too! lol

      I dunno, simple shorthand by carpenters I'd bet. One tick mark for feet, and two tick marks for inches.

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  2. As usual I got caught up in the story within the story. Mary Ann was used to drag the SS Sea Wave close enough to the dock in point Richmond CA so that it could be scrapped.

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    1. wow, there sure is a lot more to the story that I'm not going to touch, about 60 years worth. I just found it amazing that the dozers were used for 60 some years, brought back to the states, one seems to be restored, and show up at an agriculture expo. Hell, I doubt anyone knew that the dozers had names and some had pinup art.

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    2. Anonymous3:45 PM

      It is amazing that they soldiered on for 60 years and for the most part no one has any complaints about them other than being too slow, and are occasionally still needed to do work that the new equipment cannot do.

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