Snowmobile

[SwBogart]

Hi all.
I stumbled over this very interesting thread.
When me and my brother were little kids (before TV) we often heard our father Erik telling stories about war-times.
Now this story has always fascinated me.
My father and his best friend Emil had a workshop together where they did everything from repairing vehicles to filling baloons for the circus that traveled by every year.
My father and Emil were good friends with the Sarri brothers from Nikkaluokta.
(this is in Sweden).
They had an interest of beeing able to drive a motorvehicle from Nikkaluokta to Kebnekaise Mountain Lodge (tourist-station about 20 kilometers).
So my father and Emil somehow got a snowmobile but without an engine.
In these times Sweden was a neutral country and the Germans transported lots of war-material through Sweden from Norway.
Every night as a German train stopped at the station (Gällivare) my father and Emil got through the wagons to see if they could find anything useful.
And one night they found a Chrysler V-8 that was just perfect for their snowmobile.
They simply lifted the engine off the train and moved it to the workshop and installed it in the snowmobile.

When it was all done they drove the snowmobile to Nikkaluokta.

Then my father became the first person to drive a motorvehicle from Nikkaluokta to Kebnekaise Mountain Lodge.

He drove the route a few times and one day as he crossed a creeq (a small river) a fuel-line burst and set the whole vehicle on fire and it burned to the ground.

My father died in 1994 and after his departure I found a picture I´d never seen before. (my father holds his hand on the right forward lamp).
Looks very much like a Bombardier to me...but what model?

I will now try to include the picture.

Best to you all.



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[Alex Blair (RIP)]

I believe that this is a home built cabin and front ski Assembly,modeled after the Bombardier snow mobile ,but in this case a Canadian Armoured snowmobile was used complete and the cabin and front ski assembly was added to the machine enclosing the driver..
An early Penguin...
More research would be needed and wiser than I would have to research it,but those are armoured snowmobile tracks and road wheels..many of them were sent to Norway and Russia,late war ..they had V-8Cadillac flat head engines in them so if any of those parts are still kicking around ,they could have been from that machine..
Nice Find,...
This picture is probably post war and the Armoured snowmobiles would have been war surplus..maybe early '50's...may even been Norwegian Army vehicle as I see uniforms and hat badges on some of the men gathered around your father..

[Patrick LeBrun]

Hi SwBogart,

The snowmobile in the picture is a B1 (B-1) military snowmobile.

It seems to be all there and unmodified.

The front suspension was outside the bodyframe, contrary to the civilian B12.

This vehicule was wider than the previous B7 and the B12 that will follow. The reason is it was not designed to go unto the same logger's snow trails that the horse drawn bobsleighs used.

The snowmobile would accomodate a squadron of soldier and their gear.

Can't comment on the engine... but I think it was a Chrysler 6-cylinder Flathead.... the Cadillac was only used in the Mark I armored snowmobile (later Mark II & III which were body rebuilts of some Mark I).

The Bombardier Snowmobile were made to give easy access to the engine, while being well enclosed. There are drain holes in the bottom toboggan, side plates the lifts and remove on both sides of the engine behind the tracks, under the large engine access doors and the back radiator door also removes. You can get the engine in and out from the back with a engine hoist.

You see the sprockets that make the machine go forward have a reinforced dome on the front. You won't see this on any other Bombardier machine. Must have been an army requirement. The sporckets on the Mark I (Penguin) are entierly different... no relation.

Another particularity is that there was water lines and a portable heater inside the snowmobile. If the sprocket became covered with ice... you could blow hot water on it through pipes that are on top of it. This device did not carry on to civilian models.

There was also hand brakes on both sprocket axles. That way you could steer with the skis at high speed and like a tank at lower speeds; blocking a sprocket from turning... you get the drift.

-Patrick LeBrun
former cataloger at Bombardier Museum

[Michael R.]

. . . you get the drift.

PQ humour?


M.