Had you been driving along Route 20 in New York state in late 1939, you may have passed possibly the oddest vehicle to be on the road at that time or since. The first video shows the Antarctic Snow Cruiser motoring along Route 20 in western New York. The vehicle was part of a project of the Research Foundation of Armour Institute of Technology. It left the Pullman Company in Illinois on Oct 24, 1939 headed to Boston. It left Boston harbor on Nov. 15, 1939 aboard the ship “North Star”. The second video shows its precarious unloading in Antarctica and gives you a better idea of the size of the beast, which was more than 55 feet long, about 20 feet wide and 16 feet tall. It was powered by two Cummins H-6 engines. Sadly, the Snow Cruiser didn’t cruise so well in the snows of Antarctica and was abandoned there. It cost some $300,000 to build.
