Volume 4, 1951 - The Arctic Circle - Home

One long-range wireless set was carried by the control
wannegan for contact with base; the other trains were equipped
with shorter range sets for communication vvith the control
wannegan.
The original date for the start of the operation was
January 9, but the freeze-up was late and ice conditions on
the Churchill River were not considered satisfactory for
heavy equipment. After four days, ice conditions had improved
very little. However, further delay was undesirable,
so the light trail breaker party, consisting of one D6
tractor, one 10-ton cargo s1eigh, and a wannegan, was sent
up the Churchill River to find a crossing and if possible
to break the trail to Seal River since a check of ice conditions
and a general report on the Seal River (which had
been reported by the air observer as being still open) were
urgently required. The trail breaker party was able to
cross the Churchill River approximately 10 miles upstream
and made the trip to Seal River, returning to Churchill on
~anuary 19 with the report that once across the Churchill
the going was good to the Seal but there again it would be
ne~essary to travel up the river in order to locate a
satisfactory crossing. The operation was carried out by
making two round trips to Ennadai Lake. The first swing
of heavily laden tractors departed fram Fort Churchill on
25 Januar-y 1949 for Ennadai Lake and returned on March Il,
a total of 46 days for the round trip of approximately 940
miles. The second swing departed Fort. Churchill on March 20
for Ennadai Lake and returned on April 17 (29 days). This
trip causedmuch concern as civilian tractor operators considered
it would not be possible to complete the round trip
before the spring break-up, but the risk had to be accepted
if the Ennadai Station was to be campleted during the summer
of 1949. It is worth noting here that once the tractor
trail was established, the efficiency and the speed of the
tractor train were increased and the turn around time was
cut to almost one-half that of the original trip.
More than average mechanical difficulties were
encountered with the tractors as none of them were new.
The majority had been used on Engineer projects for a
number of years, some had been used on airports and the
grousers had been welded onto the track plates. This had
removed the temper from the track plates and caused a very
high rate of replacement. Here the air supply unit was
called upon and 900 Ibs. of spare parts were free-dropped
from a Lancaster aircraft. 81eigh breakages were reasonably
low but at one point a cargo sleigh loaded with 10 tons of