Railroading with Motor-Trucks 



On the Three-Ton Trucks the Front and Rear Tires Track Exactly and Are the Same Size. 

 The Steel Rings Grip the Rubber Tires with Great Force in a Tight Fit. It Requires Only 

 About Fifteen Minutes Time for Two Men at a Wheel to Fit On or to Remove the Flanges 



THE very latest scheme which has 

 been employed for bringing the 

 automobile up to maximum effi- 

 ciency and usefulness is, as so many 

 other inventions and improvements have 

 been, a result of war times. The 

 Army wanted motor-trucks that could 

 run on railroad tracks, making them of 

 service over the route to Mexico, in 

 places where the railroad tracks make 

 otherwise impassable sandy 

 stretches usable. So A. L. 

 Riker, an engineer widely 

 known as a designer and 

 builder of automobiles and 

 motor- trucks, devised and 

 developed a scheme for using 

 flanged wheels on three-ton 

 trucks, permitting their 

 use on rails of standard 

 width. 



The flanges are made 

 of steel, which is cast in 

 one piece and machined ; 

 after which it is sawed 

 apart at the bolt-lugs. 

 The inside is finished to 

 the s;uT>e contour as the 

 rubber tire and is made 

 to fit so tightly that it 



grips the rubber tire with great force. 

 A set of the flanges can be put on in 

 fifteen minutes, two men being emplo}'ed 

 on each wheel. The truck is jacked up and 

 the flanges are pounded on with a maul. 

 Then the bolts are pulled up ver>' tight. 

 Remo\'ing the flange requires no greater 

 length of time, but in an emergency the 

 trucks can be dri\en on the roads 

 without removing the steel rings. 



The Trucks Equipped with the Flanged Wheels Can Be Run 

 Over the Ordinary Railroad Tracks of Standard Width. The 

 One Above Was Loaded with Munitions and Carried Twenty 

 Soldiers Ninety-Three Miles at Nineteen Miles an Hour 



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