page_title: Bruce Nodwell
section_title: Development of early tracked vehicles
hierarchical_section_title: Bruce Nodwell / Development of early tracked vehicles
caption_attribution_description: A Nodwell 110 tracked vehicle, equipped with a water tank for wildland firefighting. Location is Forestry Warehouse yard, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada
context_page_description: Bruce Nodwell, OC was a Canadian inventor who invented the Nodwell 110, a multi-purpose two-tracked vehicle capable of traversing a wide variety of adverse terrain, including sand, mud, muskeg, swamp, and snow.
  In 1970, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honor, "for his contribution to the opening of the Canadian North through his inventions and development of various types of tracked vehicles". A mountain in Antarctica "Nodwell Peaks" and a lake in NWT bear his name.
context_section_description: In 1947, Imperial Oil made the Leduc No. 1 discovery in Alberta, and the economy began to rapidly expand. As the oil exploration moved northward from the Leduc region, the oil men soon encountered muskeg, a wet boggy swamp-like matter through which conventional equipment could not pass. Even WWII tracked equipment either could not handle the requirement or did not have sufficient load capacities.
  Imperial Oil asked Bruce Nodwell to construct two vehicles they had designed to try to provide mobility over muskeg. These vehicles were unsuccessful, but Bruce had become aware of the need for large tracked vehicles. His first designs, that were to be either tracked or wheeled, were called North Kings and 16 were sold, but even they did not have enough mobility or durability. Bruce then concentrated on a vehicle design using soft tracks and single rows of wheels to support them.
  In 1955, Bruce's invention of the double sprocket made it possible to drive wide tracks and also keep them in place while using a single row of wheels. The combination of the splice in the belt and the double sprocket allowed the use of any size or shape belt the vehicles needed. The "wide track" concept was born. They were now able to build a new and different type of machine. The first of these was a small 1-ton-capacity vehicle called the Scout Car. However, the oil industry need a larger capacity in order to transport the geophysical "seismic" drilling rigs. Bruce's next step was to build a tracked trailer, since a method of steering a large vehicle had yet to be located. The powered trailer had tracks 40 inches wide, its own engine, and could carry a five-ton load through muskeg. Although it had its own power, it was navigated by the smaller Scout Car, which was attached to its front hitch. Imperial Oil, responding to this breakthrough in muskeg vehicles, bought 30 powered tracked trailers and 30 Scout Cars.
  The company, Bruce Nodwell Ltd., then began working on designing improvements to the powered trailer so that it would be a self-sufficient unit. The successful trailer was to be modified to include a cab and a steering differential device to make it into a self operating vehicle. Eventually, after a few unsuccessful attempts at finding or building a steering mechanism, the problem was solved by modifying an Oliver Tractor steering differential. The new vehicle was first called the Tracked Truck. However, everyone in the industry knew Bruce, because of his close contact with existing and potential customers, so they called the vehicle the "Nodwell". Later, the vehicle became known as the Nodwell 110, indicating its payload in 100-pound units.
  Even though the Model 110 was now proving to be a more successful operating unit, the Canadian marketplace was reluctant to purchase many Nodwell vehicles due to memories of past failures. For a while it became necessary for the company to try another market, making their first major sale to Western Geophysical in Alaska. This sale consisted of a complete geophysical crew, including five drill carriers, two recorders, a mechanics shop, kitchen unit and crew quarters, all mounted on the Model 110 vehicles. This crew operated successfully in severe muskeg conditions, spreading the reputation of the Model 110 throughout the geophysical industry both in Canada and Alaska.
  This model became the standard for geophysical work in the muskeg country of Northern Canada and Alaska. The Nodwell 110 was ultimately so successful that over 1,500 vehicles of this style were manufactured by the industry. Several Nodwell vehicles were delivered to the US Antarctic Research Organization and in 1961 a Place-Name survey group named a mountain in the Antarctic Peninsula Nodwell Peaks.
caption: A Nodwell 110 equipped with a water tank for fire suppression
exif: {"Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "FinePix S1800", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Digital Camera FinePix S1800 Ver1.04", "Image DateTime": "2012:05:31 21:00:43", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "290", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "27028", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3068", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "64", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:05:31 21:00:43", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:05:31 21:00:43", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "6", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "151/20", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "163/50", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "52/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3000", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "26856", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "6494", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "6494", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}