Ford Half Track Prototype

This half track 1936 Ford truck was built as an experiment to test the concept a few years before WW2. Once tested it disappeared... only to reappear at an army surplus after WW2, where it was purchased by a Southern Ontario farmer for possible use as a tractor. That experiment was not successful and it again sat deteriorating till the farmer passed away in 1969. At the estate auction the auctioneer decided to break the truck into two lots, the truck, and separately, the tracks. The truck (by now very rough, cab caved in and rusted but with the rare original engine) went for $100, the tracks attracted no bids and after a nail-biting afternoon the buyer of the truck managed to accumulate them also. The truck then sat in a semi-assembled state for another decade or so till the new owner finally got around to working on it, finishing it up in the late eighties. About that time the Canadian War Museum expressed an interest in the vehicle and that's where it can be found today, sitting among a lot of rare old military hardware in the LeBreton Gallery in the Ottawa Museum.