Trackmobiles^® for Sale

Whiting Equipment Canada is Canada’s leading Trackmobile^® sales and service provider.

Trackmobile^® railcar movers began as an in-plant project at Whiting Corporation, Harvey, Illinois. In 1947 a young ex-Navy fighter pilot and engineer named Marshall Hartelius was assigned to modify an old industrial locomotive Whiting had used for years inside their plant. Their locomotive was constantly being trapped on dead-end tracks, losing hours of productivity. Hartelius was charged with finding a way to move it by road to avoid bottlenecks to railcar movements. He first designed a road wheel system to mount on the locomotive but found it was cumbersome and complicated. 

Furthermore, despite the added utility of road-to-rail capability, the locomotive consumed a lot of fuel and required constant repair. Marshall scrapped his first design and, in its place, submitted to his boss a concept for a vehicle specifically designed for in-plant rail movement. It had hard-rubber tires to move by road and flanged steel wheels to work on rails.