Byrd Snow Ship May Get Gary Sand Test Tomorrow

Gary residents will have an opportunity to see the snow cruiser which is to accompany Admiral R. E. Byrd's Antarctic Service expedition to the South Pole in operation, tomorrow afternoon, if present plans of the builders to make a test of the craft over sand dunes are not delayed. The giant $150,000 snow ship was to leave the Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Co. shops at Pullman about 2:30 p. m. for Grant Park, Chicago, where it will be displayed. It will remain open for public inspection until 11 p. m. and at 4 a. m. tomorrow is scheduled to start on a long trek eastward to Boston, thence by ship to Little America where it will go into service over the frozen wastes at the South Pole. It was announced in Chicago today that the cruiser's first stop will be at Gary's west city limits where tests of the ship will be made in the area between Ridge Road and 45th avenue, west of Grant street, where the WPA is cutting Cleveland street through swamps and hills. The cruiser may reach Gary before noon, according to the tentative schedule, but Dr. Thomas C. Poulter, designer of the ship, and his staff of technicians and Dr. F. A. Wade, chief scientist of the expedition and naval officers will spend two or three hours in making tests before continuing their land journey. The ship will cruise easily at 12 miles an hour, will climb a 37 percent grade and turn within a radius of 30 feet, according to Dr. Poulter. State police will serve as a convoy for the ship, taking up the task of Illinois state police at the state line on U. S. 6, west of Hammond. They plan to block intersections before the ship goes by, shunting traffic to by-roads. The state highway department will assist the state troopers in controlling traffic. Gary city police will act to keep traffic off Ridge Road while the cruiser passes through after the tests are completed. The ship will leave Chicago over the outer drive to 75th street to Torrence avenue south to U. S. 6, near the bridge over the Little Calumet river. Leaving Gary, the route follows the highway to U. S. 31, to LaPaz, where a 5-minute stop will be made at a service station at the junction of 6 and 31. It will then turn south to Plymouth on U. S. 31, to U. S. 30, on which it will proceed to Fort Wayne, where it will be parked overnight at the International Harvester plant.