The VLA Transporters 

Great description! Thank you. When I use to live in El Paso, I loved going up to the VLA to shot some timelapse of the antennae as they pointed at different spots in the sky. There's something special about that high plain location. So isolated and serene, yet very high-tech.

I’ve been there 5 times, it’s awesome !

Looks like the name of one of those beasts has been changed. The first one built back around 1976 was originally called "Hein's Trein" - named for then NRAO Associate Director Hein Hvatum.

I think he said "High Plains Drifter". By mistake? 🙂 Good movie reference anyway.

I've just been to this place today. Fascinating!

I think this could have been accomplished using standard railroad track-switching. Each wheel-truck individually steered to accommodate the variation in turning radius between track pairs (equivalent function to rear differential in a car). So the transporter would be switched off the main line onto the spur and go under the dish at an acute angle. The dish bases would have to be rotated in reference to the acute angle of the spur track-pair, so as to maintain the current orientation to the transporter. Once the dish is on the transporter, it would simply back out and be switched back onto the main line. A drawing would be good here, but this is text only. If there's a good reason why they must use the right angle switch, I'd like to hear it. I doubt the configuration with the shortest distance between dishes would preclude what I'm suggesting here.

Thank you for this! I drove past the VLA once and was absolutely fascinated. I wish I stopped. Is there any way to upload a higher resolution version of this clip?

what if the wind picks up?