Hello all you semi drivers! I’ve got an auto body stamping plant on my HO layout and need 1 or 2 trailers to place at loading docks. Does the name on the semi trailer indicate what it’s hauling? I know enough not to spot a refrigerated trailer at an automotive industry, but would it look funny (to someone who knows trucks/trailers) to have a trailer lettered for a RR spotted at a stamping facility. My prototype receives metal coil by truck and ships the stampings by rail (all 4 door Hi Cubes). I see coils come in on ‘covered wagons’ (more or less a flat bed trailer with soft/removable sides and tarp roof) but also see regular ‘box’ trailers coming and going (but never really paid attention to their names…besides, I’d like to back date the industry to the late 60’s. There are a lot of trailers on the market for piggy back-type service, which justifies the RR lettered trailers, but what about plain ol’ trailers? I assume some trailers leaving the plant contain finished parts (maybe from a lower production line?) and take them to an assembly plant and others are industrial delivery trucks (dropping off 55 gal drums of lube/cleaning agents/etc., or other large stuff (size and/or quantity) for a factory).
Also, to my ignorant eyes, a trailer from the 70’s looks pretty much just like the ones I see today…any spotting features (other than length) to determine what year a trailer would be in service? From what I can tell, landing gear with metal rollers seem to be older, as do anything with a rounded roof/corners, or less than 48’ long.
There is a train show in Salt Lake City this weekend (a 3 day show!) and since I’m in town for a couple weeks for work, figured I’d go and see what they’ve got. Any suggestions for trailer ‘roadnames’ (are they called roadnames in trucking?) I should get? Any that I should avoid? I see trailers on sale, but they usually are RR nam
Most trailers and tractors too still rolled on the old bias ply tires with spoked wheels. While there were some with disk or closed center the majority were still spoke. Also the landing gear with the steel wheels were prevalent until the eighties and the flat plate style.
Regional names would prevail and also many private names too. PIE (Pacific Intermountain Express), Miller freight, CF (Consolidated Freight), were some of the larger trucking companies. Most of your steel deliveries would be done in company trucks such as USS (United States Steel) and such.
Here is a good site for early trucking pictures. Remember that in those days most trailers were 28 to 36 footers. Forty foot trailers were early seventies banned by most states.
The trucking industry was heavily regulated back in the '60’s and 70’s, and 40 foot trailers were a rarity. Many states had overall length limits, so trailers were in the 32-36 foot range to comply. This is one reason cab-over style tractors were so common back in the day.
Also, steel coils are HEAVY, and weight limits were lower than they are now. I would expect a stamping plant to receive coils by rail, probably in gons covered by tarps, since this is before our modern covered coil cars, or maybe by boxcar. That is, if in fact, they shipped coils in that era at all.
If I was modeling steel shipments by truck in the 50’s or 60’s, I would expect it shipped on flatbed instead of in a dry van, much like it is today. That would make an interesting scene, Ol’ Johnny Bigrigger out there untarping a load in the parking lot. And coils being so heavy, it would take a REALLY big forklift to pick one up, or much more likely, an overhead crane.
Not quite right. The Interstate Commerce Commission forced all States to allow 40’ trailers starting in 1958. Prior to that 32’ and 35’ trailers were most common.
CAROLINA, mentioned earlier, was a large east coast carrier, covering nearly all of the east. My father was a CAROLINA terminal manager for about 15 years, and I worked summers at the terminal, I know a little about the trucking business.
By the early sixties, almost all new trailers constructed were 40’. In 1973 or 74?, 45’ trailers were allowed nation wide. They were slower to catch on than the earlier switch to 40’ trailers. Some carriers, including CAROLINA, sent new trailers back to the factory to be lengthened to 45’ - this proved to be a disaster - trailers broke in half - I saw more than one first hand.
The common carrier trucking industry was heavily regula
A couple of thoughts to add. Overnight was one of the companies I often saw in the southeast. An interesting thing to model that I remember from that time were the exchange points where at the state line were trucks entered/left a state that allowed double trailer rigs. There were full of extra bogies where they were either added or removed when they dropped off or picked up the second trailer.
For the steel coils, I remember seeing flatbeds with only a single coil on them loaded over, or close to the rear wheel set. It would be over the weight limit to add a second one.
An interesting story about length limits in the southeast. A lot of the industrial areas were tight spaces and couldn’t handle the longer trailers or west coast rigs. I was talking to a driver at a rest area in Kansas one time who was on his way to Charlotte to pick up a truck of their. Seems one of their drivers had somehow gotten a west coast tractor and long trailer into somewhere and couldn’t get it back out. This fellow was taking a smaller COE tractor to North Carolina to pick it up. He was talking about how much this was going to cost to drive another tractor out there and the fine for having an oversize vehicle on the roads.
Just my [2c], Being in the Trucking industry,45yrs of my life,driving and owning,Sheldon’s reply is correct. As far as to the common carrier name you would see,depends upon what part of the US,you lived in… The little state stickers,that you used to see,on the side of trucks,were you were permitted to operate in,also used as fuel tax stickers,you could not buy, fuel,in any state,unless you had a fuel tax sticker for that state…I could go on and on…BTW,The so called spoke wheels,are called, a Dayton wheel and they are tube tires,all Railroads used them,mainly because they were cheaper and only,10;00x20,tires,the other wheels,are called,Budd wheels,tubeless tires and low profile now,but bigger tires,11;00x22 and 11;00x24, Radial tires also. A brand new,steer tire,for a good one cost upward’s of 400.00,lasts roughly 3yrs, rear tires,new,not recaps,costs roughly 325.00 apiecex 8,running a truck,is by no means cheap…
Sometimes vintage rail videos are a great resource for checking out the trucks in the background. In fact even better are vintage trolley videos.
One way to be reasonably accurate for trailers from the 1960s (apart perhaps from the regional aspect that Sheldon and others have mentioned) is to use actual Ulrich models from the 1960s / early 70s. They generally tried to keep fairly current with their paint schemes. Ulrich trucks are pretty common at swap meets.
Living near a very large heavy industry (Bucyrus Erie headquarters) as I did, we saw lots of specialized trucks and trailers, very heavy duty, possibly ex-military. And in the Milwaukee area we saw trailers painted up for the various beer breweries.
There was a small but busy truck firm in my home town – they had their own trucks but not their own trailers – and now that I am modeling that town and era I regret having taken no photos of their trucks. I treasure the one photo I took where their headquarters building and Quonset hut can be seen blurred in the background.
Thanks everyone, all great info! In addition to Google, I’ve been checking YouTube for research too…you might be surprised what good stuff is there. I looked up “There Ain’t No Easy Run” on YouTube and found a black and white slide show while Johnny Cash sang that song…Great pics! The trucking industry (and trucks) sure has changed over the years.
While I’ll be at a train show in Salt Lake CIty, I’m from the east (Detroit metro), but living in NE Ohio for work (my modules are based on Gerstenslager industry in Wooster, OH); I’ll be looking for eastern roads. Interesting to know eastern and western states had different rules. I only see triple trailers on the Ohio Turnpike but if you want to see more than 3, I remeber seeing the ‘truck-train’ (or something like that) that runs in Austrailia. (has nothing to do with my OP, but interesting nonetheless)
I didn’t think about it until you brought it up…back then, when load limiits were low for trucks, coil might be brought in by rail. Maybe my team track will see coil being delivered there…or maybe one of my indoor ‘shipping’ tracks will be changed to ‘coil in’ (I have a perfect spur at one extreme end of the plant so raw materials in the west end, and finished products out the east end…makes sense to me).
One new thing I’ve been noticing about trailers is one wide tire replacing the two spaced close together. I thought the two tires were also for safety; if one blew, you at least had one as a backup so you had time to pull over and change it. 18 Wheelers are becoming 8 Wheelers.
Thanks again everyone; my grandpa drove for Abner Wolf (Detroit to Bay City area, I think) but he passed away when I was 5 so I never got to ‘talk trucks’ with him. Oh! Maybe I’ll look for an Abner Wolf trailer as a tribute to him.
Bingo stamps is what we called them. And how can we forget the old FMVS 121 rule for the so called anti lock brakes? I remember when power steering and front brakes were options and not many trucks had them. You got good very quickly backing a tractor trailer without power steering. Got my chauffeur license in a 62 Brockway with air assist steering, 318 Detroit and quad box. One turn of the wheel and your air was gone. Never grab the spokes of the wheel. One good bump would break your thumb. Done my share of split rim 1200x24 tires. Air starters would wake the dead and scare the doo doo out of unsuspecting victims. Those 80 pound electric starters always failed with three inches of slush to lay in while your holding it with one hand trying to start the bolt with the other. Good times. Glad their gone.
Delray1967
The railroads were not permitted to directly own trucking companies by the ICC. I think it could have been the 1935 motor carrier act or the Elkins act of 1910. The railroads got around that by financing trucking companies through private names such as FJ Skarr named for PRR executive.
I don’t know how I could forget in my earlier post of a common trucking company of the rust belt. Roadway. They had terminals all through the rust belt.
Yeah! I forgot about the ''Bingo cards". I worked for Indianhead Trk Line,out of St,Paul, Mn. the longest and all they had on they’re road trks were air starters. I’m a retired 710 Teamster,30yrs and 15 yrs an independant… So I will say,who ever bashes the teamsters,does not have a clue,what they are talking about,especially,if they were to see,my pension check every month…It was a long hard road,but I believe,it was worth it, need I say more? [Y]
The Walthers Evans Coil Cars should work for your era: Evans Coil Car Page: “Evans was the first to create a dedicated 100 ton coiled steel car. From 1964 to 1977 they produced a small variety of car types and a couple of prototypes”.
You could even run some of those (AHM maybe?) NYC Clam Shell coil cars (page 4)
The railroads were not permitted to directly own trucking companies by the ICC. I think it could have been the 1935 motor carrier act or the Elkins act of 1910. The railroads got around that by financing trucking companies through private names such as FJ Skarr named for PRR executive.
Pete,
By the late 40’s, as piggy back got started, first the ICC said the railroads could own trucks and pickup customer loads no different than REA and services of that type but it was restricted to in State commerce.
Then they got a rulling that said they could be in the interstate trucking business so long as the van traveled by rail . But they still set them up as seperate “divisions” of the company in many cases.
Then finally they opened piggyback up to full interchange with railroad owned vans or common carrier vans.
Then deregulation - which should have happened 30 years earlier than it did.
When I typed trucking companies I should have typed Interstate Common Carriers. They were allowed to continue the door to door LCL freight and container freight. What they were not permitted was the solicitation and transportation by public roadway of freight and passenger rates. They were also not permitted to charge pickup and delivery separate of standard freight rates for LCL and container freight. One major reason early container transportation did not take off. By the time the railroads set up container facilities at shippers and receivers the costs did not justify the trucking also.