FWIW I was looking at the movie The French Connection. It is kind of a good snapshot of New York City in 1971 as most of the filming was done without permits and consequently the streets were not cleared for filming. One of the scenes in the movie has a car being offloaded from a ship. On the way off the pier it shows a truck dock with a group of trucks. While New York City is not representative of what is elsewhere it does give a good feel for the era. Another look if you find is episodes of the Tv show Moving On with Claude Skins and Frank Converse. They did a lot of shooting at truck stops on the road. One other LTL operation I can remember Preston 151 based in Baltimore I think. Delta Express California based I think. ETMF (East Texas Motor Freight) based in Texas. Navajo was another large operation then. J.B Hunt has been in business since the 1950’s. As has Schneider. Also Werner. Of the last 3 none were anywhere the size they are now. Most trucking companies then were regional operations. Most very rarely venturing more than 1 or 2 states from there home base. The larger operations were mostly ltl companies. Also there were a lot more day cabs then. A lot of truck stops then had bunk rooms for drivers to flop in. This was especially true in the northeast. One other comment is this was the era when a lot of leasing companies got into business. TransAmerica is one I can remember. CTI I think. A lot of the larger companies would have a share of generic 40 and 45 foot trailers. Hope this helps some. Rgds IGN
This site will help!
One of my all time favorite trucking companies of that era was Campbell 66 Express with the motto “Humpin to Please” The 66 came from route 66 of course.
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/campbell-66-express
Richard
If you were in the upper midwest (MN,ND,SD,WI,IA,IL) HYMAN Freightways was a common carrier- the owner lived in my neighborhood when I was a kid- the company was sold when he got old and passed away, but it was a weekly visitor at my dad’s store in Mpls. Carolina, Yellow, P.I.E., Roadway were all common sights as well when we received freight shipments. Nothing like unloading a semi on a winter day with the temperature at -10 (below zero)! Cedarwoodron
Smith Transport Staunton Virginia and Builders Transport Camden South Carolina.
NARIGO1’s comment about “Movin’ On” (one of my favorites growing up BTW) reminded me of another bit hit from that era – Smokey & the Bandit. I live about 20 miles from the Monteagle grade mentioned in the opening song, and swear to ALCO, Baldwin, and EMD, that I saw the Bandit truck a few months ago on I24 just north of Monteagle.
Not that it has anything to do with the overall discussion, just throwing the odd comment in here.
Also, there was an article in MR back in the 70s about someone’s interurban display that had Claude Akins (from Movin On) as the narrator.
From memory.
Roadway
Transcon
Yellow
Mason
Gilbert
Hoover
Bell
McLeans
Dixie-Ohio
Trans American
Rockwell
Interstate
3C
Cuttingham
Red Ball
Ryder
Wilson Transport.
Dudley
Dorsey Motor Freight
Also there were a lot more day cabs then. A lot of truck stops then had bunk rooms for drivers to flop in. This was especially true in the northeast.
Carolina had bunk rooms in all their major terminals for road drivers (one of my first jobs was cleaning them). Routes were generally scheduled to avoid over night stops on the road. Road tractors were COE sleepers, but mainly for greater comfort, room for the drivers gear, and “just in case” they got stuck on the road and ran out of “hours”.
On the Carolina system, most road drivers drove the same route - 8 hours one way, layover, 8 hours back. Much like railroad crews back and forth on a sub division.
Local drivers worked mostly day work making deliveries and pickups - both trailer load and LTL.
Carolina also did most of their own maintenance and repair. They had a large complete shop at Cherryville, and most of the major terminals had shops able to completely overhaul tractors and trailers at will. As late as the early 80’s, Carolina was still running B Model Mack tractors (from the 50’s) for local delivery. Their machine shop in Cherryville would rebuild engines, transmissions and rear axles, and sent them out to the various terminal shops for repairs.
As a teen/young adult in the mid 70’s I watched several 1954/56 B Model Mack tractors get complete frame off restorations at the Baltimore terminal shop. When complete these 20 year old trucks looked and ran factory new. No expense was spared, new upholstery, perfect body and paint work, stripped down to the frame and rebuilt.
So those B Model Macks that Athearn sold a few years back lettered CAROLINA, are easily accurate from 1953 well into the early 80’s
The first Hot Rod I built was painted by the shops lead mechanic in the terminal shop, over a weekend - the perks of being the boss’s son.
Sheldon
The left lane of most of the interstates were called the Monfort lane. The company paid the tickets for the drivers before the CDL came out and you could have several drivers licenses in every state you drove in. I had Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, 3 New york, and 5 New Jersey licenses. Each one was legal. Then came the CDL database and all them are gone. And I was only over the road for a year and a half. I knew guys with one or more licenses for the lower 48.
10-4 good buddy. Jumpin out into the Monfort lane.
Pete,
I didn’t drive for Monfort,but I had a Monfort lane truck. [(-D] Double wide COE,1969,White Freightliner,425,cat,with a Eaton 13 speed,double overdrive,called ‘‘The Beast’’… When scanner arrives,pic’s will follow. You will see,that the beast,was even,longer,than the KW,in the pic…[Y]
Cheers, [D]
Frank
Here are some notes I have collected regarding HO trailers from Jim Eager and other:
Era of Model Trailers
Athearn original 40’ reefer based on the FGE prototype 1960-1964
Athearn-A Line beaded side 40’ beginning in 1965-another source says 1968
Athearn-A Line smooth side 40’-1978-close to those made in the later 60s
Athearn exterior post 40’ 1968
Walthers Flexi Van trailiers-1958 or so-into the CR era according to one source-similar to the
regular trailer of this type
Lone Star 40’ flat-Close or can be back dated to close enough
There may be a couple of 32’s that might have been seen in the early 60s.
Availco’s Preferred 102 vans were all Fruehauf Z-Vans. Almost all
Availco vans were Fruehauf’s, except for one group of Trailmobile 40s
that were stretched to 45.
All Availco Preferred Pool 45s were stretched, their Preferred 45s
were built as 45s, as were all of Rio Grande’s 45ft Fruehauf’s (and
they were all 102s). ICG’s, MP’s and VTR’s were stretched. Santa Fe
had both stretched and built-new 45s.
Stretch 45x96: ATSF, Availco Preferred Pool, CR, ICG, MP, CO&E,
Realco, SOU, UP, VTR, Xtra
New 45x96: Availco Preferred 45, B&M, IMEX, Martrac, MILW/Preferred
45, NW, SOU, SP Golden Pig, Transamerica, UP, UPS, Tranfax, Xtra
New 45x102: ATSF, Availco Preferred 102, BN, CR, D&RGW, KCS, Martrac,
MILW, SBD, SP Golden Pig/Olympics, Transamerica, UP, VTR, Xtra
For the Accurail 45x102 Brae: ATSF, BN, C&C, CNW, FEC, SP
and very similar Miller, Strick and Theurer vans: BN, ICG, Martrac,
NAC, NW, PW, SBD, SP, Tranfax, Transamerica, UPS, Xtra
Did you know that Mr Greer Dick Beam had stock in the Seaboard Coast Line also and a lot of it also.
Frank
Passed many of the flat land runners in the hills of PA dropping gears in the granny lane. Then in Indiana getting blown away feeling like I was backing up instead of going forward.
About twenty years ago (turning wrenches for a dealership) I did an in chassis on a fruitliner with a tuned 500 horse cat (3408) and an 18. Put it on the chassis dyno and started running it up through the gears when the alarm went off. 125 MPH was tops for the dyno,but I still had another two gears!!! That truck was fast on the flat but crawled up the hills. The ATA3406B was probably the best engine on the road until they went to the water jacket after cooled. Then you couldn’t keep head gaskets in it for very long. The company I work for still runs 2 of them in Ford LTL9000, with RTO16908LL. One is on its second million mile with only 2 in chassis. And we don’t haul pop corn. The new trucks have nothing on these two old veterans.
Good times.
Pete
Pete,
I will definitely agree with you about,the flat land runners. I did a driving,stint,with National Freight,out of Vineland NJ ,in they’re Marathon DIV. I was one of the only company drivers,they had, A team would bring the load to Hickory Hills yard near my house and I run it solo to all parts of California, a cabover International,400 come apart,nine speed,but a 443 rear end,top speed,was 58 mph at 2200 rpm. All the big trucks used to pass me by all day long and made the little remarks, until I was passing them, all by in the mountains,then I didn’t feel so bad,about having a slow truck. [(-D] [(-D]
Cheers, [D]
Frank
Thanks everyone, keep all the info and stories coming.
Well, after my second day at the show, I ended up with three 32’ Walthers trailers (I didn’t find any suitable 40 footers) for $5 each: A Preston, Roadway and a C&O Piggyback (that might end up on a flatcar…but that’s another project). I researched those companies (not much info on the C&O Piggyback service was easily found) and thanks to you all, I think I made some good chioces (except that the 32 footers might be a little old for the late 60’s…but still feasible, to me at least). I like supporting vendors at these shows, so they will keep coming back, so while maybe not ideal, they will be good stand-ins until I want to spend full price on more accurate models (or maybe they will turn into permanent stand-ins or end up ‘abandoned’ and left in the scenery somewhere as new trailers get purchased…hey! just like the real thing! lol).
Delray1967,
The common carrier I worked for,starting in 1964,Indianhead Trk Line,had 5 tandem axle,Fruehauf,32 footer’s,that they,took the front axle off,got rid of the barn doors,added a roll-up door and used them for city,pick-up and delivery trailer’s and still used them in the early 80’s. They were the rounded nose roof top one’s.
Cheers, [D]
Frank
Never mind.
We need a delete icon.
Those 32’ vans will be just fine. They did become “rare”, but stayed in service until they wore out. As noted by Larry, they were often downgraded to local pickup and delivery trailers.
C&O was late to enter the piggyback thing, but did it in pretty big way when they did, about 1958 or '60 if I recall. They bought a sizeable fleet of trailers and flat cars. I don’t have good info either on exactly what kinds of trailers they had. But by the late sixties, after taking control of the B&O (1965), the C&O wasa major player in piggyback.
On my layout I simply “altered” that history a bit, and have some of those same C&O vans on flat cars - I model 1954, and I model lots of piggyback.
Sheldon