E St. Kruiser50 Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 (edited) A friend of mine emailed me these pics, and thought some of you truck guy's and auto history guy's might enjoy these <img src="http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> . <img src="http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh49/treehuggerdave/image005.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh49/treehuggerdave/image002.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh49/treehuggerdave/image007.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh49/treehuggerdave/image008.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh49/treehuggerdave/image009.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> This art deco truck is really, really cool <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="cool.gif" /> . <img src="http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh49/treehuggerdave/image013.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh49/treehuggerdave/image018.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> Edited August 8, 2010 by Treehugger Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Hearse Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Thanks Dave! Those are really cool! I love seeing old pictures of vehicles! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vizio93 Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 wow these are neeaat !!! I like the last one with all the fords on it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 When you look at a modern car hauler and how many cars they fit onto one rig, those old 4,5 or 6 car haulers seem very inefficient! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingiguana Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Strange thing too,...I dont know if its just me, but some of those cars seem to sit very high on the top of those trailers. they appear higher than most van type trailers, so I wonder about clearance problems under bridges and wires and such. But very cool reference pics, and yes, Harry, I agree with the modern trailers being way more efficient, like only 4 cars maybe 6 per trailer, of course cars were much longer at one time too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldboychas Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Great pics...........Shoot, I remember some of thoes haulers ! WOW, did that make me feel old. Later, Charlie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 I count 10 on this one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vizio93 Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 I count 10 on this one! WO We've definitely come along way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest promodmerc Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 When you look at a modern car hauler and how many cars they fit onto one rig, those old 4,5 or 6 car haulers seem very inefficient! Given all those trucks are powered by gas engines and the fact that there no where the amount of dealerships I imagine they were quite efficient for their time period. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaronw Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 (edited) Great pics, thanks. A few of those may be older than the 50s. I think the second from the top is a '39 GMC and the bottom one is a '41-47 Ford with a '42-47 Ford pickup on the trailer. As far as small trailers, I think it was fairly common to drive cars out to dealers too. My great grandfather and / or or great, great uncles (don't remember exactly, I was just a little guy when I heard the stories) came to California from Oklahoma during the dustbowl by driving cars out to dealerships in LA. Once they delivered the cars they just settled in the area. Edited November 22, 2009 by Aaronw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest promodmerc Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 What is really cool is the truck is the same brand as the car it is hauling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modelmartin Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 What is really cool is the truck is the same brand as the car it is hauling. Except for the Packards!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E St. Kruiser50 Posted November 22, 2009 Author Share Posted November 22, 2009 Glad you guy's enjoyed these . You can tell that "Back in The Day", that there was more "esthetic style and appeal" in their designs, like with their cars, than the more contemporary conventional designs today, that are more about function and economics, and less about style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Anderson Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 When you look at a modern car hauler and how many cars they fit onto one rig, those old 4,5 or 6 car haulers seem very inefficient! By modern standards, yes they were inefficient. But, bear in mind, it wasn't until roughly 1970 that teh Interstate Highway System began coming completely together, even though there were still breaks in the superslap network, patched in with old 2-lane roads. The US Highway System, augmented as it was with a network of state highways, both systems being built to standards that varied from state to state, sometimes even county to county within a state was full of 2-lane highways with lanes as narrow as 8 feet, often sharp curves (due to the initial highway systems tending to follow existing rural roads to reduce construction and land acquisition costs. Not until the postwar years was there any concerted effort to over- or underpass railroad tracks, the vast majority were grade crossings, and at that, often the highway approached the tracks BELOW the top of the rails, making for a considerable "hump" in the road, requiring fairly high ground clearances for any semi-trailer, even intercity busses. Bridge and overpass clearances were a problem years ago as well. It wasn't unusual to see warning signs a mile or two before approaching one, warning of clearance hgts of 12', even 11 feet, meaning that even an ordinary semi, and many box vans had to take another route. Such obstacles surely did affect the automobile haulaway industry as well. For the smaller independent automakers, even one as large as Studebaker once was, they could only supply their cars to the nation by rail, and that was even more inefficient, due to the limitations of freight car sizes that existed until the late 1950's. Most railroads had two sizes of boxcars devoted to automobile shipping, 40' and 50', each with wide double sliding doors, offset toward one end of the car on one side, the opposite end on the other side. Still, with these wide loading doors, it could take fully a half hour minimum to load two luxury cars in one, or upwards of two hours to insert 4 automobiles on a double deck arrangement inside. For companies such as Ford and GM, they had dealerships in just about every county seat town in the US, sometimes more than one dealership of the same marque in the same county (dependant on population, of course), but those dealerships were MUCH smaller than the mega auto malls we see today. Even a Chevrolet or Ford store in a major city might have had perhaps 65-70 new cars in stock at any one time, buy your average dealership in Anytown probably never floor-planned more than 20 at a time, if that. So, deliveries were smaller, and often farther between, again making those 4-car haulaway trailers pretty adequate for the job. Two developments converged to change all that though. First, at about the same time as Interstate Highway construction was getting into high gear, the various railroad companies went together, to form Trailer-Train (reporting code TTX), for the purpose of hauling two 40' max semi trailers on each 85' flatcar. By about 1960 or so, TTX rightly figured that by adding a steel superstructure with either one or two more decks (open ramps, actually), the bilevel and trilevel auto haulers were born, and true long distance rail delivery of new cars from distant factories became a reality, and today is the dominant method used for deliveries more than just a couple of hundred miles from the factory dock. Most of today's highway haulaways operate out of rail hubs to dealerships in a fairly narrow radius, except in western states, where the distances between major cities is much greater. But, the 4-car haulaway trailers remained in service, in declining numbers well into the 1970's, being the only ones that could service downtown dealerships in many towns and cities, going away as those old-school dealerships either closed, or moved their operations to the outskirts of many towns and cities where they operated. The almost constant rebuilding/remodeling/refining of secondary highways also make it possible for the new, modern haulaways to reach places once reserved for the smaller trailers of yesteryear. Efficent? Perhaps not, but those old 4-car trailers represented the best that was practical in their day. Art Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Anderson Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 What is really cool is the truck is the same brand as the car it is hauling. That was pretty standard SOP for automakers, especially Ford, GM, Chrysler, even Studebaker, who all built heavy duty trucks in addition to their car lines. Fords, Mercuries, Edsels and Lincolns got hauled by F or C-series tractors, GM cars were carried on trailers pulled by GMC semi-tractors, Mopars utilized Dodge tractors, and Studebakers, their own company's semi-tractor products as well. Often though, independents not producing trucks used independent make semi-tractors, in the midwest those were largely Internationals, or perhaps a White, REO or Diamond T. Art Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E St. Kruiser50 Posted November 22, 2009 Author Share Posted November 22, 2009 (edited) These are really great too . Edited November 22, 2009 by Treehugger Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Here's a pretty cool one: And here's something strange... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaronw Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Art mentioned how awkward it used to be loading cars into trains which reminded me of this photo. A GMC "old look" bus being delivered, the end of the train car had to be removed and a loading ramp built. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vizio93 Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Dang are all those power lines above this one ? And here's something strange... :lol: I like this one !!! You definitely don't see that every day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott H. Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Does anyone know if the conversion cab for this truck exists? I saw one somewhere but I can't remember if it was a resin conversion or one someone built. Thanks, -Scott H. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaronw Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Does anyone know if the conversion cab for this truck exists? I saw one somewhere but I can't remember if it was a resin conversion or one someone built. Thanks, -Scott H. RMR has several early cab overs, he has a '55 Chevy like that, or at least close to it. I can't post the link from here, but I'll post it when I get home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott H. Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 RMR has several early cab overs, he has a '55 Chevy like that, or at least close to it. I can't post the link from here, but I'll post it when I get home. Thanks, I was thinking about doing a search and heading over there in a bit to check out the bus kit from the Lloyd Woddington's HOT ROD SCHOOL BUS thread and now I know I am. I have the old AMT early car trailer and was wondering what to put in front of it and still keep with the time period of the trailer design. I'm thinking the Chevy or an early Ford would go perfect. Thanks again! -Scott H. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaronw Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Spalding Trading & Shipping has a 1950 Ford F-8 with a sleeper cab, AITM has recently added an early Autocar conversion with a sleeper and a 1953 GMC 530, and of course a bunch of Macks that could fit. AITM is also hosting Illini Replica Conversions with some neat old Kenworths and IHs. RMR has quite a few 50s Chevy, Dodge and Ford cabovers. STS http://www.stsmodeltrucks.com/ AITM http://www.aitruckmodels.com/ RMR http://www.freewebs.com/rmrresin/nf125.htm You know looking at all this stuff I guess it shouldn't be a surprise I've been wanting to build an old semi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott H. Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 You know looking at all this stuff I guess it shouldn't be a surprise I've been wanting to build an old semi. Cool, thanks for the links! I'm loading them up in other windows as I type. There's just something about the old ones that catch my attention. I guess it's because each and every one had it's own distinct look, not just rounded off with similar looks and minor differences like todays cars & trucks. -Scott H. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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