Wednesday, December 31, 2008

More Transporters Of A Different Nature

As I am sitting around the Taj Mahal getting ready for the Baby New Year to arrive, I get a call from the Bus. Turns out he was down in Taneyville, Missouri, a godforesaken backwoods town in the Ozarks, I am sure, to acquire a motor for his air compressor. How did he find it there? Who the hell knows.

Anyway, while down in that neck of the woods, he spotted, within just a few seconds, an old Ford Falcon Station Bus like mine, an old Ford Bronco like the barngoddess's and a purveyor of concrete farm animal statues. And, of course, he had forgotten his camera, so I am somewhat skeptical of this story. But, I trust the Bus so it is most likely true.

So as we were chatting it up, he mentions the image I included on my blog about my totally acceptable home, at least to thejeepjunkie, my Really Cool Stuff Syndrome---as opposed to OC, you gotta see the comments to get it. Anyway, the image below
contains, at the top left of it, a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy that the Bus did back in 1989 of an old GMC truck carrier carrying old GMC trucks.

The Bus mentioned to me he was the original owner of this image and had, in fact, found it in a book way back in 1989 and had a plastic scale model of the truck. He also wanted to build a scale model of the trailer and would I forward an image of it to him for reference purposes.

Well, AOL may be the preferential domain of the longrooffan but it doesn't let me transfer images well. It is easier to use By The Numbers. Prior to posting a Just For The Bus blog, I thought I would google Fleet Carrier Corp. to see what I could find.

Well, I have to tell you, over at this website, I found the following picture

and it is a shot of the exact same transporter with the exact same cargo on it. The panel truck, the windowed Suburban, the 3 window white pickup and and the 5 window two tone pickup are the same as the photo the Bus found 20 years ago, long before these tubes Al Gore invented became popular. Even the tractor and trailer numbers are the same. I love it!!

I scooped the Bus.

Seems, according to Fred Gruin, these tractors are GMC, not Chevrolet, and only transported GMC's! I guess ride sharing was not in General Motors vocabulary then, either.

Remembering I had done a couple of posts about transporters recently, along with justacarguy, I thought I would share the following with you.

I then surfed around a bit and found these old transporters. If you want to see a ton of old transport trucks, visit this site and click through the links.

In the meantime, enjoy these old transporters.

An old GMC carrying Nashes. Looks to be circa 1957.

At first I thought this was a mid '50sDodge truck hauling a bunch of MOPAR products to their ultimate car lot. Then, upon further examination, it had to be a bunch of used cars headed there. While it is a Dodge, I think '55, truck, I am confident that in addition to those MOPAR's on the tractor, on the trailer is a 53 Chevy coupe and a mid 50's Merc, along with that cool old Dodge pickup on the rear.

I think an International.

And yet another.

Howard Sober, Inc. with a unique variation to the car hauler. No hydraulics required.

Another old GMC with no hydraulics necessary.

And the sister photo to the one that got this whole blog going.

This would be Ford's version of transport in the mid '50's.

And the loaded one. Points awarded to those identifying the car to the left of this photo.

And, even more rare is this photo of this Dodge transporting these MOPARS to their final sales point. Only 4 cars per ride.

And while this is not a transporter, I remember seeing this rig around my hometown circa 1972-73....and love the Vega, like the Bus owned, also captured in this shot.

Fred Gruin, Jr. also provides this photo of a bunch of T-Birds and a Lincoln, or Merc?, heading toward their ultimate destination.

Hope you have enjoyed these photos courtesy of Mr. Gruin and I will link several more once the Bus gets back from taking the Bus out and about with a bunch of fun folks in the frigid Ozarks weather.

Til Next Year.

3 comments:

Horse-farmer said...

thanks Long Roof

Busplunge said...

1946 Packard

Bushwacker said...

Those tractors are GMC and not Chevrolet indeed! This post informed a lot about the early transporters.


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