(first posted 2/4/2014) Every Father’s Day, there is a very nice free car show in Noblesville, Indiana. There is a pleasant variety of things there besides the usual overabundance of muscle cars. The year before last, I was leaving the show when something made me stop. It was this truck, slowly idling its way into the show, a fairly late addition for the day. There was something about this big old monster that turned it into a sort of diesel pied piper, and I could not resist turning around and following it as it played its tune. I have been to a lot of car shows, and have occasionally seen an old semi tractor on display, but I have never gotten to walk behind one as it meandered through the crowd and found a place to park. But I have now, and here it is.
Growing up in the midwest, I do not ever recall seeing a Brockway truck, although they surely traversed my state from time to time. My first reaction was to offer these shots to Paul Niedermeyer, knowing that he is more of a big truck guy than yours truly. He recalled seeing Brockways around Baltimore, so perhaps they had more of an east coast presence. Paul, however, passed on the pictures. He indicated a need to first finish writing up all of his own CC finds. After figuring out that Paul would never get to this one until shortly after his 104th birthday, I decided to keep it for myself. And then pretty much forgot about it. Until someone said something about big truck week at CC. Rats, I thought, now I have to find out something about this crazy orphan truck.
Image source: brockwaytrucks.org
Just what, exactly, was a Brockway? Wiki tells us that it was an old-time maker of trucks in Cortland, New York that transitioned from carriages to trucks around 1909. The company stood on its own until it was purchased by Mack in 1956, and continued as a separate division under Mack until 1977. I suppose that Mack was a natural to take over, since truck manufacturers who used dogs as hood ornaments probably have an unwritten code to stick together. However, eventually the Bulldog put down the poor old Huskie, and Brockway went away.
It turns out that there is a bit more to the story than the Wiki version. A bit of digging on the web turns up an organization that celebrates these trucks, and its website (which can be found here) is a treasure trove of information on this old-line manufacturer. Brockway is a rather obscure brand among big rigs, but was well known in the states around its central New York home base. Although started as a carriage maker in 1875, the company’s 1909 conversion to motor trucks ensured its survival as the twentieth century got underway.
Brockway’s history seems to have intersected with quite a few other companies. Brockway bought the Indiana Motor Truck Co. of Marion, Indiana in 1928, thus providing this Hoosier with a little more enthusiasm for the brand. It was around this same time that a former executive of the White Motor Company took over as President. A merger with Autocar was planned, but was called off due to the stock market crash of 1929. The ensuing depression took Brockway from $15 million in annual sales to bankruptcy. These financial difficulties forced the company to sell the Indiana operation to White, which closed the Marion, Indiana facility in 1932.
By 1935, several new models were added, most of which would stick around into the 1950s. After some fat years of wartime contracts, Brockway would continue to custom-build a small number of trucks every year (strictly to order), never really straying from its base in the northeastern states. This 260 model was introduced in 1946, and would become one of the company’s most popular. As the postwar era progressed, Brockway remained a very small player, holding around 0.2% of the market. However, its trucks were highly regarded workhorses.
The mid 1950s brought the small company to reality and talks were started with multiple companies for possible mergers or alliances, including White and Continental Engine Co. As it turned out, Brockway made a good partner for the ailing Mack Trucks, Inc., a combination that solidified both companies for the next two decades. Mack could concentrate on the mass market, while Brockway continued with its more specialized focus. It was around this time that Brockway introduced the Huskie mascot, providing a compliment to the Mack Bulldog and fitting the personality of its trucks, often found plowing snow in the harsh winters of the New England and Mid Atlantic states.
Image source: transpressnz.blogspot.com
Brockway eventually became a victim of its small size, its autonomous relationship within Mack, and the kinds of labor troubles that seemed to proliferate in the 1970s. Although the company was working its way out from under the 1974-75 recession, labor troubles resulted in a 1976 strike. Unfortunately, the strike backfired, resulting in the closure of the Cortland plant and the end of Brockway trucks, the last of which was built in 1977 to fulfill the company’s last active order.
The owner of this particular truck, a retired trucker (of course) who restored it, told me that it is a 1957 model and was happy to let me climb up to take some interior shots. The office of this rig has a charming old-school look about it that is remarkably stylish yet austere, all at once. The owner did relate that these old over-the-road trucks were all business and quite a workout compared to newer units, which are much more comfortable and easier to drive. I could certainly imagine that a man would earn his paycheck by muscling one of these big trucks through the dense traffic of the Eastern seaboard. Still, how many other truckers got to spend all those hours gazing at that beautiful steering wheel with its full chrome horn ring?
The Cummins powerplant seems to be an update, as my research indicates that these trucks were probably equipped with Continental engines in this era. But, the Cummins power seems right given Brockway’s long-ago Indiana connection.
As it turns out, I am glad that Paul demurred on my offer of these pictures, as I learned quite a lot about these interesting trucks. If this little summary has whetted your appetite for all things Brockway, be aware that there is an annual summertime national Brockway truck show in Cortland, NY that is put on by the Brockway Truck Preservation Association. But until then, enjoy this brief taste of a little-known workhorse of the northeastern U.S. that has become a hoosier Huskie in its retirement.
Image source: Hemmings.com
This is certainly a new piece of knowledge for today, having never heard of these before.
A truck such as this strikes me as a sort of Checker cab of sorts – built well and for a specific purpose. Thank you for going back and getting pictures.
What a magnificent beast!
I so want to drive it!
Shotgun!!
Cortland NY is a short 25 minute drive away from my hometown of Ithaca NY, they have an annual Brockway Truck parade/show. I’ve never been unfortunately, this article makes me regret that!
Central NY used to be chock full of industry. Ithaca alone lost the Ithaca Gun factory, the Emerson transmission plant, the Curtiss airplane factory (predecessor to Morse chain, which became emerson power transmission), and some textile manufacturing. The big factory still working here is the Borg Warner plant in nearby Lansing NY.
And that is why I left the Finger Lakes Region of New York and there is not much left in Cortland other than the University and most of the jobs in the area are low paying. Living there you are surrounded by former and decaying grandeur as well as numerous signs and attempts to make museums about the former grandeur. Even if I could land a good paying job what is the point if you are surrounded by all this depressing decay.
Nice article about these trucks, I occasionally saw them and of course old timers mention them along with the type writer factory that used to be in Cortland.
Amazing condition / restoration. The owner is to be commended. Great parade tow vehicle.
Very nice article. It can be hard to find good information on these big rigs. I’ve seen some Brockways exactly once. A few years I was in Washington DC before Christmas and there were several of them delivering the Christmas trees to the White House.
Brockways were actually rather common here in northeast Ohio when I was young. I remember both ODOT and the city of Cleveland having fleets of Brockway plow trucks.
What is fascinating to me is the way Brockway remained a strictly regional player even in the 1960s and 70s, and even with a 20 year affilliation with Mack. You would think that Brockway would have been turned into some kind of niche/specialty truck line that could be sold and serviced through Mack dealers nationwide, but no. Aside from sharing some cab and body components, Brockway seems to have kept doing its own little thing in its own little region. Until it no longer did. I wish I could have found some sources that better explained the Mack-Brockway relationship, but there is really very little out there on these trucks.
Mack was only a factor on the West Coast after they opened a plant out there, and started making trucks specifically adapted to the conditions there. There was a huge divide in the market then.
But Brockway was particularly regional. I’d say Ohio was about as far west as one was likely to see them much.
Seeing a Peterbilt or Kenworth on the east before the 70s was about equally unusual.
Kenworths and Petes weren’t all that strange on the highways of Ohio back then, but the one you’d see were always cabovers due to overall length restrictions in the East. Don’t think I ever saw a conventional Pete or K-Whopper until the early ’80s on our highways.
True; I meant to say conventional. But I’d see that the KW and Pete COEs really started to become more common in the East around the late sixties-early 70s. Which of course coincides with the completion of the major interstates and a big expansion in trucking, etc.
I saw a picture of a Brockway truck in New Zealand in a truck magazine here a while back, no idea how it got here
I recall seeing a Brockway exactly once: in Columbus, OH in 71/72. The truck driver that lived across the street when I was growing up always had a Mack.
Thank you for this splendid treat! What a fine truck, and a correspondingly-fine write-up.
Brockways were unusually common (relatively speaking) where we lived in Baltimore and along the mid-Atlantic region. I remember older ones like this featured truck, and thinking they were the truck-word equivalent of the classic cars of the 30s, given their styling. And I remember their sound, as they mostly still had those big gas six cylinder engines.
Brockway seems to have started offering diesels quite late in the game, which perhaps made them a bit of an alternative to Mack, which had fully embraced diesels.
The difference in styling and other aspects of East Coast trucks like the Brockway compared to West Coast trucks like Peterbilt and Kenworth was very starkly obvious, at a time when most trucking was regional, and not often trans-continental. For that matter, this Brockway looks almost more European; it reminds me of trucks like the Swiss Sauer and such.
Gee, now I’m really glad I demurred; it’s fun getting up in the morning and having a post like this to greet one 🙂
A classic conventional truck in red with black fenders, always looks so good !
I’ve read about Brockway, probably in one of Stan Holtzman’s books. I’m pretty sure North American truck enthusiasts know this man (and his beautiful photos).
Like Paul said, it looks like conventional Euro-trucks from that era, I think mainly because of the set-back front axle. It reminded me of the huge Krupp Titan from the fifties.
Now that you and Paul mention the European vibe you are getting, I can see how the instrument panel and steering wheel has a bit of a German atmosphere to it, much like some of the old Mercedes stuff.
I’ve never seen a big truck steering wheel with a horn ring like that. It’s particularly odd, since the air horns were always actuated with a pull rope. I suppose it might have a conventional horn for in town use?
I immediately thought of a Ponton Mercedes when I saw that wheel.
Pretty accurate representation of downtown Cortland (not to be confused with “Cortlandt” in Westchester County NY) in that Brockway ad. That’s not the main drag but a couple blocks off.
As noted elsewhere, Cortland was once a pretty happening town…I think Pall Trinity Micro Corp. is all that’s left as Smith-Corona Typewriters downsized to a skeleton operation years ago. They were still doing well when I lived there 30 years ago.
I hit the Brockway Trucks.org link and saw the museum’s finally open, will have to go there next time I’m in CNY…
I have seen a brockway dump truck around here
Thank you, excellent article. Living in central New York, you still occasionally see these Brockway trucks in use as they were intended. Usually as logging trucks, or with pavement operations, occasionally as a small town snow plow. It’s a testament to their longevity, and a sad reminder of how many American auto manufacturers have been lost over the past century.
Brockways certainly did have the best hood ornaments.
…And their roadside-assistance program was second-to-none.
My father spent time in upstate New York as a child, so he told me all about the Brockway trucks we saw on trips to that state in the 1950’s. Of course I saw the occasional photo of one in Western Construction magazine too, so even though I seldom saw a Brockway truck I knew what they were.
Thanks for the write-up! As a kid, I saw a lot of Brockways in and around Rochester, N.Y., in the 1970’s and ’80’s, mostly outfitted for dump truck or snowplow duty, and more rarely, for local fire departments. Anybody have a photo of one set up for fire duty? The imposing schnozz on these rigs was and is sort of menacing. I had no idea they were a regional make.
When I trucked back in the early 80s and beyond,I seen many”Brocks” in the truck stops. You had to look twice to see the badges,otherwise you might think it to be a Mack.And that was conv,and cabovers.
I had the opportunity to drive two Brockways early in my working days. A short nose conventional cab with a 6-71 Detroit and a 13 speed double overdrive Roadranger, and a long nose conventional with a big Cat engine (1674, or something like that) with a 5 speed main and a four speed air-shifted “brownie” (auxiliary transmission) which created 20 forward speeds. Both had the (very) old style cab with the 3 pane windshield, so narrow you could almost reach across and roll down the passenger side window without a stretch. The heaters were so poor in those days it seemed like it would have been easier to just work at outside air temperature and avoid all the blower noise and draftiness of the ineffectual heater. The last Brockways shared cab structures with Macks and were probably much more civilized. Both were beasts in different ways. The 6-71 required constant shifting to stay in the engine’s tiny “sweet spot” RPM range, whereas the Cat hardly needed the auxiliary transmission much of the time, or so it seemed, since it had so much un-fussy brutal torque. They were both workhorses and relics of a bygone era of machines uncompromisingly built for their purpose, which in this case was work bordering on abuse. I can’t envision most of our fiberglass tilt-nosed, electronically managed and shifted, adaptive cruise-control equipped beauties of today being able to comport themselves well when they’re decades old and orphaned, if only because the software version has been superceded! So much for progress……
Not much of a follower of the big trucks, but it seems like I have seen Brockways. Not that they really registered on me, except for the name. But my gawd, that grill, pure MB! And what a contrast to the debacle of the 2 piece wide one, wow was that ugly.