Was something lost in translation in the ordering of these three identically-painted ’54 Plymouths?
Obviously, the truck and trailer rolled onto its side, as can be clearly seen on the side of the trailer in the front and back. According to the caption, the damaged tractor has been swapped out, although getting that one on the top of the cab switched over to the new tractor must have been a bit of a challenge. A crane undoubtedly, as the cars on top of the trailer would have had to be likely put back in place too, as I rather doubt their hold down chains would have survived that. or at least moved back into position. The cars in the lower compartment show some damage, but not nearly as much.
Someone is going to be disappointed.
Suddenly, it’s 1975!
This type of thing does happen. Back during the brief time I doubled as a fleet manager at work, I had ordered three new F-550 cab/chassis to be service trucks for mechanic staff. The train they were on derailed shortly after leaving the factory in Kentucky. All were toast and had to be reordered.
A few years ago a BNSF freight train derailed in Montana and dumped some Boeing 737 fuselages into a river.
Freight damaged vehicles are an excellent source of donor engines. There was a business in the early oughts building diesel Suburbans using freight damaged GMT800 pickups as drivetrain and front sheet metal donors and Car & Driver’s Mazdaspeed5 project got its drivetrain from a freight damaged car as well.
Your New Car came in, come & pick it up! We’re washing it now.
Ahhhh, It’ll buff right out.
Shoulda ordered the tru-coat
Funny when you were mentioning fleet order Jason. My first thought when seeing three identical cars was there was going to be a slight delay for some company waiting for there new fleet of plymouths!
Is the tractor a Dodge?
I had one of my plow truck cab chassis destroyed by fire during delivery. It was tail end charlie on a three truck piggyback delivery. The second truck started on fire, rear axle brake fire if I recall correctly. My guy took the brunt of the fire, took six months to get a replacement.
Upon delivery, Honest Joe promptly salvaged the odometers, to be put to use later on…
Love all of our comments! The tractor is a Dodge. It looks like an early fifties model. Having worked for Chrysler Corp. in the seventies, I remember that we had damaged-in-transit vehicles. These could not be sold as new. If repairable, as often they were, the dealer would repair the vehicle. Then they became field cars for field representatives of Chrysler. After that, they could be sold as used. Vehicles were damaged in transit both on car haulers and on rail. Importers have some good stories, too, for all that have been damaged by salt air or having fallen off ships. My grandparents bought a 1954 Plymouth Belvedere four-dour sedan in this color combination. With matching blue and white interior, it was pretty.
I had a 54 Savoy in this color combination. In my opinion, the 53-54 Plymouths were probably THE ugliest cars ever marketed by that brand. From the windshield back? Somewhat blah. From the windshield forward? A dog’s breakfast.
I wonder about the large tank behind the cab. Seems unnecessarily large for fuel or traction sand. Doesn’t seem substantially or permanently mounted.
I wonder if it was a water tank that the shop would temporarily set on as ballast, when bobtailing for a tractor switch-out such as this?