Who would have thought tractors would be mixed up with cars and trucks? And that tractor stumped me, big time. I did not recognize it, as it does not look like the Ford agricultural tractors of the time, nor any other brands. Here’s the reason:
It’s a Ford Industrial tractor, with distinct styling.
As I look at that load of Fords, I can’t help but suspect it must be heading for some kind of display or show, as the mix is just too perfect. Oh, wait a minute; there’s no Econoline.
Interesting, maybe going to a state fair or something similar. That would be a good reason to bring out a tractor and a stake side.
And it looks like every one of them is a high-trim model. Except for the Falcon, on closer inspection. But the Galaxie is a 4 door hardtop, which was never common. I just looked and Ford only built about 10k more 4 door hardtops in the Galaxie 500 line than they did convertibles that year.
They do love to display the top trim versions, and it would be an unlikely mix of vehicles to be going to dealers in a rural area, where you did see the occasional Ford dealer that also sold tractors.
There was one of those in Lynden WA in the late 80’s and early 90’s though of course by then they were selling Ford-New Holland tractors.
The only problem with that theory is the industrial tractor. They would never have shown that at a fair, in lieu of an agricultural tractor. these industrial tractors had a very limited range of applications, which explains why I couldn’t identify it.
Hard to say…but clearly these vehicles were all built in different plants.
I don’t see how it being an industrial tractor precludes it from being put on display. Maybe there was a construction boom going on in the area? From my reading the Industrial was more set up for use as a front end loader and certainly it could appeal to a larger farm that had multiple tractors.
Through the early 60s, rail transport often ended at a major city railhead where vehicles were transferred to a truck. It wasn’t uncommon for truckers to hold shipments near the railhead for consolidation into a truckload shipment to destinations that were a bit remote from the railhead.
And the expensive Thunderbird has its full wheel covers and fender skirts installed…
And wasn’t the Econoline still technically a Falcon at the time? If that was still true in 1963, this may have been the full set, except maybe for some Philco appliances.
The Econoline arrived in 1961 as a very distinct truck series, not as a passenger car and not associated directly with the Falcon in any way. Somewhat curiously, starting in 1963, the passenger vans were named Falcon too, but only the passenger vans. That also corresponded with a new high-trim DeLuxe passenger van. The cargo van and pickup never named Falcon. That Falcon van thing apparently lasted through to the end of the gen1 passenger vans.
I’m not sure what the motivation was, except perhaps to make them seem a bit less truck-like from a marketing POV. I suspect the deLuxe VW bus and the high-trim Corvair Greenbrier van had something to do with it, undoubtedly. But it was never seen in the Falcon brochures and such. A bit of a naming mish-mash.
It never made sense to me that they started calling it the Falcon Station Bus instead of the Econoline Station Bus. It seems that they started calling all of the vans with a full set of windows Falcon and to be called an Econoline you at least had to have the solid driver’s side.
In retrospect though I do believe it was due in part to the Corvair name being used for their van, which of course makes sense in that case since it was actually based on the Corvair. I also think the fact that the Falcon was so successful probably played a role too.
I had not realized that Ford used the Falcon name on an Econoline Van. I suppose it’s no weirded than calling a Torino in 1970 (and a half) a Falcon.
But Chevy would repeat this nonsensical idea in the nineties, tagging a Dustbuster Minivan with the name Lumina.
That never made sense to me either.
Looks like there’s a new Ranchero and Econoline in the background, maybe waiting for the next Assorted Fords Sampler Box?
That’s quite an assortment. What are those things on the Falcon, that look like black bumper guards?
To my eyes, they appear to be tiedown straps.
I’ve seen pictures from the ’60s of rail cars with tractors, trucks & Mercurys mixed together coming out of different plants in the Wayne MI complex.
It looks like Hadley Auto Transport was based out of Southern California.
I’m here to pick up the 2 and 4 door Galaxies that I ordered. 😉
Heading to the Hazel set, maybe? They always managed to pack a wide lineup of each year’s Fords into every episode, with Mr. & Mrs. Baxter’s current rides in the opening credits.
If not a special move, maybe to a dealer in a small prosperous city somewhere? The two trucks for local businesses, the industrial tractor for the new plastics plant, the Galaxie for the local butcher, the Fairlane for a school teacher, the Falcon for a young mom in the new development at the edge of town, and the Thunderbird for the doctor’s wife.
Actually I was on the same path Robert but from the same family tree.
The Thunderbird is dads, the Galaxies is moms, Fairlane belongs to Junior and the Falcon is for little sister.
The tractor and flatbed are for grandparents farm and the pickup is for Sunday best!
In our area (New England) Ford dealers originally handled the entire line, from cars to farm equipment. At some point years ago, the franchises were split and the farm equipment portions were made separate entities. In our locale, farm equipment moved down the road about 30 miles. Whereas the farm equipment line was somewhat limited when it shared the dealership with cars and trucks, the free-standing farm equipment dealers also eventually sold Ford industrial equipment (like articulated loaders and skid steers) and took on short lines like New Idea haying equipment, DeLaval dairy equipment, and so on. Perhaps when this picture was taken was before the split, when any Ford tractor would have been delivered through the one dealer network. Farms used tractors like the one pictured for loader tractors and other abusive applications, the “Industrial” designation indicating a somewhat more ruggedly designed version of the similar sized agricultural tractor. It would not have been surprising, then, to see them delivered along side other vehicles headed for the same dealer.
The F350 pictured would have been a typical farm truck of its day, lending weight to this conjecture. It seems to be equipped with a Ford factory flatbed body (for which rack type sideboards were optional.) I believe they were available on F250’s on up to F/C600’s, and came in a variety of wheelbase and body length combinations. They were a premium truck body- I had one- and could be identified by an embossed Ford script logo dead center on the rear crossmember of the body. Any Yankee farmer (including me!) would have loved to have that tractor and truck dropped off at his place. They were both well suited to what farming was like around here 50+ years ago.
It looks to me like the stake sides are strapped to the bed to be installed once delivered.
Agree on the industrial tractor, I can certainly see someone with a larger farm that had multiple tractors using one of these outfitted with a front end loader that was dedicated to that type of duty, while another tractor did the plowing and other tasks on the farm.
From the contour of the top of the rear seat, that Galaxie looks like a 500 XL, which I think was uncommon as a 4 door hardtop. I sure don’t remember seeing anything but the fastback and the more formal roof 2 door cars.
The rear wheel on the Thunderbird looks strange?
Retouched?
Distant connection, but weren’t nearly all of them assembled (among other places) in NJ at either the Mahwah or Edison assembly plants?
Fascinating to puzzle this through, and **great** to time-travel and see all these cars in brand-new shape!