I’m pretty sure that I’m seeing a trainload of Buicks in this image, though I’m not so sure if those are all Pontiacs on the Chevrolet truck. A truckload of Pontiacs, or something else? Hard to tell from this angle. But does it really matter? I could take any of these home and be rather content.
Nice .
-Nate
Fun to remember when cars were transported by rail in the open rail cars and also just a single rail car. It seems nowadays when I see cars traveling by train they are on trains that have dozens of auto transport cars.
When I was a kid (around about the time this photo was taken), we used to summer at my Grandmother’s house which was near a busy rail line with dozens of freight trains a day. Hours could be spent just watching the trains…and the best was when trains came by with open auto transports like this. Car-spotting and train-spotting all rolled into one.
My public school was located right beside the primary Canadian Pacific rail line, which in the late 1970s, carried mid-sized and full-sized GM cars from Oshawa to Ste.Therese. Where more cars would be added to existing trains, for shipment eastward. Those trains would be long, with many rail cars carrying new cars. We’d often stop playing at recess, just to observe all the new GM cars. Mostly, Chev and Pontiac B-bodies.
On September 19, 1979, several kilometres west of my school, a CP train hit a log truck and derailed. It was big news for us students at the time.
According to a newspaper article, I located from the time, damage estimates ranged from $3 million to $5 million. As three diesel engines, and 22 train cars carrying about 70 new GM cars, were damaged or destroyed.
One of the three damaged diesels. No fatalities.
My Dad was hauling cars about the time this picture was taken.
If I remember correctly, usually there was only one make of car per truck.
The reason was trucking regulations at the time gave hauling rights to specific companies.
Dad worked for Anchor Motor Freight (aka Leaseway Transportation) and hauled new Chevies.
I think (but don’t remember for sure) F,J. Boutell hauled Pontiacs at that time.
I worked for Anchor Motor Freight from 1979 to 1989. In ’79, we hauled only GM vehicles (all 6 GM vehicle brands ).
As deregulation (July 1980) started to affect the trucking industry, changes were coming. By the mid 1980’s, larger companies like Leaseway Transportation were buying up the smaller companies and as a result we started hauling other brands in addition to GM. I hauled a few of loads of Volvo’s out of Norfolk in the mid 80’s, Mercedes out of Jessup MD and by the end of the 80’s, Fords out of Buffalo and Geo’s (Suzuki’s) out of a new plant in Ontario.
There was a period where it became a free for all. We would leave the terminal Monday morning and we were free to find car loads at any plant we wanted to stop and inquire at.
From the horizontal headlights of the two cars on the truck behind the Tempest/LeMans, it looks like they are not Pontiacs, which all had vertical stacked headlights at the time. Chevys perhaps?
A bit of sleuthing around online has me in agreement, and conclude they’re 1968 Chevelles(?) The relation of the headlight surrounds with the shape of the fender is my argument as compared with this photo:
Love the 65-67 body design of the full size Pontiacs, especially the convertible, they were made in oshawa ontario