It’s a distant day in 1952 (I think), with a Dodge tractor loading a good number of Hudsons in Detroit. Both driver and partner seem rather busy double-checking that the Hudsons are nicely secured.
Here’s a second Dodge tractor, loading another bunch of Hudsons. Shots taken on the same day? Again, the man in the hat is checking that they’re all tightly secured. Better do, the Hudsons are nice cars, quite the lookers. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to them.
The car on the ramp didn’t come off the trailer and can’t go on the trailer. Why is it there?
Because it’s a posed photo shoot. Folks didn’t just take random snapshots of car carriers with expensive color film back then.
That’s the first thing that caught my eye too!
In that first pic the gentleman in the truck is very casually attired. Advertising from that period had me convinced all truck drivers wore complete uniforms!
We’ve had gobs of old truck pictures here, and generally only the drivers for large/larger companies wore uniforms. Many car carrier outfits (and many other trucking companies and independent owner/operators) were small independent outfits, typically without uniforms.
I worked for Automobile Transport in Wayne, Mich.. We had uniforms in 1978 if you wanted to wear them.
Nice if obviously staged promo shot .
Is it a color shot or colorized after the fact ? .
-Nate
My vote is “colorized”. Probably by AI. Subtle enough to look to most folks like an “old” color photo. At least those who have never seen a “Kodachrome”.
It’s clever and even seems to mimic the splotchy effect of someone having tinted it by hand with a brush. But I’m not buying it.
There’s a spate of nicely colorized early 1900s films of London / Paris etc. films on YouTube these days. With added incidental sound effects. They’re well done and fun to watch but not exactly “authentic”.
Truck drivers of that era must have been a fearless breed. I can’t imagine driving a load as heavy as that with single-circuit vacuum boosted brakes on the tractor (none too large, either) and probably vacuum boosted brakes on the trailer too. I felt better when spring set parking/emergency brakes on air braked trucks were supplemented by being given the dual air reservoir air system and the modulated emergency brake application valve found on trucks after the early ’70’s. The old single circuit air brake system with a mechanical emergency/parking brake on the driveshaft didn’t reassure me much, either. The truck I drove got retrofitted with Maxi-brakes when they became available. No wonder there were escape ramps for runaway trucks, considering how much potential for sudden total brake failure there was back then!
You’ve not been scared until the brake pedal goes to the floor when you’re loaded and going down hill .
In the old days we were taught : descend any hill in the same gear you ascended it in .
Few seem to grasp this simple concept, I see so many passing me going down hill at 80 + mph .
I always try to keep an eye on the rear view so if I see a truck coming up behind me _I_ get out of the way, not make him go ’round me .
We had endless problems with the Maxi brakes on our City trucks, many were stripped out but these were in town low speed rigs, not O.T.R. .
-Nate
I never drove a truck, but my brother, who taught me how to drive, told me the same: the same gear for going down as you used for going up. Or lower, if it’s raining.
Unless you live in California you won’t believe this ~
Drivers _speed_up_ when it rains, I used to ask the drivers after they’d crashed ‘why were you going so fast ?’ .
“because I wanted to get out of this rain as soon as possible ” .
!! imagine that, and they breed too .
-Nate
“because I wanted to get out of this rain as soon as possible”
I just can’t comprehend that train of thought.
Of course I live in the Seattle area where we have a long rainy season. The problem is that in the summer it is not uncommon to go a month or more w/o any rain. In that amount of time it seems like 90% of the drivers have forgotten how to drive in the rain.
No one seems to know that the first rain will float the oil to the surface and make it especially slippery during that first rain after an extended period w/o rain. Now to be fair the problem is not nearly as bad as it was back in the 70’s and 80’s and I’m sure it was even worse when there were so many cars on the road w/o a PVC system.
The mind (if you have one) simply boggles .
I too grew up where it rains and snows, we’d tell the tourists : ‘if you don’t like this weather, wait a moment, it’ll change soon’ .
When I was young and skinny I didn’t mind the dry heat in So. Cal. , today it has 109* F in the sun, luckily I have a canvas shade thing that helps but I had to quit before 4PM because I was afraid I’d pass out .
When I worked for many years in the primary L.A.P.D. garage my buddy was an accident inspector and the bald tires, loose ball joints, broken springs and many worse thing were scary to see .
I drive jalopies yes but always with good tires, brakes in good shape and properly adjusted, wiper blades and horn turn signals safety belts (no one rides with me unless belted in securely) .
It’s scary to know the vehicle coming the other way might be ready to fail and kill you .
-Nate
Try being 46Tonnes in a Volvo exhaust brake screaming down a ten percent and the bastard jumps out of gear brakes are useless they fade real fast nobody bothered to warn me that heap jumped out of gear on over run and youll never get it back in
That’s a whole lot bigger than I ever drove and yes, I had one pop out of third gear going down a steep slope, luckily fir me there was nothing ahead and no curves so in time it slowed down and I was able to jamb it into top gear then begin working my way down and got it stopped .
Like I said : it’s an experience you’ll never forget if you survive .
I was taught to “fan” the brakes and I learned the hard way to never go fast downhill, that’s when the brakes heat up and fade out .
-Nate
That’s a whole lot bigger than I ever drove and yes, I had one pop out of third gear going down a steep slope, luckily for me there was nothing ahead and no curves so in time it slowed down and I was able to jamb it into top gear then begin working my way down and got it stopped .
Like I said : it’s an experience you’ll never forget if you survive .
I was taught to “fan” the brakes and I learned the hard way to never go fast downhill, that’s when the brakes heat up and fade out .
-Nate
Escape ramps still get regular use. NB I-5 out of Los Angeles has two on the “Grapevine” and I have seen them used more times than I can remember.
In the mid 70’s, I was with my dad in a 1973 Ford WT-9000 tractor. We had just loaded @ Ball Bros. glass in Asheville, NC. I-40 wasn’t complete through some sections of the mountains. We were on US 70 going down Old Fort Mountain and the brakes over heated. We were grossing 76K lbs.
My dad yelled at me to “grit your teeth as tight as you can!” as we were headed for the runaway ramp.
When the dust settled (literally), there wasn’t much left of the tractor or the trailer. I remember the right fuel tank getting ripped off and the right front wheel wedged against the front drive axle. The 5th wheel broke loose from the frame in the last few feet. Tractor, trailer, and load were a total loss…but other than some minor injuries, Pop & I made it. I think my dad said we accelerated from 35 mph to about 65 when we hit the ramp.
I asked Pop later on about gritting my teeth. He said that would keep me from biting my tongue off.
I’m 58 years old and have been running 48 states since 1988. I have never forgotten that day….and never will.
Many of the shops I worked in/for over the decades had uniforms no one wanted to wear, I’d find the ones in my size and wash and use them as a good appearance is IMO important .
The C.O.L.A. required it’s Mechanics to wear uniforms but as the years went by they changed vendors many times and the old vendors never wanted their old uniforms that cluttered up our restrooms so I searched out the newer ones in my size and still use them, once they get badly worn or torn/ catch on fire I clean them, cut them up and use for rags .
-Nate
Cool pictures!
Can anyone make out what it says on the signs in the rear passenger windows of the Hudsons?
I was wondering that too. Enlarging it all the way, I can see it says HUDSON, but I can’t make out the words above. Maybe “It’s a new HUDSON”?
Looks like a winner! When I tried enlarging the picture on my phone it just resulted in a blurry mess.
Thanks!
By the time I started hauling new cars (1979, Anchor Motor Freight) the only “uniform” was the coveralls. I used them for loading/unloading but some guys wore them from morning until night.
I still have some around but can’t fit into them anymore.