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12 hours ago, 67RModel said:

Has anyone ever seen he loadstars with the one man, center mounted cab for hauling long beams or pipe? There is a roof hatch to get in and out. I think IH made them before the loadstar but they are neat looking. Only ever saw one in real life. 

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We called these "Island Cabs" in Australia 

Paul

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I think the "center cab" trucks were a short term solution to a problem solved in another way.

They seamed to be around in the 60's and 70's and mostly gone by the 80's.

They could get into old cramped mfg districts with load that a semi could not. Those districts were likely service by spur rail line in older times.  (can you imagine trying to get the rail-road to deliver a few I beams?)

With more stuff moved by truck, if you couldn't get a std semi in you either moved or remodeled so you could, making the center cab an obsolete item.

They also had almost zero value on the secondary market. You can't really re-use them for something else.

Urban renewal, flight to the suburbs and beyond for cheap industrial land ended the need for them.

I don't think I've seen a truck later than the Loadstar made into a center cab unless it was that purpose built truck I saw on I-79 all those years ago. It was so unrecognizable as to who made the chassie, might have been CCC (Crane carrier corp), so hard to date it. 

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They were pretty big at one time. I kept these pictures that I saved at some point just because. The names that are no longer around bring back a lot of memories. 

Some of the names were impressive to me, just the name itself. I don't know why but I always liked Garrett Freight Lines, Western Gillette, East Texas Motor Freight, and others.

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Producer of poorly photo-chopped pictures since 1999.

1 hour ago, 70mackMB said:

l hope these are on the "Too be saved list".    .....Hippy

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You probably know the story on the red one, it's sitting down at P.L. Duncan's in Columbia, VA.

The first time I looked at it was in 2009, looked pretty much roadworthy then. The last time I saw it was just a year or two ago and it had really gone downhill- a lot! Just from sitting, which is about the worst thing for a vehicle.

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Producer of poorly photo-chopped pictures since 1999.

I was leased to two smaller trucking companies that were both started in the '30's and both were in bad shape by 2000, they were great people to work with/for. The internet killed them more than de-reg, or the internet was the final nail after de-reg weakened them. Not sure which way but they were both doing well enough in the 90's when I was with them.

Took some a little bit longer to go under than others really missed the pension. I missed mine by   about a month of being vested it only woulda been around 200 a week since the company was gone, but that’s certainly better than nothing

Thanks for the chuckle Tom. Going down that list trying to remember the CB radio names we had for them. 

You ever hear of Red Ball and Navajo merging? ICC wouldn't let them have a logo of a blue eyed Indian with red balls!    .....Hippy

 

 

 

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And Geoff I remember when caterpillar had to spend like $4 million on an Internet system because they were starting to fall behind somewhere around 98 I used to deliver it to them on one of my Freight jobs back then

33 minutes ago, 70mackMB said:

Thanks for the chuckle Tom. Going down that list trying to remember the CB radio names we had for them. 

You ever hear of Red Ball and Navajo merging? ICC wouldn't let them have a logo of a blue eyed Indian with red balls!    .....Hippy

 

 

 

One of my favorites was 

Did you hear about the Big R driver that left his wife?..yeah, he came home and found her sitting on a trash can eating a corn flake with a pie in each hand.

I'll see myself out...

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Producer of poorly photo-chopped pictures since 1999.

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