Wimco Steel was a strange and sometimes wild place to work. The hours and aggravation were horrendous along with the pay for the amount of hours worked, was miniscule.

I was with Trans Canada Highway Express at the time, and was just crossing the Manitoba, Ontario border headed for Toronto. On the side of the road was a conventional B-61 Mack broke down. I pulled over and offered my assistance. The driver was under the hood trying to figure out what was wrong. I had him fire up the engine and the black smoke coming out the stack was thick, heavy and powerless. He had no idea as to the problem. I asked him what was the weather like behind him, and he answered that he spent the last 11 hours in a blizzard, and just came out about 30 miles back down the road.

I suggested we take the pan off the bottom of the oil bath air cleaner and inspect it. Sure enough it was plugged solid with ice & snow. I cleaned it out using a screwdriver & scraper, and then pouring some methyl hydrate through the screen melting the ice that could not be reached with the tools. I carried spare quarts of #10 mineral lube for my own breather, and used it to replace his lost oil. He was not aware of an intake flap that would redirect the intake to draw air from under the hood in bad weather. He was surprised at its existence and thanked me for pointing it out to him.

He fired up the engine and it ran powerful and clean again. While it was warming up, we sat in my truck, and having not seen a Wimco truck before, I began to pick his brain on the outfit. He told me that they could go anywhere in Canada hauling steel & returning with scrap batteries. I got all the info and said that I would go in and check them out when I hit Toronto.

When I finished up, I drove over to Regent Battery and asked if they had need for any drivers. I talked to Izzy for about an hour and he kept looking out the window at my truck. He then phoned up to Wimco Steel and told them that I was signed on and to line me up with a new tractor.

Upon arrival I was given a short road test on a B-61 with a 5 X 3 transmission. Flipping the two sticks around without crashing gears or using the clutch impressed him enough to cut the test short. He advised me that a new truck was being prepped at Mack and would be ready in another week to ten days. I used the time to give notice and to return a load to Edmonton at Trans Canada. I caught another driver returning to Toronto, sharing the driving, and making it a flying trip.

The truck was #119 - a B-61 Mack conventional cab, a 5 X 3 triplex transmission with a Davies (York) air lift trailing axle. No sliding 5^th wheel. The trailer was a 38 ft flat deck with 36 in racks. No sliding tandems. It was the same rig as in my honeymoon chariot story.

To be one of the first to load you had to be in the plant by 7:00 am. The loading process would take all day, a piece here and a piece there. If you got away by 7 or 8 o'clock in the evening you were lucky, then was expected to be in Montreal 350 miles east for 1/2 a dozen deliveries, starting at 7:00 am. After that you were expected to pick up a load of scrap batteries for your return load. The Montreal trip paid $40 for steel no matter how many hours or miles involved. Picking up a return load of batteries paid an extra $10 dollars, making it a grand total of $50 for 45 hrs + 700 miles averaging 3 round trips a week. You pay all your own expenses on top of that.

Once into the routine, you lived in the truck from Sunday evening to the following Saturday morning, unless you got a long trip out west or down to the east coast.

If you were waiting all night for a load, you could run over to Hamilton for a load of steel at the mill. That was a flat rate of $10 unless you took a load of sheet steel for pickling, (in oil) dropped it off and picked up another load to return, an extra $10 = $20 for the round trip. It would take about 8 hrs.

We had one driver Kurt that pulled an "A" train, grossing around 142,000 lbs. He wanted to stay on nights only. From the mill to our plant paid $20 for a train load. This driver had it worked out at the steel mill to load 2 compete loads on the truck, and giving him 2 separate bills of lading, showing 2 trips. He would pull on the Steel Mills scale grossing over 1/4 million lbs. The tires would almost be flat. Each trip paid him $40 and ran 2 trips a night, giving him $80 a day. The power plant was a 250 hp Cummins with a 5 X 4 Spicer transmission. He could not get it much over 40 to 45 mph, loaded.

He did that routine for about 6 weeks when the bottom (literally) fell out from under him. It was the second trip this night, double loaded as usual. Pulling on the scales, got out to get his weigh ticket, and heard a resounding crash behind him. The Steel Mills scale collapsed and dropped down into the shallow pit. Pardon the expression, but the sh-t hit the fan that night.

He was really popular with the bill collectors also. We were officially employed by Regent Battery; the sheriff was after Kurt K, this day for a multitude of wage garnishees. Izzy sent him up to Wimco to find Kurt, and then he phoned up there to warn the driver. While I was loading, Kurt Came running through the front loading bay doors and out the rear doors, with the sheriff hot in pursuit. Kurt made a clean getaway. Dispatch having no sympathy for the finance companies set a load up for Kurt to the west coast keeping him out of town for a couple weeks giving things time to cool down.

There were all kinds of weird things happening on this job. I had just returned from a trip to Winnipeg, Manitoba, while Bob T. just came in from doing 3 rounds to Montreal, Quebec. We were both beat and ready to go home, when dispatch had two hot loads of 2 inch plate for the steel mill in Sydney, Nova Scotia, about 12 to 1,300 miles east. We were both beat before even leaving, but being the good guys that we were, we took off, stopping at the house on the way out of town to eat and shower.

We ran non stop, racing each other to stay awake, unloaded and started on our way back, running flat out. We made it as far as Amherst, Nova Scotia on the New Brunswick border. That was it; we were both dead to the world. We parked at the Irving truck stop and walked across the street to the motel. It was around 7:00 pm and the sun was just going down. When I got up it was just starting to break daylight, I banged on Bob's door and said lets move it. We went across to the truck stop for breakfast. We ordered our usual bacon and eggs, and the waitress said that what do you think this is breakfast time? We both said yes it's 7:30. She started to laugh like hell. They knew our trucks had been in the lot and we were in the motel. Well boys, do I have some news for you, it is 7:30 alright, 7:30 pm, not am. You have been here since the night before. We sure looked stupid. After eating we went over to pay the motel and he confirmed it, that we slept right around the clock. I asked why he did not throw us out in the morning. He said that if we were that tired he should leave us there for our own good. After a half hour all was believed, because the sun never came up, it was gone.

I was doing so many trips to the west that it was decided to get me a reciprocity plate for Manitoba. It was cheaper than getting trip permits. Ontario at that time was using the gross weight system of 74,000 for a tandem-tandem configuration. Manitoba on the other hand was on the axle weight system, 10-32-32,000 lbs. Well steel coils or flat bundles and plate were hard to load properly for axle weight. Nine times out of ten we were off. The tractors and trailers had no sliders, and all axles were stationary, and you just can't adjust steel weight manually as with general freight

Most of the loads west were for Monday delivery. The scale at West Hawk Lake, on the Manitoba port of entry was open 24 hours a day. 4 crews working 40 hours a week, worked out to 160 hours. A week has 168 hours leaving the scale short a crew for 8 hours a week, and that was from 12:00 midnight Saturday till 8:00 am. Sunday morning. It was the only time you had to get an unlicensed truck or overload into the province.

We used to load out for the west on Fridays for Monday delivery. It is 1,200 miles to West Hawk Lake Scale. We would arrive at Kenora, Ontario about 30 miles before the Manitoba border. There was a small truck stop there where all the overloaded or unlicensed bandits used to sit and wait for the scales to close. There was usually 15 to 20 trucks sitting and waiting. I was there around 8:00 pm and had a 4 hour wait. While there, Jim D. showed up and met me in the restaurant. We had never met before. Actually I had been on the long trips since starting and never got to know all the drivers yet.

We sat there for about 2 hours talking and feeling each other out. We knew that there was a company squealer in the crowd, but had know idea at this time to whom it was. Jim and I talked small talk and were trying to see if each other were the one. It was in the dead of winter, and about -25 below zero F. and on the weekend trips we would have a bottle of rye in our bag, (for medicinal purposes). I was sitting around so long that I wanted a drink about now. After all this cat and mouse dancing, I came right out and told Jim that I had a jug and was going to have a drink, and that if he was the unknown squealer, I was about to find out, and I couldn't care less. He reached over grabbed my hand and shook it, saying I thought that it might be you. I have been dying for a drink too. We had a couple shots and began to relax. Since that night, we both became good friends for many years until his death. (From old age)

About 11:30 pm the convoy was getting ready to shove off and head west. It was about a 40 minute drive to the border. Jim and I waited till 12 midnight to take off. We let all the other bandits take the point. Just in case the scale went into unexpected overtime. If so we could fly by while they were all jammed in and occupied.

We both had loads for Winnipeg, 6 drops each. My load was to small machine shops with bundles of sheet steel. I had 2 calls that were in the basement of a warehouse, with no equipment to work with, having to unload the 4 x 8 sheets of steel by hand one at a time, sliding them down through a ground level window. It was -30 degrees below zero, and they did not send anyone out to help me unload. I spent all day unloading, and told Jim that I would wait for him back at Kenora. Running empty was no problem licence wise for a private company. We met that night and ran back together, having a good time.

There were many screwy things happening in the steel business, too many to mention here. There is one more thing though; an owner/operator named Benny Harrison had a cab over FORD leased to Wimco. He was 70 years old, no teeth, skinny as a rake, and drove an MG convertible sports car with the English country squire hat. He was crazy and was always trying to pick up women. (Age didn't matter) He cut the rate so bad to Vancouver, BC that we could not get the trip. He would load up and drive out to the west coast and then deliver 10 railcars of steel that the company shipped out. He would be gone for about a month, delivering and partying.

On one of his trips, he was headed west and was on the new Trans Canada Highway north Of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. A car spotted the name on the door and turned to follow along with 2 women in it. They blew the horn at him and motioned to stop and talk. He was right in his glory, thinking that these loose women were after his 70 year old body. He still had it.

Well they let the air out of his tires so to speak for it was my mother and aunt wanting to know if I was up north and in the area. When he found out who they were, and related to me, he really cooled off fast. He told me much later that he was really shot down and was starting to realize just how old he was. He finally saw the humour in the situation, and laughed about it. He also admitted with a sly look that they were a couple good looking chicks.

As I mentioned before, it was a crazy place to be working. You worked your butt off for peanuts, had temper explosions along with good unexpected fun. It certainly is not your average boring 9 to 5 type occupation.

Many more things happened, too many to include in this story, so perhaps I can add them later. Such as delivering loads to the docks in Montreal, when an uprising took place, other times when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigated illegal activities, and made raids on the docks. There were many more experiences with the docks in Brooklyn, NY, Hoboken, NJ, and other locations.

Till then, --- Take care; drive safe, and will catch you later, ---

  ---------------- William (Diesel Gypsy) Weatherstone.                          RETURN TO STORY MENU