Click on photo for enlargement.

On #17 Hwy., just west of Nairn Centre, Ontario, and east of the river bridge (on the old road) I was on the way from Calgary, Alberta, to Montreal, PQ. For lack of highways, I traveled south toUS #2 at Shelby, Montana, across to the Soo, Michigan, then by ferry boat to Soo, Ontario, (There was no bridge at that time ) Note; The Soo refers to Sault Ste. Marie, in both Ontario as well as in Michigan.

"Same trip as the photo above". South from Calgary to US# 2 at Shelby, Montana. There was a makeshift truck stop there. It was a small house with a diner room and 1 diesel pump outside. It was the Husky House Truck Stop. The photo has a 1950/51 Freightliner, 180 Cummins, and the first time I was involved with a 10 speed, (single stick) Roadranger transmission. I usually had, 5X3 or 5X4 Spicer's & Browning's. The other truck is a Kenworth CBE (half cab), 220 Cummins, 1953 (?). The driver & co-driver sat tandem, like in a crane. (one behind the other) The bunk was across the back. The smoke stack was right in the middle of the hood, and straight up. The right rear mirror was on a little tower on the right side of the hood. It looked something like the configuration of an Ottawa shunt truck with a bunk across the back. This was before Midland joined up. It was Superior Transport only. The photo and trip was taken at the end of October 1954. Notice the mud on the trucks, it was normal Alberta roads at the time. The oil patch boom created, lots of mud and crappy excuse for roads.

In 1956, I worked for Eastlake Equipment, located in the Ayer cold storage warehouse. It was located on the Queensway in the West end of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Eastlake was the distributor for frozen foods, such as Snow Crop vegetables, Swanson frozen dinners, and Frazerdale frozen strawberries. We had only one tractor trailer, a couple straight trucks and 3 small curbside delivery vans. The first new straight truck to the fleet was about to be delivered to us. It was a 3000 WHITE tilt cab. Really modern and futuristic. All the drivers wanted it.

The single axle 22 Model White Mustang, had a 36 foot single axle reefer trailer. It was used to haul frozen product between TORONTO, and MONTREAL.

The run between Toronto and Montreal was on the old # 2 highway. If you drove non stop, it was about a 12 hour trip. Today on the 401 highway, it can be done in about 6 hours.

The photos on the left and right of centre, were taken in front of a little diner, on # 2 highway near Newcastle, Ontario, on the Montreal, Quebec run. The centre photo is of the dashboard in the 22 White Mustang.

THE LEFT PHOTO, WAS OUR FIRST & LAST, RACING TEAM. THE PHOTO ON THE RIGHT IS OF ZIP, ONE OF OUR DRIVERS.

When on our free time, we were going to conquer the racing world. A few of us got together and had 3 cars fixed up for racing. After entering our first race, reality sort of put a damper on our winning dreams. The first 3/4 lap of our first race, we were in a wreck with 3 cars on top of us. We did eventually finished the first season, by all of us going broke. Good old trucking careers brought us back to life.

Here is a series of shots at the loading field on the new natural gas pipeline, between Stratford and St. Mary's, Ontario. The contractor was F.E. Shaw Construction, from Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. The year, 1957.

I had a 1952 / 3, (I don't remember the model year, exactly) Model 22 White Mustang, single axle, float tractor, with a 5x3 Browning trans. It was equipped with a heavy duty, frame mounted, Tulsa winch. I would run a crawler up onto a flat deck highboy float, then winch the trailer nose up onto the 5th wheel and draw it into the coupler. The highboy float has no landing gear, and sits nose on ground. It was the same with the pole trailers. The driver next to the truck is me, and it was my first job at float work. Other photo's are of the Mobile crane, for loading 40' to 60' pipe lengths onto the pole trailers. The side boom dozers were TD-14 Internationals for unloading, and stringing pipe on the right of way. They also position the pipe for the welders to work on, then lower it into the trench for burial. The 1952 / 3 Dodge straight job, has an "A" frame body. It really takes a beating, winching and pulling welding machines and equipment, through all kinds of terrain. (bush, swamps, etc.)

        Stringing Pipe, Side boom, 1957.

AUTUMN --- 1956 --- SMITH TRANSPORT

The driver on the left, in the TOP PHOTO is my stepfather, Roy Sr. who taught me truck driving at a very early (under) age, and got me interested in the business. The RIGHT TOP PHOTO is Roy, waiting to fly with other driver friends, into the Ontario North country for their annual moose hunt. The LOWER RIGHT PHOTO, the new Trans Canada Highway up north is booming, and in a hurry, so what's a little overhang to worry about.

STANDARD PROCEDURE FOR TRUCKERS SINCE THE  BEGINNING OF TRUCKING THROUGH TO THE 1980's OR SOMEWHERE AROUND THAT TIME. The 2 drivers on the Right Photo are with Smith Transport in Northern Ontario, Canada. The standard process of changing a flat tire when you carried spares. Any other driver passing by always stopped and helped. If you had used up any spares, the procedure then was to carry a couple broken spring leaves to use as tire irons. You would have to break down the flat, remove the tire and tube, and then remount the rim back on the wheel and carry on to the next town or terminal singled out. That was part of the drivers job.

SMITH TRANSPORT

West of Cochrane, Ontario, Canada. Winter of 1957/58 The winter was the best time to truck in the north country. The roads were smooth, when  covered with snow and ice, then graded over.

There was an added winter bonus of no BLACK FLIES or MOSQUITOES.

My stepfather, Roy Sr., ran for SMITH TRANSPORT, on the LAKEHEAD run, (Toronto / Thunder Bay, Ontario) as a company driver. Smith Transport opened a new Owner/Operator division for dedicated trailer loads. 3 of the senior drivers were given the chance to acquire their own tractors, and start up this new venture. Roy Sr. and 2 others took them up on the offer. This happened around the middle of the 1960's. The trucks numbered from 101 / 102 and 103, which was Roy's number. The new colours were white and orange. The name of this company, would be called, --- HIGHLAND TRANSPORT --- and is still in operation today, covering all of Canada and the United States.

This is Roy Sr's Freightliner, at the new HIGHLAND TRANSPORT It was powered with a 335 Cummins, a 15 speed direct, Roadranger transmission. It was also equipped with 2 feet of flame coming out of the stack, making it a hard truck to keep up to. It was putting out a lot more power, than was meant to be.

          H & M FREIGHT LINES, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Eastern branch, A & H EXPRESS LINES, at Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.

In the spring of 1960, we unloaded in Edmonton and dropped down to Calgary to pick up 3 loads at the distillery. The loads were held up because of the Calgary stampede parade, and opening. We laid over a couple of days, and joined in on the western party. A great time was had by all. -------- Oh yea, Cowboy Hats are a must.

BEFORE AND AFTER Left Photo - 1958 L to R Leonard Wesley, Tom Stuart, and William  (Diesel Gypsy) Weatherstone Right Photo - 2007 Left, William (Diesel Gypsy) Weatherstone, Right, Tom Stuart.

In January of  2007 Tom Stuart and I have crossed paths again, a half century later. We had run double together for a while when at H & M hauling to western Canada. We had a successful meeting and reminisced about what went on all those years ago, and brought each other up to date on what happened since

DISASTER IN THE MARITIMES DID YOU EVER HAVE A BAD DAY AT THE OFFICE?

During the spring thaw (1963) in New Brunswick, you are only limited to a certain weight. Known as half load season. At this particular time, the office in Toronto assured all the drivers that the load ban would be finished by the time they got to the New Brunswick border, (WRONG & SURPRISE!) not so. When leaving on Saturday morning for Monday delivery, and because of the ban in Quebec not allowing commercial trucks to run on Sunday, we used to cross over into the USA at Cornwall, Ontario (just before the Quebec border) and travel to the state of Maine, crossing over, back into Canada at Calais Maine & St. Stephen New Brunswick. That way, we bypassed Quebec altogether.

The ban was unexpectedly extended, and the trucks started to pile up at the border. With the scales open 24/7, you dare not go.

After sitting around for 4 1/2 days, and going broke, one driver waited till after midnight and had a local friend guide him around the scales on the back roads. He got a little to close to the shoulder, and was sucked in, and could not pull out. the mud wasn't to bad until he came onto an outcrop of rock, which did not give, and laid him over in slow motion. Needless to say, the proverbial sh** hit the fan.

Anyway, there is a whole story to this, including a good guy, and a bad guy trouble maker, of which I will put down on paper(?) sometime in the future. If you click on the left photo, and enlarge it, you will notice a little 2 ton truck with a homemade boom & winch. It is hard to believe, but this old farmer brought timbers and set everything up for lifting. We thought that it would be a real joke. The joke was on us, --- He had a 5 speed transmission hooked up to his winch. We transferred the frozen load to another trailer, then he anchored to a tree. He was winching so slow you could hardly see it move. His truck started to lift off the ground from the cable tension, and he pulled out the tree to where he was anchored, breaking the end off his boom. He then took off to his barn, welded a new pulley onto his boom again, and was right back. This time he tied down to 3 trees, and started again.

In slow motion, he picked up the whole unit and stood it on it's wheels. He then re-anchored and again in slow motion he pulled the whole unit out of the swamp and stopped in the middle of the road. Perfectly.

I really could not believe that the total bill came to an astonishing, $125. The total damage to the truck was $12. to repaint some scratches on the drivers door. the window was open at the time and the mirror just swiveled into the cab, pushed back out and not even a scratch. --- Would you get that kind of quality service today?

Here are some photos from Griffith Labs in Scarborough, (Toronto) 1968. Izzy, at Regent Battery, had the contract and owned the trucks. I spent 5 years with them and set everything up, drivers, trucks, service and suggestions when required.

In 1966, I was sent up to the Griffith Laboratories in Scarborough, (Toronto). I took my red "B" 61 to Griffith's and started a plant to plant scheduled run (Toronto - Montreal). A year and a half later, we acquired a dry bulk tanker to service one particular customer in New England. (USA). The tank was designed and built by Truck engineering (King Trailers). The product to be hauled, was bread crumbs, or called breading, for fish products. It was equipped with twin compressors, that could run either in series or parallel. That way, it could not only blow off the light powders of flour or breading, but had the force to blow off a load of heavy salt. The blower was powered by electric motors, and plugged into the customers service, at 600 volts. It was a lot quieter running system than a gas engine. It would run instantly at outside temperatures of well below zero Fahrenheit.

In 1978 Muir's Cartage in Toronto, had a contract with ASEA ( Swedish General Electric ) in Sudbury,  Northern Ontario. They were having driver problems, and found it hard to control, 250mi. away. I was recommended to them as a replacement. I offered to go up and try it out for a month, and if I was satisfied with the run and equipment, I would take it over and purchase the truck. Of which I did.

The run consisted of 44 calls, over a distance of 2,600 miles, once a week. A regular milk run. I would go into bush camps, mines, saw mills and different contractors sites. I would pick up electric motors, turbines, etc. for overhaul and return. The territory covered was from Sudbury-North Bay, up to James Bay and over to the Manitoba border.

It was quite an experience, in and out of the bush roads, dodging moose jumping out in front of you on the icy roads, and blizzards, with wind chills as low as 75 degrees below zero F. You may not see anyone for 1/2 a day or more. Coming across someone broke down, or just plain lost, would break the routine. No phones or help lines. I had a souped up CB, that got me out of trouble a few times.

The tractor was a 1966 "R" model Mack. A Maxidyne engine ( 237 ) HP. and a 5 speed trans. All kinds of power came from that little high torque engine. In 1979, I traded up to a new Mack with the same running gear. The plant shut down permanently, and I was invited to go to Canadian General Electric, (apparatus shop) in Burlington, Ontario and set up the route in their name, and carry on.

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