BillyT

Truck Shop,small world!my co driver and I picked up a load of army tank engine stands in 1988 from a fabricator in Tracy Ca! Probably saw that sign! Went to a U.S. army depot near Texarkana.

The last couple Monfort trucks I saw in the early 90s were pos generic Ryder rentals! Do they still exist?

Truck shop what a great video! Ill bet the youngsters "driving" today don't even know what the "Monfort lane" is! That Diamond T looked like B C Frys triple digit 12 cylinder Detroit!

41, my youngest son was a yacht builder, worked for the parent company that built Donzis in Homasossa springs Florida, they had a series of bumps on the hull which created bubbles that the hull rode on which reduced friction and helped the thing slip thru the water,very cool especially when you're trying to outrun the coast guard with a load of drugs!😁

Beautiful truck! I've never seen that model!

Might be interesting! I've seen a couple episodes where there are decent looking vintage trucks in background but they never focus on them! They buy vintage cars and street rods however! Watched an episode last night and the place they were picking had a solid looking 50s Reo golden comet flatbed in the barn, they even.picked up something off the bed but nobody was interested in the truck possibly they don't want to pay to transport the heavier trucks,or there isn't as much interest in vintage trucks as cars...sad!

As usual, lots of facts and responsible opinions! You would have to work for the railroad (like I did) to understand why we are so behind the rest of the world in rail transportation! First of all I believe in organized labor as it was originally meant to be! Safe conditions, and a living wage and reasonable work hours! When I went to work for the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie RR I started as a "laborer" the term is a misnomer! I'm sweeping up rod stubs on my first day (easy work a child could do!) An older employee comes up to me in anger! "What the f..k are you doing,you're making us look bad!" He was referring to the fact I was actually working! Duh,I thought that was what I was paid to do! The same day I see this 70 year old dude dragging a sheet of 3/4" plywood a couple of hundred yards and he lays it under a caboose on a dead track! I'm really impressed at how hard this old guy is working! Then he lays down on the plywood and goes to sleep in plain view of everyone including his boss! Our main customer was Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp, and when the mills in America started closing we started to rebuild freight cars to make up for lost freight revenue. We had a hundred car order of cement hoppers going to Mexico! The cast steel center plates on these cars required low hydrogen 7018 electrode. Well,as you welders know LH wire requires a fairly high level of skill in the overhead position! Most jobs on this(and I assume) most union railroads go by seniority not skill! Many of the high seniority welders at this facility were not qualified with LH, so they used 6010 electrode cranked up high so they could get done quickly! These cars were on an assembly line track so the workers on each position could loaf in the lunchroom until the line moved! The Mexican railroad sent an inspector to certify the finished cars and they all failed! Any qualified welder or inspector can tell the difference between a 6010 bead and a 7018 bead! Every Friday after my regular shift was done I spent 8 hours @time and a half scarfing out the center plates and installing new ones with 7018 electrode! The use of the 6010 ruined the center plates so I had to install new ones! Of course this delayed the delivery of the cars so I'm sure the Mexican railroad would go elsewhere for their next order! This is the same facility where we got paid at 2pm on Thursday and quite a few workers would get their pay and punch their time card and go home! The union tolerated this behavior! They did get a reprimand in the mail😁 The railroad began to issue the paychecks later in the day so the guys wouldn't go home early! One Friday I was working a double shift@ time and a half, and a fellow who usually drove the little Cushman delivery buggy reported for a double shift falling down drunk and went to sleep on the large tool box! The foreman woke him up and said "Eddie, go to work or go home!" I was "heatin' and beatin" where you heat the bent grab rails on a rail car and your partner beat them back into shape with a 9 lb sledge! Well,guess who my partner was?! Eddie was about 145 lbs and missed the grab rail with the sledge and almost hit me in the crotch! The second time this happened I sent Eddie to work with someone else and did both jobs myself! Laid the Rosebud on the coupler, and beat the grab rail myself! This same dude didn't come to work for 30 days (without notice) and they fired him! You were allowed to not go to work for 29 days, but they fired you after 30! The union got his job back!😁 large car you're right about pride in your job!

Steelman, the property where US Steels Homestead Works used to sit is now a bunch of restaurants and the like! I read that the Edgar Thompson Works in Braddock Pa is still operating can't say for sure I've picked up and delivered to both locations! At some point in the70s the big steel companies started to put their profits into the state of the art facilities they owned in China and elsewhere under different names,to avoid the costs of paying a living wage to union workers! Pretty much the only steel mills in America are specialty steel and steel finishers! Homestead was once the biggest Bessemer converter in the world!

Whisky what is the brand name of your model kit? It looks great! I've only built one truck model was a peterbilt! Was many years ago,but I was an adult, I think it was a Revell kit.

How long is Paccars warranty? Probably not 750000lol

Interesting subject! Isn't Norfolk Southern owned by Berkshire Hathaway? I wish Boatright a lot of luck! I sure wouldn't want to be sued by Warren Buffet! I don't know if our roadbeds are in better condition now than when I was a freight car repairman in the early eighties,but the crossties in our section of right of way used to jump up and down like the keys on a piano when a train went by!

FWD I agree,except for the Detroit diesel part I've driven many of them, and love the sound and simplicity, plus what other diesel changes its own oil!😁

Pete there should be a law against putting an automatic in a B model,especially the last one!

Maybe Por 15 would work to eliminate rust between the rails I don't know how durable it is, it's expensive though!

Might be interesting! I've seen a couple episodes where there are decent looking vintage trucks in background but they never focus on them! They buy vintage cars and street rods however!

Is that a real accident or photoshopped? " Thomas you're not a useful engine today!"

They say" it's an Ill wind that blows nobody good" In 1977 when it went to 25 below in the steel valley, I was welding the bottoms of Jones and Laughlin coal barge fleet 40 ft from the monongehela river! But when I got off I was thawing frozen pipe with my gas drive welder! Froze my butt off but made a ton of money! It's going down to 39 degrees tonite in West central Florida and we think it's cold😁 like Hat City said what's that gelling stuff! The coldest I've ever been was in1990 I think when I picked up a load of conversion vans in Bristol In. it was 25 below in Chicago I got frostbite chaining the load,I actually paid to get on the Indiana toll road to have a place to sleep!that's when I found out they double the rate if you're on the pike more than 12 hrs! Was well worth it! The next day on my way to Florida you couldn't count the frozen trucks on the shoulder north of Indy! I had a gallon of power service in my tanks so no problem! Ironically the only time I've ever had frozen water pipes of my own was here in Florida when it hit 18 degrees! The plumbing on our wellheads is pcv and above ground! Had to use a propane torch( very carefully!) To thaw them! I have a plywood enclosure around the plumbing now!😁

Freightrain does power service still have the purple color? It's been decades since I've used it! FWD, I wasn't recommending gasoline as an additive,just saying I heard some guys use it! I sure wouldn't use it! My dad used to put atf in an engine with sticking lifters (one qt) seemed to work, probably the high detergency !

That does it I'm writing a letter to Sir Topemhat!😁 Seriously the best part of Thomas the train was the homespun innocence, kinda like a British "Peanuts" next the locomotive will be flying a damn rainbow flag!

My grandson has dozens of the Thomas traincars! they're gonna screw that up with pc bullish.t, is nothing sacred!?

Thanks for the reply OD! That cage has definitely been upgraded! The one I saw was all rusty! The gumbo was good though!

220, you're blowing my mind! Two buddies of mine went to school with Jimmy Ali who hauled precast concrete "slab" for his dad D.Ali, with a conventional Brockway out of Bridgeville Pa!.Remember the old stone tavern in the west end, well one of those two was killed when he ran into it one night, they were twin brothers. Bruce and Craig. Ed W Texter ran green B models but some may have been red! Some were gas burners.His terminal was on the north side. Do you work for mack on Beaver Ave? Was the only Mack dealer in Pittsburgh when I lived there! The first big truck I rode in was a B and P Brockway! We hauled a load of steel sheets to Chicago. Was a 220 Cummins with an Eaton 3 speed "bogie" remember them? The driver also drove for Texter! I remember Silhol lumber weren't they on the end of Painters run rd by 50? I was in 249 for several years, drove for A T I out of the railhead at Rook Station also New Car Carriers out of the same location when they bought AT I! Lake Shore and B and P were both based on Rt 51 near each other. I also hauled steel for JV McNicolas out of their West Mifflin terminal on Rt 51 by Eatn Park! We loaded a lot out of Homestead Works, I'll bet you are familiar with where Mifflin Road dead ended down in Hays and the drivers used to take the turn too fast and drop their coils in the used car lot there! The owner used to put his oldest cars in the front so he would get more money for them than they were worth! Lol! That H model your dad owned was set up to haul some weight! The single axle with a three on the trailer was fairly common before deregulation! There used to be a guy on rte 51 on the Ohio.line had a single axle Chevy gas job with 3 9s on the trailer, obviously ran Ohio which was an axle state,hauled the big coils! Didn't Schaefer have the slag contract out of Homestead Works? I recall his Autocar dump trucks in an out of there a lot! Lot of memories huh?

41, there is a really solid looking 71 Diamond Reo Cabover in West Alec. On Altoona Pa Craigslist said to run and drive 318 Detroit 13 sped,5745.00