Jump to content

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, Mike said:

Is this the famous bridge that they bungee jumped from?

Yep, GMC even dropped a truck off on a bungee cord:

I went to school not too far from the bridge. One of my friend's dad worked at the local GM/Chevy dealership and *supposedly* they really did drop the truck, but it was completely gutted to reduce weight!

  • 2 weeks later...

You got it swishy! The bridge was made of corten steel(a trademark of US Steel for it's controlled corrosion steel product) My co driver and business partner worked for US Steel Research when they developed the structural steel which creates it's own protective coating( therefore eliminating the need for paint!) The appearance is of rusted steel,but it only  rusts enough to protect the steel. I knew one of you guys would get the answer! Didn't know they bungee jumped a truck off it! Big area for whitewater rafting!

Yeah, nice place to live! Family still has a farm in the southern part of the state, between Beckley and Princeton, off I-77 (a ways off, 20 minutes to a gas station).

You could take pictures all day, driving across the state on old US-60. We recently did a pick-up in Boomer, WV and took the box truck down US-60. Truckers must've really been truckers, when that was still a major truck route!

15 minutes ago, glitchwrks said:

Yeah, nice place to live! Family still has a farm in the southern part of the state, between Beckley and Princeton, off I-77 (a ways off, 20 minutes to a gas station).

You could take pictures all day, driving across the state on old US-60. We recently did a pick-up in Boomer, WV and took the box truck down US-60. Truckers must've really been truckers, when that was still a major truck route!

I used to run across there a lot, still do sometimes. We could go to Ohio and trip lease loads of steel out of Armco at Middletown  coming back to Modine in Buena Vista or Walker Muffler in Harrisonburg because the owner operators around Cincinnati and Middletown didn't want to run the extra miles to Princeton and back north, or run Hawk's Nest on 60. I used to love it, it was a great adventure every time- you just had to put yourself in the right frame of mind before you started across there, realizing you weren't going to make any time, you were going to hold people up, before you got across somebody would be holding you up. Every single time somebody would be saying "why did my dispatcher send me this way?" and "i'm never going this way again!"

Producer of poorly photo-chopped pictures since 1999.

That was before I-64 was finished of course. There'd always be a big line of trucks, because like I said, you could be empty but you'd run up behind a loaded  truck, but you could be heavy and dragging and holding everybody else up- until you ran up behind an even slower truck, which you always did. There used to be a big flashing yellow light on top of Armstrong Mountain, it's long gone now though. And they say Smith's Transfer used to keep a push truck up there in winter, so they could push Smith's trucks up the mountain. They would push anybody else that needed it too, I guess so they wouldn't block the road and hold up the Smith's trucks. I knew one driver that got a push up the mountain, he said "I appreciated that, but I really didn't need that shove he gave me starting off the other side!"- True story.

There were several truck stops across there, we used to stop at Cedar Grove right much, and Ansted sometimes. There was a weigh station just east of Ansted too, and even a "working girl" who drove a van that worked between Ansted and rt.19- so I heard, so I heard, I don't know that everything I know is factual.

And those scars in the road coming out of the last curve coming into Rainelle- I told a driver that was running across there with me one time that they were all from trucks turning over in that curve , but they didn't believe me- but they were. No telling how many trucks turned over in that curve, and in dead man's curve. 

Producer of poorly photo-chopped pictures since 1999.

I've got a lot of pictures from rt. 60, the old weigh station, truck stops, even the VW at the "Mystery Hole" but I can't find them now. Here's some I took over there in a snow storm a couple of years ago- before I got started good I was wishing i'd stayed at Mt. Nemo!

dscn1553.jpg

dscn1554.jpg

dscn1557.jpg

dscn1559.jpg

 

  • Like 1

Producer of poorly photo-chopped pictures since 1999.

Yup, that's US 60!

Do you still haul to Modine? It never looks like there's much going on there. One of my friends works at Munters, I see their finished units heading out on expedite flatbeds now and then.

Until we found a place to buy, we were renting in the building at the first light after you turn onto US 501 from US 60, the one with the sign about "6003 happy residents and 3 old grouches" on the side.

  • Like 1

OD, used to haul new Ford's out of the railhead in Greentree(pgh) pa every town in Wv had a Ford dealer! Pulling a 40 ft trailer with a f750 Ford gas burner.ran 60 before 64 was done(1974) get on,get off,what fun! Had to gas up at a couple little convenience store ,with the trailer out on the shoulder!Then back into traffic! Used to run rate 10 off 119 out of marmet down to Gilbert Wva to Hatfield,Mckoy Ford! All the guardrails were smashed flat from trailer tandem running over them! When another truck approached you had to put the tandem over the guardrail to avoid hitting it head on! I never ran over a virgin guardrail,they were all flat before I ran over them! There was supposed to be a legendary weighmaster at the marmet scale with one arm never dealt with him Wv at the time only had one permanent scale at mineral wells on 77 They got me and a couple others for expired permits in87 took us all to the rathole t.s. to get comcheks to pay the fine,no "mail in the payment" bullshit with these guys! Actually wva DOT were among the most pleasant I've met,also Texas,Contrary to popular belief! They got a bad rap from that 60 minutes episode in the 90s I think it was.

On 10/24/2016 at 4:03 PM, glitchwrks said:

Yup, that's US 60!

Do you still haul to Modine? It never looks like there's much going on there. One of my friends works at Munters, I see their finished units heading out on expedite flatbeds now and then.

Until we found a place to buy, we were renting in the building at the first light after you turn onto US 501 from US 60, the one with the sign about "6003 happy residents and 3 old grouches" on the side.

No, I haven't been to Modine for a long time- don't remember exactly, but it's been years.

Producer of poorly photo-chopped pictures since 1999.

On 10/24/2016 at 6:15 PM, BillyT said:

OD, used to haul new Ford's out of the railhead in Greentree(pgh) pa every town in Wv had a Ford dealer! Pulling a 40 ft trailer with a f750 Ford gas burner.ran 60 before 64 was done(1974) get on,get off,what fun! Had to gas up at a couple little convenience store ,with the trailer out on the shoulder!Then back into traffic! Used to run rate 10 off 119 out of marmet down to Gilbert Wva to Hatfield,Mckoy Ford! All the guardrails were smashed flat from trailer tandem running over them! When another truck approached you had to put the tandem over the guardrail to avoid hitting it head on! I never ran over a virgin guardrail,they were all flat before I ran over them! There was supposed to be a legendary weighmaster at the marmet scale with one arm never dealt with him Wv at the time only had one permanent scale at mineral wells on 77 They got me and a couple others for expired permits in87 took us all to the rathole t.s. to get comcheks to pay the fine,no "mail in the payment" bullshit with these guys! Actually wva DOT were among the most pleasant I've met,also Texas,Contrary to popular belief! They got a bad rap from that 60 minutes episode in the 90s I think it was.

Yeah, I only remember the scales on 60 being open like one time. They had a similar weigh station on 522 just south of Berkley Springs too, never saw those open either. The ones at Mineral Wells were easy to get around then, now they've put a weight or length restriction on the road that goes around them. But even now they seem to be closed most of the time.

I took a load to Mullens one time and ran rt. 10 out of Princeton. It was terrible, turns so tight I had to take the whole road to get around them, and I was wishing there was more road there to take. When I finally got to my destination in Mullens they said "you idiot, nobody goes that way- you should have taken the turnpike to Beckley, then rt. 16 south down to here- it's a little farther but it's way quicker and a lot better road."  So when I left I took rt. 16 back up to the turnpkie at Beckley. It was a little farther but way quicker and a whole lot better road.

Producer of poorly photo-chopped pictures since 1999.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...