New book highlights trailer history, importance

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Trailer-Body Builders  /  June 20, 2017

If you’re a Trailer-Body Builders reader, then the chances are good you’ll be interested in a new book by a long-time veteran of the business. Truck by Trailer: The History of the Truck Trailer Manufacturing Industry is being billed as the first book to recognize the truck trailer as a unique transportation vehicle. 

Written by John L. Conley—who spent 40 years with the trucking industry, including as editor of Modern Bulk Transporter magazine and with the trade association National Tank Truck Carriers Inc.—the book highlights the importance of the truck trailer as part of the celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Truck Trailer Manufacturer’s Association.

After all, as the book details, the introduction of the truck trailer in the early 1900s revolutionized materials distribution much as had the first steamboats, railroad cars, airplanes, trucks, and intermodal shipping containers. And some of the same type of operational and regulatory challenges that faced trailer builders a century ago remain today.

But trailers proved their value during two world wars and those wartime experiences led to engineering and manufacturing advancements that long benefited commercial users. While methods and materials of trailer construction to serve expanding markets have changed over the years, the principle of providing the economy with a versatile and dependable tool for moving materials has remained unchanged.

Catch up on the complete history of the truck trailer industry by ordering Conley's book from the TTMA Online Store.

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The Fageol Cruise Liner was an idea that “came and went” in 1950. The “trailer” was produced by the Twin Coach Company (Kent, Ohio). This vehicle appeared in an advertisement that claimed it to be up to 8,000 lbs. lighter and 10 ft. shorter than a conventional tractor and semi-trailer. International Nickel Company supplied the 18-8 austenitic chromium stainless steel used in the body. A diesel engine was mounted under the “cab.” (From the book, Truck by Trailer: The History of the Truck Trailer Manufacturing Industry)

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The Fageol 1950 TC CargoLiner – A Trailer Without A Tractor

The Old Motor  /  February 6, 2015

William B. Fageol and his brother Frank R. Fageol started the Fageol Motors Company during 1916 in Oakland, California. The first vehicle was the amazing 1917 130 h.p. Fageol Supercar that was an unfortunate causality of World War I. Later on the Company focused on the impressive Fageol Safety Coach and a line of Fageol trucks all of which you can learn about here on The Old Motor. 

Louis J. Fageol was Frank R. Fageol’s son who ended up running the Twin Coach Company after his brother Oren died in 1943. In addition to overseeing the business, Louis was a well-known speedboat racer who won the Gold Cup in 1951 with his hydroplane Slo-Mo-Shun V. He also built Indianapolis racing cars and bought the ex. Joe Thorne owed, Art Sparks built coupe and finished it up with one of his own motors and named it the Fageol Super Sonic. 

Sales of buses at Twin Coach and all the other bus builders other than GM dropped in the late forties. Needing a new product to build, the firm in October of 1950 introduced a new concept vehicle that it named the Fageol Super Freighter. The unique unit was a self-propelled trailer minus the tractor, with the drivers compartment located up front and the engine mounted in the middle of the unit under the floor.

Exactly who designed this new truck is not known, but Louis J. Fageol filed the patent application for the renamed Fageol TC CargoLiner on November 30, 1950. It used an under-floor diesel engine (seen in the last photo below) that drove through a rear drive axle, and were both apparently built by International Harvester. 

This demonstrator was built in 1950 as part of the effort to land an Army contract for 1,650 vehicles. The prototype stainless body was constructed by the Fruehauf Trailer Corporation, and the front of it was mounted on a steerable bogey axle that was hydraulically controlled. This front axle assembly can be seen in the third photo below.

It appears the effort only resulted in one Cargoliner being built, but Twin Coach went on to build over 1500 F-32-F Convertible Buses for the Army. Later on it was followed up in 1952 by the production of the Twin Coach Fageoliner, a civilian bus. You can learn all about the Fageol Twin Coach Bus here. The photos are courtesy of the W.B. Fageol Collection.

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