Nashua Motor Express

[j hancock]

Used to be seen all around New England.  2013 was the end of the line. 

[bulldogboy]

           Yes, too bad. Everything is gone now, even the terminal has been torn down and replaced with a strip mall.

                                              bulldogboy

[j hancock]

That stretch of road needed  another strip mall....

It still amazes me that St. J is gone also.

[james j neiweem]

Didn't know that Nashua lasted that long. Did they have U models also? Whites Fords etc.?

[mowerman]

yes i remember them.....im sure they were a good paying outfit......out gippoed by gippos.....bob

[mrgumby]

Off topic but what ever happened to Hemingway trucking   Those Nashua trucks usd to be everywhere seems mmf is around a lot 

[70mackMB]

Don't forget Blue Line (Dirt Line) Express down in South Nashua! There's a large mall now where the terminal was on the D W Highway. A friend was a mechanic for them. St. J was on South Willow St in Manchester. Another mall with a Petco took their address. Holmes Transportation was off Willow St and is now an XPO terminal. All the Macks these guys ran the wheels off of!   .....Hippy  

[j hancock]

6 hours ago, james j neiweem said:

Didn't know that Nashua lasted that long. Did they have U models also? Whites Fords etc.?

They had R's and U's.

Nashua started around 1925 or something so probably ran all the brands over the years.  The last stuff seemed to be a lot of Macks

[j hancock]

2 hours ago, mrgumby said:

Off topic but what ever happened to Hemingway trucking   Those Nashua trucks usd to be everywhere seems mmf is around a lot 

Hemingway grew pretty big and gobbled up a lot of players.  They had a big terminal on Long Island and Providence RI with their HQ in New Bedford.  I think there was a heavy debt load to service and also deregulation hurt them.  Sort of think there may have been a union strike somewhere at the end which happened in the early 80's.

[66dc75]

My B67 that I sold a couple of years ago was originally a Hemingway tractor delivered to New Bedford.

I pretty much saw a Nashua Motor Express truck every day running around Rt128,

[bulldogboy]

11 hours ago, james j neiweem said:

Didn't know that Nashua lasted that long. Did they have U models also? Whites Fords etc.?

I'd say the last 35, 40  years or so, Nashua was an all  Mack fleet using mostly "R" and "U" tractors. They also had a couple of "CH"s. Their trucks were older but everything, tractors and trailers,

were kept in good shape and looked sharp. Blue Line, on the other hand, had a variety of trucks. Their terminal was on top of a landfill, we had a few big fires in the landfill over the years.

Another former trucking company was N&B Express (Northampton & Boston) out of South Deerfield, MA. I compared them to Nashua Motor Express in that they ran sharp looking "R" model tractors.

                   bulldogboy

[h67st]

St. Johnsbury had a terminal here in Columbus Ohio...I used to do their daily repairs back in the mid 80's. I believe the local trucks they had here were U models.

[ws721]

I remember Nashua had  a couple R models. One in particular was dressed really sharp. Alum front wheels, visor full bumper.  I was told a story about Holmes a long time ago that they had a couple trucks with fuel stickers for the east coast. When they needed to send another Mack south they just swapped the doors so the other truck had the fuel stickers. Don't know if its true or not

[Maddog13407]

swapping doors eh? ha i think Sears oil out of Rome Ny use to do that to. i know up until recently a few companies were doing that with EZ passes and switching plates on the Ny thruway. right to the point a company truck would travel from Buffalo and another from Albany area and stop in a tandem lot and switch plates and EZ passes and go their own way. the state caught up to this a few years ago and actually closed a few tandem lots like Herkimer

[Jeff M]

On ‎5‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 7:59 PM, ws721 said:

One in particular was dressed really sharp. Alum front wheels, visor full bumper

I remember that truck well.  That guy had it for years, never said much on the CB, but he kept the truck sparkling.  Then one day in this neck of the woods he had some sort of health event, the truck went off the road, and that was the end.  Never knew his name.  

[wfothergill]

Yes, from what I heard he crashed somewhere around Portland on an exit ramp on the Maine turnpike .

He had chrome hubcaps, flap weights, and extra chicken light on the front bumper.   He would always wave when you met him on the road.

[BillyT]

In the 70s Overdrive did a complete article on those shenanigans about switching toll tickets and such they called it the Jesse James system of trucking! I never heard about switching doors though, that's funny as hell! Makes sense though! As always I have an anecdote!. My friend and I were coming out of Delaware empty and got stopped  at that temporary scale on 41. My friend had his old White "Road commode" Cabover didn't have permit one or any legalization! The DOT man said I don't see any Delaware permit, and my friend said "they're on the other side" "Oh,ok" he said go ahead! Lol!

[steelman]

My dad owned a small truck company here in Virginia with authority that was 35 air miles radius around, with extended authority into Washinton, DC area.  We were an interline carrier with Hemingway and others.  Met Phil Hemingway as a teenager.  Unloaded at least 2 trucks a day of theirs.  I remember U models, as I liked driving them.  Dad shut down around 1978, sold his authority and trucks.  It wasn't too long after that Heminway was gone, as well as a lot of other carriers.  Dad said he had started in trucking before regulation, and he wasn't going to go back to that.  Just about every big carrier in the country was gone within 5 or 10 years of deregulation.

[jackstawasz]

Anyone got some more photos? All the ones I found years ago have been deleted.

[70mackMB]

On 5/11/2018 at 4:00 PM, wfothergill said:

  He would always wave when you met him on the road.

That's the way it was back then when drivers were drivers. Now you get cut off, jammed up, or get the finger! Hooray for me and screw everyone else! Just a few more years and lll be done with it.   .....Hippy    

[mowerman]

That's the way it was back then when drivers were drivers. Now you get cut off, jammed up, or get the finger! Hooray for me and screw everyone else! Just a few more years and lll be done with it.   .....Hippy    

Yes me too......42 years 4 more to go....:can’t wait.......bob


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[kuma66]

Hello everyone,

This is certainly thread necromancy but I was browsing around looking for information on Blue Line Express of Nashua, New Hampshire. Though I never had the privilege of working there. I grew up hanging around its trucks, terminal, and docks and it was part of almost every family discussion we had for the first 20 years of my life. I am the nearly 50 year old grandson of the late Dana L. Clark, founder of Blue Line in 1937. My dad was a mechanic there and eventually rose to be VP of the company in its last years.

I always wanted to do justice to my grandparents' vision, and have seen it as my life's objective to restart and rebuild an endeavor similar to the company they founded.  After several successful business ventures in areas other than trucking, in 2021 I founded Blue Knight Express. We currently have just two trucks but will be growing forthwith. God willing, if all, most, or something goes to plan it will (eventually) be as big or even larger than its predecessor.

Here is a picture of us getting loaded with NASCAR kitchen equipment for Hunt recently down in TN. I've also attached pictures of the old Blue Line Logo and our new logo.

Thank you for reading...

Edited May 2, 2022 by kuma66

[Red Horse]

10 hours ago, kuma66 said:

Hello everyone,

This is certainly thread necromancy but I was browsing around looking for information on Blue Line Express of Nashua, New Hampshire. Though I never had the privilege of working there. I grew up hanging around its trucks, terminal, and docks and it was part of almost every family discussion we had for the first 20 years of my life. I am the nearly 50 year old grandson of the late Dana L. Clark, founder of Blue Line in 1937. My dad was a mechanic there and eventually rose to be VP of the company in its last years.

I always wanted to do justice to my grandparents' vision, and have seen it as my life's objective to restart and rebuild an endeavor similar to the company they founded.  After several successful business ventures in areas other than trucking, in 2021 I founded Blue Knight Express. We currently have just two trucks but will be growing forthwith. God willing, if all, most, or something goes to plan it will (eventually) be as big or even larger than its predecessor.

Here is a picture of us getting loaded with NASCAR kitchen equipment for Hunt recently down in TN. I've also attached pictures of the old Blue Line Logo and our new logo.

Thank you for reading...

Good luck with your venture?  was that Bristol?

[Brocky]

Thanks for the stories!! I had never heard of swapping doors either!! I have heard that at one time New York plates were not legal in Quebec and Maislin Transport mounted their plates on the tandem unit and with their Strick outside latch sliders trailers the Champlain NY shop would swap the entire boggie units!!!

Edited May 2, 2022 by Brocky

[james j neiweem]

Starting out on the right foot with Macks! Good luck!