Old Picture

[other dog]

This is a very interesting picture a friend and former co-worker posted this morning. He said he was cleaning and found it, and he asked me what year I thought it was. 

It shows the old H.H. Moore Jr. Trucking Co. headquarters in Appomattox, Va, and Lawson Ford is the place to the left of it. All I see at H.H. Moore's is chip vans, no flatbeds. There's a wood yard across rt. 460 from H.H's. We narrowed it down to the 70's, between 72 and 79, that was about as close as we could get. H.H. Moore Jr. trucking Co, the Ford dealership, and the wood yard no longer exist. Appomattox Hardware is now right across the road from the old Ford place, and the house on the corner between the Ford place and H.H's. was torn down years ago.

Another thing I noticed that's strange in the picture is that there is no traffic on 460. Nothing. You'd never see that today.

Here's the same area today-

Street view of the old H.H. Moore Jr. Trucking Co. Inc.

 

 

[mowerman]

Seems like everywhere you go nowadays there’s too many cars

[mowerman]

My first tractor-trailer job nissens  bakery Lynn Massachusetts. They tore down the building a few years ago. Kind of sad lots of good memories. It was a really good job teamsters . It was kind of strange . Once de regulation hit our business went down to a crawl I was hardly working . That’s when I move to California..

[67RModel]

What happened to H.H. Moore Jr. Trucking? Didn’t you retire from there recently?

[67RModel]

Also in the old picture the truck garage was only  3 bays wide. At some point they added 2 more on the end. I’m sure you know about when….

[other dog]

12 hours ago, 67RModel said:

Also in the old picture the truck garage was only  3 bays wide. At some point they added 2 more on the end. I’m sure you know about when….

I worked there from 1979 until 2005. H.H. and his wife Evelyn had both passed away by then and his son and daughter were running the place, neither of whom had really had anything to do with trucking until then. They later sold the company to PGT Trucking. I went to work for F.L.Moore and Sons in 2005.  F.L. was H.H's son, the sons were his grandsons. That's where I retired from, and theyre still going strong.

I was there when they added the two extra bays to the shop, but I don't remember what year it was. The far end of the last bay had a nice wash bay in it. That little building behind the shop in the old picture was the tire shed at one time, and there was a huge old willow tree by it. Half of the willow tree fell down and I went up there and sawed it up. I kept the wood for firewood, but it wasn't very good wood, it was almost like cork when it dried, didn't burn good at all.

Here's H.H. and Evelyn Moore in probably '83 or '84. The K100s were '84 models, he bought 6 brand new ones at one time. F.L. Moore bought the the brown one and had it leased to H.H. 

[mechohaulic]

heck of a piece of steel on just a twin screw; would think at least a jeep in between. or four axle tractor. have seen  twin screw units carrying heavy loads  , that beam seems awfully long.

[other dog]

26 minutes ago, mechohaulic said:

heck of a piece of steel on just a twin screw; would think at least a jeep in between. or four axle tractor. have seen  twin screw units carrying heavy loads  , that beam seems awfully long.

We hauled a lot of bridge girders. I took one from Carolina Steel in Abingdon, Va. to rt. 840 around Nashville one time that was 149'11". I usually just say it was 150'  🤣

That one was on a 4 axle dolly with a lift axle. It was made from a Mack truck chassis. I'll post a picture when I get home, don't have it on my phone.

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by other dog

[mechohaulic]

the rear set in picture looks right on the ass of beam puts major weight on tractor. long loads usually have the rear set of wheels slid up the load to distribute the weight with the load overhang . could be there is alot more over hang can't see in picture. back in the Mack days, I set up a number of very heavy  DM611's for a concrete company in CT. osculating 5th wheels on 6 in high spacers  for superlong T beams . never got to drive the units with beams connected. one of the DM's had a short life span . seems the operator of the overhead crane lost control of the beam = the damage to the cab was unbelievable. the beam crushed the cab to flat 

[mowerman]

I had the same question the company names. Thanks for clearing that up… Bob

[other dog]

50 minutes ago, mowerman said:

I had the same question the company names. Thanks for clearing that up… Bob

Yes, even though it was 2 different companies I drove for the same family for more than 42 years. I started driving in January of '79 and went to work for H.H.Moore in June of 1979.

[other dog]

2 hours ago, mechohaulic said:

the rear set in picture looks right on the ass of beam puts major weight on tractor. long loads usually have the rear set of wheels slid up the load to distribute the weight with the load overhang . could be there is alot more over hang can't see in picture. back in the Mack days, I set up a number of very heavy  DM611's for a concrete company in CT. osculating 5th wheels on 6 in high spacers  for superlong T beams . never got to drive the units with beams connected. one of the DM's had a short life span . seems the operator of the overhead crane lost control of the beam = the damage to the cab was unbelievable. the beam crushed the cab to flat 

So, instead of having oversize permits to do what you had to do you'd be better off with a 70' overhang?..interesting concept. You had to load long girders so they would "set up" on the dollies, meaning they would stay there and balance, without turning over before you ever put a chain on them. This was actually all carefully thought out and done, nothing was hap-hazard about it.

[other dog]

The hardest ones to load were the ones with a "sweep" on them, or curved beams. You had to position the dolly way up under them to get them to set up, then you had all the overhang to deal with. But like they say, if it was easy everybody would be doing it.

[mechohaulic]

it's an oversize load no matter how you look at it. the dolly up closer to tractor would shift some of the weight off tractor; course that's a Polocks way of thinking. LOL also depends on the route and as you know  large number of factors. interesting to watch u-tube showing oversize load moving. 90 degree turns with 150 + ft loads.

[Mark T]

Nevermind the tractor with  the bridge beam.  How about someone explaining to me why I find those International Transtars to be so appealing . Back when they were common, I'd never have given one a second look.

[mowerman]

Yes,same here  here bud. I never really paid much attention to them either but now that they’re extinct all of a sudden they get a peeling. Again they were along with F model Mack’s  and of course we were mainly staring at them that’s the way it is with me with the 64 galaxy when you could buy them for nothing all day long I wasn’t really focused on them. …: bob

[mowerman]

Why the hell didn’t I  buy  10 of them when they were $100 bucks each….. speaking of trans stars I’ve never even driven one only rode in one one time … Bob

[other dog]

6 minutes ago, mowerman said:

Why the hell didn’t I  buy  10 of them when they were $100 bucks each….. speaking of trans stars I’ve never even driven one only rode in one one time … Bob

That's kind of like gear shift knobs- they used to have a whole shelf of them at every truck stop, now they bring top dollar on e-bay.

[Mark T]

7 minutes ago, other dog said:

That's kind of like gear shift knobs- they used to have a whole shelf of them at every truck stop, now they bring top dollar on e-bay.

Guy at the Peterbilt dealer asked what this was when truck was in for warranty work last week.

[mechohaulic]

19 minutes ago, Mark T said:

Nevermind the tractor with  the bridge beam.  How about someone explaining to me why I find those International Transtars to be so appealing . Back when they were common, I'd never have given one a second look.

back in the day, baskin robbins had a fleet of IH4070A's (east coast branch) also 5 KW's 2-K123's/ 3-K100's.  when it came  to delivery's in city's; I would take an I H over kw's any day. IH were 318/RTO 9513's. KW 350 DD /12513 RR.  for back up road service, I kept a 4070 inside at all times for those 1-2 am road calls; and there were many.

[Mark T]

They were a handsome truck .  Never noticed until a few years back. 

[mowerman]

16 minutes ago, other dog said:

That's kind of like gear shift knobs- they used to have a whole shelf of them at every truck stop, now they bring top dollar on e-bay.

Yes, I remember buying a ball and an extension at a truckstop in Ontario California now a truckstop store looks like 7-Eleven nothing but sugar and salt. Ha ha. Funny thing most of them are packed with CB  supplies and I don’t think the owners even realize nobody even wants that shit anymore.  

[other dog]

One of the dollies H.H. had. This was the one I pulled the most. Made from a Mack truck chassis. You had to pull the front axle up onto blocks and chain it to the beam when it wasn't being driven. Dragged out of the junk yard with a Farmall M and slapped together some kind of way.

Under that 150' beam that was just dropped on there in a haphazard manner by two Farmall H tractors. One had a front end loader, the other one had just a hay spike.

I  said "are you sure i'm not over on the drives?" They said "don't worry 'bout tha' mule, jest git on down yonder wit it''.

[other dog]

7 minutes ago, mowerman said:

Yes, I remember buying a ball and an extension at a truckstop in Ontario California now a truckstop store looks like 7-Eleven nothing but sugar and salt. Ha ha. Funny thing most of them are packed with CB  supplies and I don’t think the owners even realize nobody even wants that shit anymore.  

that's the truth!

[Mark T]

11 minutes ago, mowerman said:

Yes, I remember buying a ball and an extension at a truckstop in Ontario California now a truckstop store looks like 7-Eleven nothing but sugar and salt. Ha ha. Funny thing most of them are packed with CB  supplies and I don’t think the owners even realize nobody even wants that shit anymore.  

USB cords and cell phone trinckettes   and lately die cast model cars (lol)