Yesterday my wife called me shortly before lunch and asked if I wanted to see a building being demolished. Without hesitation I tossed on my jacket and fled from the office like it was on fire. We took a short cruise to a part of town that once held the nickname of Oil City. Over a decade ago this chunk of Syracuse was home to tank farms for many oil companies. Passing through the area now you wouldn’t have the slight clue of what used to reside on the large empty lots but you would be right in guessing something of an industrial nature. You can visit this article by the Syracuse New Times to get a feel for how the area once looked liked. Despite the tanks being long gone one remnant of Oil City clung to the present, the Drake Oil building. Arriving on the scene we witnessed the death of the final survivor as a Komatsu efficently loaded the the remains into the back of Mack Superliner. It was too windy for video so this picture will have to make due.
Right next to the demolition work a Cat 315C was busy loading a Cat 725 articulated dump truck with soil. Once loaded the 725 would tear across the landscape to dump the soil on the northern corner of the property. It looked like a fun job.
Before my wife called me about the demo work she noticed a old truck bouncing along the recently cleared land. At a distance she couldn’t tell exactly what it was but she knew it was a classic. Her guess was a Diamond Reo and I am thrilled to say she was right!
I didn’t realize until I returned to work that this Diamond Reo had been featured on Daily Diesel Dose before under the Still Working catergory. Click here to see it. At that time it was doing some sort of landscape work around the mega mall Destiny USA, the massive brownfield redevelopment that brought an end to the tank farms.
Without a question the hero of the day is my wife Jennifer and her developing eagle eye for old trucks and equipment. What more could I ask for?!