Not too long ago I was in the wonderful lakeside city of Geneva, NY spending a nice afternoon out with the wife. On the way out of town I noticed a sign for the Geneva DPW office and garage. I made a quick U-Turn that would make any normal wife yell with frustration by mine hardly batted an eye. I guess after so many years of such behavior you just learn to roll with it. The Geneva garage had nothing of interest. In fact I barely stopped to look once I saw this yellow monster sitting in nearby field.
My immediate thought was this truck was NYDOT surplus. The color and the faded circle on the door all but made up my mind. The fact that the truck is in really amazing shape with zero rust and minimal wear and tear made think it was pampered at the hands of a luxurious state funded garage. Last night I messaged these pics to Ryan, the sultan of all things related to plowing in Upstate, NY and of course he had seen this truck and actually knew some of the back story.
The last recorded owner was the Town of Columbia, NY. Back in 2014 they put the truck for auction at everyone’s favorite website, Auctions International. Listed as a 1967 REO E-512-D this truck has two Cummins engines with Spicer 5652 transmission. AWD is a given and all functions of the truck remain intact. Just look at the sheet metal on this machine. Near perfect. The final selling price was 4,550 big ones. Another steal!
Here we see the Reo with it’s barn mate prior to the sale, the hero of North Country highway departments, the Walter.
The good folks at Auctions International even put together a video of the truck running so you can hear the Cummins at work while watching the Bros blower blades in action.
Now I want one. Winter is coming.
Could this vehicle be another “victim” of global warming? No longer needed because of the lack of fierce snow storms and incredibly deep drifts?
One must wonder how much this truck worked during the blizzard of 1978?