Last week I went to a surplus auction for a local ready mix company, The Saunders Companies. The auction catalog caught my eye with more than a few well maintained heavy duty Macks and other pieces of equipment. Just like those 5 for 5 Arby Roast Beef sandwich deals this was to good a scene to pass up. There also was the added benefit of the auction being held right near the Saunders active quarry and mix plant. Instead of the trucks coming to me I would go to the trucks. To start, here is what I saw at the sale.
Macks! Now I won’t pretend to be an expert on used truck prices but I think there were some deals to be had here. Yes, the trucks were well used but also well cared for. Mack engines, trans, and suspension here folks. Damage and abuse was minimal for concrete trucks. From what I recall none of the Macks sold for more that 11,000 bucks. They went to a buyer from NJ buy the name of Uncle. The B & B Ford trucks were also in great shape. I’ve never heard of this company before so I’m not sure if they were a local company bought out by Saunders years ago or what. The ended up going to a buyer from CT. I was also interested in the old belly dump trailers as they are a sight you don’t see on the roads of CNY these modern days.
The auction on Friday was one of two set to occur on Saunders that weekend. The second auction was set to contain two old Brockways and a number of Vintage Mack models from the 1920s. Somehow this Brockway snuck into Fridays lineup. I hung around to see what it would go for but the truck was pulled at the last moment in favor of the Sunday auction. From what I could deduce this truck once belonged the Town of Union, NY. It was equipped with a Sincard water tank powered by a Continental gas engine. A Detroit 6-71 (presumably) was found under the hood along with a birds nest by the air intake. Who says these old trucks aren’t friendly to the environment? Overall the sheet metal of this truck was in rough shape.
While waiting for the auction to start I wandered back to the front of the property to check out the stream of traffic coming and going from the plant. Mixer trucks came and went at regular intervals with dump trucks from Saunders and surrounding municipalities arriving at the same pace. I took up residence in the shade of block pile and enjoyed the flow of traffic. At one point a slow moving convoy from Nelson Tree service passed by with two off road boom trucks. Eventually it was time to leave. On the way out I took the opportunity to watch operators clean out their trucks from previous runs. I also snapped a few photos of some other vintage rides. GMC General anyone from Cortland Ready Mix? How about a Superliner? A niffty old Trailmobile trailer setup as a power station also caught my eye.
Before leaving I watched at this Cat loader filled up a few dump trucks with broken concrete and soil. Off to provide fill for some other project no doubt. At the last possible moment the little pickup entered the scene and stayed the entire time I was shooting. You can’t win them all.
