National Grid Truck Bingo – Augers and Internationals

I think I am getting really close to calling BINGO on my National Grid truck card. Dan helps me by sending in a photo of a Freightliner M2 4×4 auger truck. He literately sent me this photo days after I spotted this exact setup at the local Freightliner dealer. A perfect example of feast or famine.

National Grid Bingo

Now this truck could possibly be my winning draw. It’s an International DuraStar which if you have followed my previous posts regarding National Grid you know are exceedingly rare in the fleet. Freightliner is the preferred chassis provider for National Grid so this DuraStar may just be an oddball, a demonstrator or possibly a sign of things to come. Only time will tell. This truck was on display at the NYS Fair to help celebrate National Grid’s return after years of absence.

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The Back Roads

There is a stretch of US Route 11 that I have been eyeballing for a number of years now. Like many portions of RT 11 it runs parallel to Interstate 81. Over the years on the way to various truck shows and NYC trips I began to take notice of a certain segment between Kirkwood, NY and New Milford, PA. Through the trees I caught glimpses of a PennDOT yard, hdyrofracking operations, truck repairs shops and a few other interesting locations. I often made a mental note to return for a closer inspection. This year while heading back from the ATCA Northeastern Penn truck show I finally made the trip down this portion of 11 and found a few trucks worth sharing with you.

As I mentioned I heading north from Harford, PA. The first location I wanted to check was a PennDOT yard. This spot turned out to be a bust as all the trucks were parked nose in from the road behind an ominous chain link fence with numerous warning signs. Continuing north brought me to a pumping station for tankers running water to various drilling operations in the area. I was surprised by the amount of activity that was taking place on a Sunday evening the day before a national holiday. I guess drilling is a 24/7 business! Many of the trucks were Kenworths or Peterbilts that resembled this type of setup. Not far from the pumping station was a large lot containing all types of heavy equipment used to clear land when a drilling pad is constructed. Immediately adjacent was a Suit Kote yard full of tanker trucks. A Brockway 361 was to be found here.

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Brockways are no strangers to the Suit Kote fleet. They still have many of them in the various locations across the state. In fact, they have two of them on display outside of their facility near Tully, NY. Many years ago I spied this 358 setup in a similar fashion to the 361. Don’t forgot about the many that hang out (at least two years ago) at the Homer, NY location.

Also in the yard was this White/GMC. Some quick searching of TruckPaper leads me to believe it is a WIA model but I could be wrong. I suppose there is nothing remarkable about this truck but I am a sucker for anything that has retro graphics and a non solid color paint job.

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The last vehicle of note is this Terex rock truck. Nothing really needs to be said about it. It speaks for itself.

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I traveled north on 11 as far as Kirkwood, NY. I passed by a John Deere heavy equipment dealer that didn’t have much going. The Tracey Road Equipment branch of the area had trucks on the lot that I recently seen at their Syracuse, NY location. There is still much more to see in this area as it plays home to a very large industrial park but those discoveries will have to wait until my return next year.

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Truck Shows of the Past – 2012 Midwest Classic Truck Show

I always enjoy seeing photos of truck shows from outside my usual range of attendance. I feel that it helps me keep a fresh perspective on what there is to see out there across this great country of ours. Today I have some photos to share courtesy of Alex from a truck show in Council Bluffs, Iowa that he attended last year. There are some neat rides to enjoy in the gallery below of both the diesel and non diesel variety. Surprisingly enough I think my favorite might just be a toss up between the Land Cruiser and the Scout.


 
Thanks Alex!

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Truck Spotting on Vaction

The past five days or so I spent some time down in Florida, specifically the Walt Disney World region. Even though I was on vacation my eyes were still peeled for trucks of any variety. WDW does a good job of hiding their fleet of service vehicles by running them on back roads during off hours. Nothing must disrupt the atmosphere of magic and happiness. Nothing! Thanks to my skills in truck spotting I was still able to find a few vehicles to share with you from my vacation travels.

The gallery starts below with an ambulance at the Orlando International Airport. I’m not sure what it was doing parked by the jetway but hopefully it was nothing too serious. Next we have a pair of refuse trucks of the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The RCID is some sort of quasi government the operates typical municipal services within the 38 square mile district that covers Disney property in Orange and Osceola Counties. My wife went up to the driver of the Autocar rig and asked if we could snap a photo of his truck. He seemed puzzled by the request but obliged us. I can’t blame his confusion because after all who goes to Disney and takes a pictures of garbage trucks? Also in the gallery is picture of Nova RTS bus that is part of the WDW fleet used to move resort guests amoung the four theme parks and other locations on property. The RTS is an very old style bus by the standards of today but more than a handful cling to active duty in the fleet. The Peterbilt mixer belongs to industry giant Cemex and was on a job to create forms for some sort of water retention basin. Finally we have a large snow melting device on the grounds of JFK International Airport. My original travel plans never had me at JFK during the day but life has a funny way of mixing things up. When life gives you a 11 hour layover you have to cling to sanity any way possible!

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Lost and Found – Fords and Internationals

Last month on the way to the Empire Farm Days show I passed by Seneca Pipe and Paving. They have a very large collection of old Ford and International dump trucks that seem to be in various forms of use or decay. Some have plates while others do not. Technically the trucks you see in this post probably fall into both the Lost and Found and the Still Working categories. I would say there was at least another seven trucks on the lot that looked like the ones below. Neat old fleet.

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The Western Report – Western Distributing Transportion Corp

I hope you like the world “western” because it’s going to be all over this post. Ryan sends us this sweet looking Kenworth belonging to Western Distributing Transportation Corp. Checking out their website they seem to do a little bit of everything including armored car services, auto transport and heavy hauling to name a few.

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Western probably has one of the sharpest fleets out there.

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Another big thanks to Ryan for the great share!

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Plows, Plows and More Plows

The local heavy duty spring shop has been a real gold mine of plow spotting recently. Of course, this is usually the case no matter the time of the year. Fortunately for me it happens to be on my path home from many activities so it’s easy for me to keep tabs on what is going on.

Last week there happened to be this Western Star 4800 6×6 for the Onondaga County DOT.

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And Just yesterday there happened to be and older International 2674. When I first drove by the shop on Tuesday evening the truck was lined up outside the fenced in area which usually means (I think) the work on the truck is complete and ready for pickup. I didn’t have my camera on me (rookie move) so I had to wring my hands and move on. I never would have guessed the truck would still be sitting on the lot come Wednesday but there it was!

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The final truck in today’s collection is something of an old ball. It’s an older Model Autocar sporting a Town of Amboy Highway Department seal. Underneath the seal you can see the old lettering for the Town of Manlius Highway Department. The mystery deepens as this truck was spotted working on some sort of sewer project in the city of Syracuse! I guess someone forgot to scrape the old decals from the doors before auction.

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Wind Power Madness

I’m fairly certain that most of you enjoyed the photos from last week submitted by Rick. No doubt you were left wanting more. As customer service is my main goal here a just a few more photos. Below you see trucks in the staging yard of JPW Riggers for the 2010 Hardscrabble wind power project. The hauling was performed by a mix of Southern Tier Express and Daily Express trucks.

As I live about a mile from the staging yard I’m just little embarrassed that I had no idea any of this took place back in 2010!

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ATCA Harford – The Videos

I’ve had the super computers of Youtube crunching the numbers all night to bring you the videos below of the 2013 ATCA Northeastern Penn Endless Mountain truck show.

Video 1 starts off with more trucks climbing the hill to the event. Mack Superliners, B-Models, R-Models, Peterbilts, and Diamond Reo’s all make an appearance.

Video 2 takes a two the base of the hill and then back the show grounds. We start of with two of the Saxby International Cabovers pouring on the power to make the climb. Once back on the fair grounds we have a nice shot of an DC Autocar rolling trough registration. Next an really impressive Diamond Reo (Detroit Power) rolls in. For some reason I never grabbed a shot of this rig. Keep an eye for another Superliner, an extended cab B-Model and crew cab International that I think would look great in Bruce Wayne’s driveway.

Video 3 gathers up the action toward the end of the day as folks begin to roll out. Out of all the trucks in this video the battered and bruised Fleetstar is my favorite. I just love that original look. Some may call it patina I just call it cool.

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ATCA Harford 2013 – The Photos

Plenty of classic trucks to enjoy today from the ATCA Northeastern Penn Chapter show in Harford, PA. You may recognize some familiar faces from years past or other truck shows in the area. Despite the threat of rain in the afternoon the weather held and the trucks turned out in great numbers.

As usual I arrived early to catch the trucks as they arrived. This year I staked out a spot on a steep hill right before the fair grounds that is just big enough to provide a slight challenge. Below is a video highlighting many of the Brockways that were in attendance as the worked their way up the hill.

Stay tuned for more from Harford as the week continues!

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