If you are a Mack fan and you did not attend this show please take caution. I fear that once you see the amazing collection of trucks below your soul will be overwhelmed with grief and sorrow. It is better that you live not knowing what you missed. For the rest of you brave souls, carry on. The 2012 Springfield show had a Mack for every man. Superliners? Dime a dozen. R-Models? Stopped counting after a few minutes. What about cabovers you ask? Of course. B-Models? LOL! Nearly every model Mack ever produced was here! I have a TON of videos related to Mack trucks to post. Hopefully the one below will give you a taste of what is to come.
I’ve talked about big rig racing on this site before. I really don’t expect it to return anytime soon but in the mean time we can enjoy this little promo put together by International Trucks featuring the Terrastar and Durastar displaying their best track moves. Keep on believing!
International Harvester, International, IHC, Navistar by Intenrational (or maybe the other way around), International Trucks. Despite the name changes over the years the song remains the same. Good trucks at a good price. They many not be as fancy as a Peterbilt or tough as a Mack but they are still my favorite brand of truck.
After going through the photos below I’ve come to the following conclusion, GM made some good looking trucks back in the day. The Springfield show had a great cross section of General Motors trucks from the 40’s to the end of true OTR trucks in the mid 80’s. Just look at the 970 hauling that John Deere! Insane! The blue 1976 7500 also caught my eye. It looks like it just rolled of the assembly line. A+ to the GMC owners who brought these fine trucks to the show.
As many of you know Ice Road Truckers season six premeired this past Sunday on the History Channel. I also know that many of you gave up on IRT seasons ago due to the over done reality show editing. I totally agree that past seasons relied waaaay too heavily on the “who will fall through ice” or “who will die” hooks at the end of each episode. As we all know, the big surprises just never materialized. It was always my contention that truckers driving over fractured sea ice through blizzards and arctic temperatures was more than exciting enough. Fake drama need not apply. By now you know that I am truck obsessed and basically watch any television program that revolves around them so I suffered though it all in the name of diesel!
My impressions for this first episode of the new season are largely positive. The producers still want us to cling to the contest elements of show by shoving load tallies down our throat at the end of each episode. I’ve never been entirely convinced that the drivers care too much if they beat someone driving a truck thousands of miles away. At the end of the season the paycheck will do all the talking. As a viewer I certainly could care less. Show me trucks!
The Cast
The cast this season has changed with females drivers Lisa and Maya being AWOL. I can’t say I really blame them. Lisa has been pretty active in both the IRT and Deadliest Road franchises the past few seasons. Lord knows I would be tired of multiple cameras staring at me all day long. Our long standing Canadian truckers of Hugh, Rick and Alex return yet again. They are joined by their American counterparts of Jack and rookies Ron, Darrell and Austin. We know what to expect with Hugh and Rick and they don’t disappoint in the first episode. Alex is just Alex. He drives, he laughs, he delivers. They both are driving the same trucks from last season, in fact you would be hard pressed to tell you were watching a new season. Baby faced Austin joins the show to replace the void left by TJ from season one. Darrell appears to be ready to fill the shoes left by Dave after his arrogance lead to his termination. Ron, AKA Porkchop, is purely the comic relief at the moment.
The Trucks
No matter how repetitive the show can I can always get lost watching the trucks. This season Alex is behind the seat of a bright red International ProStar+ Eagle. A pretty fancy trucks for the ice roads of the Yukon. For reasons never explained the ProStar simply stalls on the side of the road. Alex looks at the gauges confused, tries to to turn the vehicle over a few times and eventually gets it to go. Nothing about the event is mentioned again! WHAT?! Hugh is back with his International 9400 and Rick with his Western Star. Both beat on their trucks without mercy but they take it. A pretty good testimony to their builders when you think about it. As expected the Carlile drivers are still behind the wheel of Kenworths.
The first episode was solid. I didn’t catch any shots of cabs that don’t belong with their exterior shots. The random horn sound each time another truck passes by is still there but not as heavily used. The cliff hangers and commercial breaks are good enough to keep you tuned in but not cheesy enough to drive you away. All in all, a good start.
First let me start with a disclaimer, the gallery below does not represent all the Brockway trucks in attendance. I have a shameful secret to admit…all the years of living in Brockway country have left me jaded. I’ve become used to seeing them at historic truck shows all over the east coast. Unfortunately this means I often pass by the trucks I have seen before for a photo op with something new. But once again the Springfield show turned out all the stops and I was treated to “new to me” Brockways. It was great to see so many familiar trucks but even better to see brand new ones. With this year representing the 100th year of Brockway trucks I hope to see all the usual suspects and more make the pilgrimage to Cortland, NY for the biggest celebration yet.
Alright, so I mentioned the other day about the sheer number of photos and videos I shot while at the ATHS Springfield show. I’m still a little unsure of how to present all the information but I figured I might as well dive in head first and see what happens. With a little help from the alphabet here is my coverage of all the Autocar trucks (at least the ones I shot) and of course, video!
It’s over. Yes, after what seems like years of anticipation the 2012 American Truck Historical Society national convention in West Springfield, Massachusetts has come and gone. What a quick two days it was. By many accounts the amount of trucks that made it to the show broke or severely pushed the records. I know that I was overwhelmed at the number of trucks on hand. By the time I arrived at the Eastern States Exposition mid Thursday the display field was already reaching capacity. It seemed like every time I turned around a new set of trucks was pulling on the the field. I’m pretty sure every truck manufacturer from past to present had one representative on hand. By my unofficial account I would peg Mack as having the most trucks on site but this is only my overwhelmed perspective talking. The video below will give you a good representation of what most of the day Thursday and Friday looked like as trucks arrived one after the other.
I was very impressed with the ATHS volunteers who worked hard at the main gates to keep trucks flowing through the very busy registration and photo area. They did a great job even when crunch time came on Friday.
Ok, now I have to step off the ATHS bandwagon for a moment and bring up a touchy topic. There is probably no good for place for this and I don’t wan’t anyone to get the wrong idea about this website or the experience I had during the show. I’ve debated about posting this last portion of the story but I feel it would be disingenuous of myself and especially to my father after I sang the praises of certain ATHS staff members.
My father and I had made plans to bring our 1952 International pickup to the show. Seeing as how it has a top speed of 50 mph we decided to trailer the truck to Massachusetts. We had plans to rent a U-Haul truck with trailer that could tow our pickup from Syracuse to Springfield. U-Haul being U-Haul they messed up the reservation and “broke” the two trailers wide enough for the International. At the last possible moment we lost our chance of joining the rest of the Springfield show field. I know this really upset my dad as he had spent a lot of time getting the truck ready for the trip and show. It was a sour note to start the day but we set our eyes to the fun of the show. As always I-90 did its very best to entertain with a median roll over a Volvo tractor trailer outside of Syracuse and a nifty all flat black Ford LTL 9000 motoring up the grades outside of Amsterdam, NY. After arriving and taking in the sights we wandered over to the registration booth where show plaques and wheel chocks were being distributed. We both figured since our truck had been pre registered it would be simple to obtain our plaque by showing the registration paper work. How WRONG we were. My father was informed that only trucks onsite could receive the dash plaque and wood block. We were told to stop back on Saturday afternoon and if anything was left over we could have one.
It seems like a simple and petty thing to let bother you but it was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back. My father ended up talking to nearly everyone in the ATHS chain of command and to put it bluntly no one really cared enough to help a first year member who was having a bad day. Rules are rules after all! Considering the truck was registeted and PAID for months in advance I feel he should have received what he was asking for. I have been an ATHS member for nearly 10 years, my father has been a member for one year. Sadly, he won’t see year two. Over the course of the show we ran into another gentleman that had the exact same experience as us. You pre-register, you pay, you get a plaque. In my mind, it should be that simple.
So whatever, time to move on and start shifting through the hundreds of photos and videos I have of the event. Check back often and soon! Thanks for visiting!
-Eric
*UPDATE* My father did receive his wood block and dash plaques. All is right with the world. 🙂
Hopefully by the time you read this I am already on the road to Springfield, MA for the 2012 ATHS national convention. It may be a day or two before I start posting footage from the show so don’t panic. To hold you over check out this photo submitted by Eric of an old Ford C-Series fire truck.
This Mack looks like a brand new truck right? Considering it was sitting at the local dealer that seems like a logical assumption. In reality this truck is around four years old and represents what a little bit of care and regular maintenance can do to keep a rig on the road for years to come. This Mack belongs to the fleet of Davis Wallbridge Inc of East Syracuse, NY. For more examples of their fleet click here, or here but not here.
Mack Granite - Click to Enlarge
On on a side note I leave for the ATHS 2012 national convention in West Springfield, MA tomorrow. Check back on regular basis over the next few days for coverage of the show!
