I found these pictures fascinating. It’s two car carriers, from the Barton-Robison company, one hauling a load of fresh new ’33 or ’34 Fords, and the other one hauling off old used cars from the aughts and early teens. Were these old ones going to be resold or scrapped. Some of them look too old to be of any value anymore, given their age.
Here’s a closer look at the old ones:
I’m not going to try to identify them; maybe one of you is up to that. I know a curved dash Olds and one or two others from that era, but it quickly gets very challenging.
Here’s one more of another Barton-Robison rig, a Ford Model AA truck hauling some more new Fords. It’s got 40 hp under its hood. I’m guessing 25 mph was its top speed, on a flat.
As stated in another post, I always like to think of vehicles as family members. Being of a certain age, I sincerely hope these OLD vehicles were going to a new home! OLD Dog 🐕 not yet ready to be scrapped.
High probability that every car pictured, including the haulers, was scrapped for the war effort within 10 years
Excellent!
Great find.! The gent in the last picture must be quite tired to be able to fall asleep in that cramped cab! The attached photo just popped up on Facebook.
Upon a more thorough inspection of the above photo reveals that this looks like a special occasion. The cars are all decked out and folks sitting in the cars. The dealers name being displayed on the trailer makes me think that transportation was arranged be the retailers back then?
That first car with the “1909” painted on it looks like a Thomas Flyer, which was considered a very special car, back in the day. Perhaps that’s why it has a price of over $1,000 painted on it.
Given the condition and wear on the front tires of the towing vehicles, I would not want to drive them very fast at all.
On the “old car” trailer, from our left to right, three Renaults circa 1909 to 1914, a 1912ish Overland Touring Model 61, and a 1909 Thomas Flyer.
Wow. Is the first Renault back missing its engine? It’s up tight against the Overland. Or is is also an underfloor engine?
None of those are Renaults. There were numerous American cars in the aughts that had underfloor engines; in fact that was the most common configuration for some years.
These shots are from Bartelsville, OK. The odds of a Renault having been sold there are next to nil. Maybe in NYC, but not Bartelsville.
NONE of those cars on the old car trailer are foreign. All are Fords.
The first car at the front of the trailer is a very rare 1909 Ford Model T. I can’t see from the photo if this car is an early production car or not. If it’s an early production car, it would be a two pedal, two lever car. Today, those cars in restored condition bring figures in the high six digits. It is definitely NOT a Thomas Flyer. Those were much bigger.
The second car is a ’13 or ’14 Model T.
The next car in line looks like a 1903 Model A. Also, very rare now. This was the first year Ford Motor Company produced a car with the help of the Dodge Brothers. This may even be a Model B. I believe that there are less than 5-6 Model Bs known to exist.
The last car on the trailer appears to be a Model N or Model R. The Model N, R, and S were the last models built by FMC before switching to Model T production exclusively.
Since this photo was taken by a Ford dealer, it’s almost 100% that these were traded in for a new 33, just like the cars on the other trailer.
Fascinating! I was unaware of the early 2 pedal model T, so I looked into it https://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/257047/319136.html?1351482512
Indeed, that price was several times more than the MSRP of one of the new Fords!
The “body color, wheels” on the new arrivals are pretty cool!
To someone living in 1933, those new Fords would look so “sleek and modern” compared to those old, unloved “horseless carriages”! In our time, the ’30s Fords look ancient.
Was there even a classic car/auto restoration “hobby” in the early ’30s? Did anyone care about restoring an old car for its historical or aesthetic value? I’m thinking no, therefore all those old wrecks are doomed. But I could be wrong.
There were… I remember an old 30s Life Magazine feature on an early 1900s car meet. But obviously not as prevelent as it would become a few decades later
Given the condition of most roads in the US in the 1930’s, 25 mph is about as fast as you’d be able to go with this load regardless of how much horsepower there was. The road that is shown is paved with cobblestones which aren’t the smoothest ride. Neat pictures!
On the “old” car trailer, the three cars in the rearmost positions appear to all be pre-WW1 Renaults. The second car back appears to be an Overland Model 61 of about 1912. The front car is the 1909 Thomas. I’m thinking these cars are a collection of CC’s from the early ‘30s. Somebody had accumulated a small collection of interesting very early cars, as most of these don’t appear to be “run of the mill” ten to twenty year old cars of the day, with perhaps the exception of the Overland.
I don’t know for sure, but fragile lacquer paints, the typical parking of cars outdoors most of the time, and 25 years or so of weathering, and things start looking a bit shabby over time. The photos also appear to be black-and-white and colorized, so the actual colors of the old cars, as they appeared on that trailer, might be lost to us.
When my dad retired in 1974, one of his daily hobbies/tasks (for a couple years at least) was to spend 2-3 hours daily ‘cutting up’ using tin scissors and leather gloves, or sledge hammering by hand, the 1930s/40s era cars parked as junk in the forest on the farm he bought. I recall, the only parts he could not break down into small pieces he could take in cardboard boxes to the dump, were the wheels, engine block/pistons/rods, and what appeared to be the starter, and alternators. He’d have us kids haul them out on toboggan, in the winter time. Everything else, he could, and would, impressively break down into the smallest bits. I’m sure, aided by 30-40 years of metal corrosion. He’d snip up the seat springs. Even the chromed hub caps, were returning to powder. Dust to dust.
Back in the thirties from 40s they did not have alternators they had generators
Both AA Fords appear to be from the same company either contracted to Ford or the dealership, the old cars would be headed to auction these day but then more likely scrap, Old Ts in the 30s here went for less than 10 shillings not running or 30 bob road legal drive away,
I know you guys dont understand those pricings but 10 S is now $1, 30 bob is 30 shilligs or 1.5 pounds, prewar 1 NZ pound= 7 US dollars,
In 1934 thanks to the depression NZ Ford dealers were still trying to off load Model As they ordered too many and were stuck with them very few CKD V8s landed here early on.
The two oldies with the near-vertical steering columns are either Cadillac model As or the very similar looking Ford, both about 1902-04. That they have survived as late as 1933 or so would have been due to the efforts of some car-struck eccentric who had lost his storage space.
Just found the additional images of the old ones. I think the car with “1909” painted on it is a Model T Ford.
The major tipoff that the “1909” Ford is a Ford is the fact it is left-hand drive, which practically no other U.S. cars were in ’09. Had it been right-hand drive you could see the handbrake blocking the driver’s easy access to the right -hand (doorless) doorway.
I don’t have the exact dates as to how long a buyback program was in effect, but in earlier years Ford was promoting a buyback scheme that encouraged Ford dealers to take older worn-out cars in on partial trade, and FoMoCo would buy the cars.
Since the trucks delivering the new cars would have gone home empty, Ford figured they could arrange for the clunkers to be delivered to Ford’s River Rouge plant where [using a dis-assembly line] the old cars were systematically taken apart, with the metals recycled at the Rouge foundry and the wood/upholstery burned for fuel. There is a video on YouTube showing how the old cars were scrapped.
At one time old cars were piled up and burned in huge bonfires. The car dealers were getting rid of old cars that were cluttering up the storage and wrecking yards. Cars were improving at such an exponential rate in the 1920’s that there was no market for old cars. They were unsalable and were only worth their scrap value. The car collecting hobby didn’t start to take off until the 1950’s.
I couldn’t find any pictures of these fires, but I think that I saw them in an Old Cars and Parts article.
That would make sense. The old cars had a lot of wood in them. The easiest way to scrap them would have been to burn them and then retrieve the metal.
I like the “sleeper cab” with the man snoozing in the passenger seat. Great photos. Thanks.
I think the tires on the trailered cars are far better than than the towing truck..🤣
It is nice too see the old days and where we are today.
In the awesome 2002 BBC documentary “The century of the self”, at 34 minutes 32 seconds, there is footage of such old car bonfires.