Ron Adams spent quite a bit of time standing on the side PA Rt. 22 (now I-78) in the 1960s shooting big trucks as they rolled by. International trucks were the biggest sellers back then, so there’s an outsized number of them in his collection. Let’s start with this “Emeryville” COE (Cab Over Engine), named after the Emeryville, CA factory where they were built. A 1964 Dodge is just about to pass it.
Here’s the oldest one, a K Model coal hauler. It was probably getting on to twenty years old at the time, but it looks very well kept up. The lack of an exhaust stack strongly suggests this is a gas engine truck. Rolling coal of a different sort.
This R Series diesel is hauling a refrigerated trailer, with the single cylinder gas engine up there running a fan over the ice inside, to keep things cool.
A burly RD, with a big nose.
Another RD, with big 24″ disc wheels, which were not common back then on East Coast trucks.
A Fleetstar, which used the pickup and Loadstar cab and was targeted at…fleet operators.
Another Fleetstar, hauling street sweepers, no less.
This tall boy COE is a C-405. It’s got a sleeper cab, although a none too generous-sized one.
This is a DCO Series and International’s first COE. This cab was used by several manufacturers, and was originally made out of fiberglass. But International ones were steel cabs.
Another Emeryville cab, which was just a DCO mounted higher over the engine. They were very common in the 60s and 70s.
This Emeryville is a long way from home, with its California plates and aluminum wheels. It’s almost certainly carrying fresh produce from California to New York or other points east, on an expedited basis thanks to its two-man crew.
I knew a couple of brothers in Iowa City in the early 70s that were making good money doing the same thing, hauling produce from CA to the Midwest and East Coast. They tried to talk me into getting into the business, and I toyed with it, but I wasn’t ready to be that tied down, despite being on the open road almost constantly.
One more Emeryville. This one is a bit different than the others; its headlights are mounted higher and further apart, and the bumper is higher. I don’t know how to account for that.
This is a pretty new CO-4000 Transtar, which replaced the Emeryville. It first came out in 1965, and was built in two series until 1981. Again, these were very common; it and the Freightliner were the two best selling COE’s in their time.
This is a rare M-42-CAE yard jockey heading to a dealer with a new Fleetstar and Loadstar in tow. It’s got “Super Single” tires on back; large singles, which are now very common are not exactly new.
In case you missed it, here’s an earlier gallery of trucks shot at this location.
And here’s a gallery of Freightliner COEs all shot at a rest stop in California in the ’60’s
Do check out our big truck and van archives – Lots of vintage trucks and histories
Great pictures! Love these old workhorses doing what they do best.
Those “yard jocky” trucks always interested me, especially.
The red RD lowboy with the 24″ disk wheels really puts into perspective how small old OTR tractors were. I wouldn’t bat an eye at 24’s on a lowly Cascadia or pro-star. but this looks almost comically mis-matched. Happy 4th to all be safe!
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Transtar II from national pike steam show 2022
The diesel R in the third picture down deserves comment. It is most likely an RD-210 or 220 with a Cummins H or N series diesel. Normally an RD would be equipped with the smaller Cummins J series engine, but this example has the stretched hood as evidenced by the extension spacing the familiar R series grille forward of the fenders (look just above the headlights) denoting big Cummins power. Some of these trucks were assembled by Diamond-T when IH was short of production capacity. The truck pulling the lowboy in the 5th. picture down is one of the Emeryville built RD’s in the 300-400 series (explaines the disc wheels, Paul!). Also powered by the larger Cummins diesels, these trucks had a higher mounted cab and different front sheetmetal than the Springfield built RD’s. The Emeryville built RD’s used the Comfo-Vision until the late 50’s when a conventional version of the Diamond-T designed CO cab was introduced.
Two random observations: The pictured sweepers were based on modified Dodge D-500’s. They were far less “squirrelly” than the purpose build sweepers of that era, which had the drive wheels in the front, and a pair of small wheels at the rear which steered, sort of like a tricycle farm tractor in reverse. Rear steering meant their transport speed was very limited because they would begin swerving uncontrollably if pushed. Straight frame loaders which had rear steering shared that ignoble trait if any part of the steering linkage was even slightly worn. Second, a keen observation on the scarcity of disk wheels6 on the east coast. Anything over about 22,000 pounds GVW had cast spoke wheels in my early experience, allegedly because disk wheels had some alleged faults in the minds of many traditionalists. Well, cast spoke wheels were no picnic to handle, either. Beside the difficulty in getting them to run “true”, they created a nightmare when brake work was needed. With many disk wheels, when the road wheels were removed, the brake drums would also slide off the wheel studs, leaving the brake components completely accessible without disturbing wheel bearings or grease seals (a particular and costly nuisance on drive wheels.) I don’t miss cast spokes even a little — obviously their limitations for east coast/winter road salt areas didn’t prevent the almost total abandonment by virtually all truck builders now.
R190s were used as loggers here back in the day big petrol engines in most of them ans Internationals were once a common sight and are still around today under the Navistar flag the last locally assembled American brand truck.
Has a 2050 Fleetstar with a Cummins 555 and a 10 speed RoadRanger The truck was a beast but that triple nickel was a dog.