(first posted 8/1/2011) What is it that makes this old farm truck so compelling? Sure, all the usual superlatives can be invoked: its just awesome, cool, and absolutely dripping with sculptural impact, patina and history. That’s plenty of fodder to write about, along with enumerating its archaic details. But there’s much more: the thirties is undoubtedly the most revolutionary decade ever in terms of design, and by that I mean all industrial design. Everything from washing machines, cameras, trains, cars, trucks and just about anything else built by man started out the decade looking like what it was in its most functional state: naked; well, maybe with a bit of frilly underwear. But within a few short years, that would all change: streamlining, which arose purely from its functional roots, now enveloped everything in its slip stream. Even a potato truck.
One only needs to look at almost anything that sprang from the factories and foundries ten years earlier, liker this 1930 Chevrolet truck, to see how drastic the change was in a few short years. The cab is still an enclosed carriage, bolt upright and shaped (and mostly built) like they were in the previous century. The radiator, headlights and pretty much everything else is purely functional. Of course, a certain degree style is part of the package, and colors became more common after 1926 with the introduction of pyroxylin paints.But that was minor compared to the radical influence of streamlining.
The origins of streamlining go back remarkably far. The ideal streamlined form was described in 1804 by Sir George Cayley as an “a very oblong spheroid”. And already in 1865, Samual Calthorpe patented an “air-resisting train”, looking remarkably advanced given the times.
It would take some eighty years to finally see his impact, but when it hit, it was dramatic. Raymond Loewy, who would go on to become one of the most influential industrial and automotive designers, stands here with one of his early creations, the Pennsylvania RR S-2. The fact that these streamlined steam locomotives were maintenance nightmares and soon stripped back to their naked selves, with every pipe, rivet and valve exposed, is largely beside the point.
Diesel locomotives didn’t have those constraints, and their arrival in the early thirties made them the poster children of the whole genre: diesel streamliners. And there’s a whole lot of the City of Denver in this Chevy truck. We’ll get back to that in a minute, but let’s just confirm that it wasn’t just things that moved through the air, no matter how slow or fast, that were streamlined.
Everything, from cameras, washing machines, and the lowly kitchen range were completely re-imagined, in the most fertile few years of the history of design. That pioneering range (above right) was designed in 1932 by Norman Bel Geddes, the earliest of his cohorts, a theater set designer who simply set himself the task of imagining everything from a tiny cigarette lighter to whole cities in the new idiom. He soon had corporations knocking on his door, and hired dozens of engineers, designers, architects and draftsmen to carry out his endless imaginings.
The fact that this all happened mostly in the very depths of the Great Depression added complexity and urgency to the whole industrial re-imaging of almost every product. On one hand, corporations were none too thrilled to have to spend billions to completely retool in those difficult times. But streamlining was also seen as a possible salvation, a way to stimulate consumer interest at a time when that was desperately needed. Too bad it was a one-time event; we could use such a revolution again. (Walter Dorwin Teague designed this brilliant 1936 Kodak Bantam).
My Illustrated History of Automotive Aerodynamics can be found here, so we won’t cover all that, and we’ve digressed way to far already. But there has never been a more transforming influence on design, in part because it coincided with the whole emergence of the concept of the modern design profession.
The grand detours from streamlining started in the fifties and reached their zenith in the sixties, when something “new” had to be invented, even if it was the exact polar opposite of streamlining. But one can’t have a reaction unless its to something. And the all-enveloping body, no matter how boxy or gaudy, still owed its origins to the streamline revolution. And there’s no need to even mention how full circle things have come.
So here we are at last, down on the farm after our rambling detour with this fine example of late thirties styling. It appeared on these Chevy trucks in 1941, and were built mostly unchanged until the new Loadmaster trucks of 1949. The COE stands for cab-over-engine, a concept that trucks have offered since their earliest days. It offered a shorter wheelbase, which was generally more of a concern with the length-restricted semi trucks, but why not for a potato truck too? Looks more impressive than the low riding conventionals.
Of course, there is a price to pay. Before we look at that closer, here’s a view of what was state-of-the-art in trucking comfort in 1941. Remember, the streamlining design revolution was way ahead of other aspects of technological development. Under the stylish skin, things hadn’t changed quite as much. And that seat is far from original; someone wanted to improve that aspect just a wee bit; in the seventies, from the looks of it.
So let’s point that camera down on the floor, where we see a large protrusion that looks like a giant valve cover.
That’s because it is, practically. There’s the real thing, a 216 cubic inch Blue Flame six, just an inch or so below the thin un-insulated cover. Horsepower was 78 or 80; that still meant something at a time when most folks had grown up with horses. What’s conspicuously absent is the intake and carburetor; I’d guess the COE versions had different plumbing with an updraft carb, most likely. But the plugs are easy to change in the rain.And that’s a wild looking shifter, emerging from a hole in the wood floor. Those pieces of plywood look like they come up quite readily, in order to get at the engine a bit better.
Because there’s nothing up front except the radiator, and a curious-looking brake master cylinder, or is that what that is?
Let’s close its mouth, and take in one more shot of that wild front end.
To tell the truth, this design clearly shows that it isn’t from the peak of the streamlined years, and is feeling the need to be bolder and more expressive, than the more restrained version that preceded it.
Now why do I keep assuming that this was a farm truck anyway? Well, that “spare” wheel has a distinctly agricultural look to it, unless the owner was planning to put these oversize dubs on it all around. What size would that be anyway? 42″? 46″? Just needs to be chromed. Take that, all you donked Chevys.
A little help explaining this would be handy. It’s a semaphore, obviously, and not to unlike European cars used to have for signaling turns. But this one is mighty large, on one side only, and the truck has turn signals. Something to do with its former profession?
Did someone mention patina? This is a truckload of it, and perhaps overweight at that. How many boots have stepped up here?
A kid who works here told me this Chevy truck was a fine runner and ready to roll down Hwy 99. Top speed? Don’t ask. As long as the potatoes didn’t rot by the time you got them to the processing plant, who cared? Forty five tops, is my guess, and I might well be high.
Well shoot; I should have looked at the tags earlier. They’re from 1946, and look mighty original. That’s ok, this model came out looking the same in ’41, and that’s a lot closer to the streamlined decade than 1946. Don’t want to re-write or toss out that endless pre-amble. Maybe he bought it used.
And someone has apparently bought this one, because it’s already left the rest of its friends at the CC Truckstop. Somehow, though, I doubt it chuffed up the highway under its own power. And quite likely, it will end up looking like this. Not a totally happy thought for me, but I better make my peace with that.
Related:
1955 Union pacific EMD E9: The Last Of The Diesel Streamliners
This is pretty neat looking, but it isn’t the first streamlined heavy-duty truck. Dodge had previously offered the four-ton Model K-52, RX-70 RX-71 Airflow trucks, introduced late in 1934. Despite the name, they didn’t have a lot in common with the Airflow cars (they were pretty conventional in terms of body engineering), but they were very swoopy-looking. They were produced through February 1940, and fewer than 300 were built in all. I have a picture of one in the Airflow article, a tanker in Texaco livery, which is supposedly the only survivor that still runs.
One of those tankers is in the Richardson collection in NZ awesome looking truck
I in no way meant to imply it was the first. It just got me going….
I love it and I got the clue right that is a cool old Chev Id quite happily drive that. Back when I got a truck licence the speed for a truck was 70 kmh lots of old trucks now couldnt do the limit and stopped if you pointed them up hill . This thing needs some sound deadener sprayed in it would be like riding in a 44 gallon drum worse than my Hillman but hey its a truck and they werent refined
That is fascinating. Now, I wonder if any of those old bull-nosed semi-tractors that used to be everywhere are still around. I believe they were White 3000’s from around 1950. Now I thought those were cool, but as I recall, were the noisiest trucks on the road, probably due more to tire design than anything else.
BTW, I have a large hardcover book titled “The Streamline Era” form the mid-70’s, which is all about streamlined trains, but have a significant section on cars, aircraft and odd-ball stuff. Art Deco is my favorite design style, and Cincinnati Union Terminal is a superb example. Add to that Radio City Music Hall and many other places. Of course, one cannot discuss streamlining without mentioning the Lockheed Super Constellation, in my eye, the most beautiful plane ever built!
I have an old Kodak “Six-Sixteen” camera that is Art Deco-styled with speed lines, but is rectangular in design. Last used it in the 80’s, as film is no longer available, at least at a cost I will pay!
Zackman I live in Art Deco City Napier NZ The whole town was rebuilt after the 1931 earthquake in art deco style but we aint got any COE American trucks from that era shame coz I like em even the train it looks like a big pickup in profile, There are some cool old cars roaming wild here Im hoping my daughter can figure how to post as a trip around town can yield all sorts of things dry climate helps humid coastal weather eats cars but we didnt get these, we got all sorts of pickups some friends have a grapes of wrath Hudson Super Six cutdown in the 40s in the US they left it alone it still looks just found, sweet
The semaphore? It’s likely a signal from the driver to work crews…telling them God-knows-what. Maybe that it’s time for coffee; or that the day was done. Who knows, maybe that truck was used with a chain gang; and Boss was the driver. Nobody stops working until that arm goes out!
Having worked with “Hi-Rail” (flanged-wheel-equipped) railroad trucks, I would say it’s almost certain that’s not one of them. First, I’m not even sure hi-rail equipment existed in 1941. Second, if it did, there’d be a subframe welded on the front for the flanged wheels and axle; and assorted lift gear. And finally, most hi-rail setups require special sized and offset wheels, so the rubber tires land on the rails and provide traction for driving and starting. Setups differ with the make of the equipment, but only specialty tractors have separate drivelines that put power to a flanged axle.
So…it’s probably an ex-chain-gang potato truck. Now, two questions: First, why did manufacturers make products like this so HIDEOUS in that generation? And, second, IS it hideous, or is it just my reaction to it? My own eye tells me that your generic 1930s truck is a million-percent better-looking than that misshapen caricature which replaced it in the market.
I’ve never been a fan of “streamlining” as a design. When I was a kid, any of those “streamlined” cars or products were about 25 years old – and looked it. The cars were just about gone; but there were a lot of such trucks rumbling about; and school buses and city buses STILL were made with such hideous proportions.
When the bus manufacturers finally, in the 1960s and more so 10 years later…abandoned the oddly-proportioned “streamlining” and went with the Cubist School…my eyes jumped for joy. The city streets, finally with fresh, clean, MODERN vehicles! I remember my school got a new school bus, 1967…a new Cubist type, replacing the old awkward streamlined one…so fresh, so different!
Raymond Lowey, a generation earlier, felt the opposite. And he was still alive as this backlash was coming to be…I wonder if it devastated him.
Ironic how Chrysler’s Airflows were functionally streamlined, and didn’t sell…then later, vehicles that looked streamlined (but actually weren’t) sold relatively well. A good example of function following form.
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Walter Dorwin Teague designed this brilliant 1936 Kodak Bantam; his son Dick would design the Pacer and Gremlin.
It’s difficult for me to resist making the obvious comment that – as with many talents – aesthetic genius often skips a generation… 🙂
Dick Teague had his hits & misses. I think his ’66 Rambler & AMX still look good. Someone on another thread suggested that the Pacer inspired the Porsche 928. At least it wasn’t a Brougham, & you’ll still never mistake it, or his Matador Coupe, for anything else. The Pacer’s main problem was being overbuilt (to a superseded, overly-stringent gov’t safety std.) & its layout relying on GM’s nonexistent rotary engine (what in the software biz is called Vaporware). This was probably management’s fault, not Teague’s.
Agree with your point about streamlining. It was Chevy’s sister division, Electro-Motive Corporation (later Division), which was GM’s first to embrace streamlining wholeheartedly, with its ’30s passenger Diesels & FT of 1939, the first successful American road-freight Diesel. Ironically, streamlining was abandoned later by railroads in favor of the road-switcher, the best-looking example being GE’s U-25. A somewhat worn example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GE_U25B_front2.jpg
So maybe they figured out that aero drag was a non-issue compared to other operational costs.
I can see the 928/Pacer relationship. (BTW, I thought I was the ONLY one ) Even though I am a confirmed GM guy (and a Broughmantic….) I have always thought AMC provided some of the most interesting designs of the ’70s. The Pacer may not be my cup ‘0 tea, but, it was different and rather predictive. The Matador coupe was perhaps the last time any American manufacturer made a difference between their coupe and sedan.
I love the old streamlined stuff, which was common in my parents’ youth. That was an era when designers tried to make everything beautiful, even a COE truck. There are few things more naturally ungainly than a cabover, and those stylists of the 30s gave it a good try. The fact that a truck like this would never go fast enough for streamlining to have any practical effect was not important. It had to look “modern” and so there it was.
Even the dashboard has a certain lightness and grace to it. I guess I like the elegance that was infused in depression-era design.
Ha! I once told a buddy that the VW beetle was the last of the streamliners! He almost hit me!
I’m with you–I like the streamlined designs, even though by now they look not futuristic, but archaic. It’s ironic that the Great Depression produced a lot of designs that have held up over time, given the conditions at the time. Maybe our own Great Recession will produce something this memorable?
I guess with that engine sitting practically in the cab, a heater would be sort of redundant.
The signal light is only on one side this Chev is real old skool Ive driven modern cabovers and nicer place to be is hard to get.The seat in the Iveco I drove cost $5k the passenger not so much but hey 500hp on tap 16 speed autoshift trans low profile truck tyres all round full ABS trailers lowered 5th wheel the whole thing was designed fast cars do not pass you on a return run my 212km trip could be done in 2hrs 15mins with parcel post it handled like a dream and totally quiet no sound just you in the darkness with a 45 tonne 22 wheel beast and one of the best highways NZs mountainous terrain can produce, I drove Volvos DAFs Foden none of them could touch the Iveco on the same run new ones are amazing to drive old trucks not so much
The semaphore arm was indeed a turn signal of the type used before blinkers came into use. There was a ratchet inside the cab…straight out was a left turn indicator, angled up from straight was a right turn indicator. There was also a notch for angled below straight out, I suppose for indicating “slow”. I never saw one used like that…back in the day trucks didn’t really need an indicator for “slow” other than the stoplight(s). The older semaphores I saw had yellow reflectors on a flat steel piece; newer ones were set up to be lighted inside.
The owner of the yellow COE stake truck undoubtedly installed the later-model turn signals sometime after the 1950’s and simply never bothered to remove the semaphore. We used to see trucks that were done like that quite often in the 50’s and 60’s.
The 1946 Oregon license plate is for a passenger car, thus it can’t be the truck’s original plate. I suspect that someone just nailed it on the back to show the truck’s year. In the industrial area of Tacoma I used to see a road grader that someone had stuck a 1946 plate on – this was in the 1980’s or so.
These cab-over-engine (COE) rigs couldn’t have been the easiest things for working on the engine, human bodies not being particularly well adapted to working in a head-down, feet-up position. It’s no wonder that they were replaced by tilt-cab setups. I didn’t see any mention of the reason for COE’s, which was to shorten the cab and mount a longer load length onto the same wheelbase.
Cab overs are very cool. I’ve got a problem with forward control jeeps. I want one bad.
Dare I tempt you with this one I found (accidentally) while browsing Craigslist today?
https://wenatchee.craigslist.org/cto/5043911404.html
That is a painful addiction to have
Hand signals; arm straight down hanging outside window, indicates thou art stopping.
California driver manual in 1972 had a couple pages or so instructing newbies about hand signals.
Suggested wearing a white glove at night.
No mention of other gestures such as upraised middle finger or gang signs.
Brake master cylinder? That is an electric horn. Not sure why it’s pointing straight up? Usually they were mounted with the opening out front, instead of up as this one is. The thing that looks like a half of a grapefruit is the cover over the coils and the screw in the middle removes the cover to service the horn, as in cleaning or adjusting the points inside it.
The signal device, just the same as hand signals for bicycles and it’s what they used before turn signal lamps/light on both sides. In the old days, all that was required was a tail light and a brake light.
In the foreseeable futere the big COE trucks (currently the cab is a tall and square box) might move into the direction of the looks of this CC’s Chevy. Modernized, of course.
The reasons: better fuel mileage (obviously), better crash protection (the driver has a bit more truck in front of him; the same happened to vans, with their sloping fronts or short noses) and a better underride-protection.
Two examples; the MAN Concept S tractor with a Krone AeroLiner semi-trailer:
And the DAF XFC concept:
Daf Punk helmet
….
What a great find! A truck like this should be cleaned up a bit and preserved as it is. These are cool looking but really impractical for almost any modern driving so you would need some inside storage. They are so big, if I only owned a warehouse with a little empty space.
This is a perfect example of what “the kid’s ” today would call “Dieselpunk” I live in a circa 1940 apartment, and still there is that ’30s-’40s streamline ethic visible in the cabinet work and hardware even though the actual architecture harkens to an even earlier era. A “revival” happened in the ’80s ’90s with the original Taurus, Look at a 1982 “boombox” and one from 1992 for a non -automotive example .
Had an old Chevy COE farm truck across the street from my mother for years. Always liked it. It is much easier to like them when you don’t have to drive them. I think, especially in the South, you could roast the driver in the summer.
Fantastic curves.
Loewy’s Streamlined Steamliner is making an exhibition run right now in North Carolina….
Loewy and his firm had nothing to do with that one. The N&W J Class was designed and built entirely in-house by the Norfolk & Western. Pretty much all of Loewy’s rail work was for the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Still good to see that magnificent beast under power again.
I got a chance to see 611 when she stopped in Petersburg, VA a couple of weeks ago. Absolutely amazing, all the more so as an in-house design, I hope to do a writeup on that encounter soon!
Definitely a streamliner, but later than most–#611 actually rolled out of the Roanoke shops in 1950. Last of her class and one of the last of the great steam locomotives. The design is prewar, but the war interrupted production.
Nice old COE .
1941 Chevy trucks all had a slightly longer park lamp lens .
The base engine for this rig was a babbit pounder 235 , not the 216 everyone remembers ~ not much different a very good , light weight & peppy engine that easily out revved the ” Target Lubrication ” oiling system to the connecting rods ability to keep up causing many to toss rods .
This one would have had an up draft carby .
These rigs were every where in California into the mid 1980’s .
I know of one still running around North Hollywood .
-Nate
The truck from Jeepers Creepers!
An aerodynamic mobile post office, the tractor is a 1939 Chevrolet. Just a few years later it burned down in Germany, during the war.
That is extremely cool! Shame it’s no longer around. But with the USPS closing branches in order to become profitable, maybe it’s an idea whose time has come again?
My friend sent me this today showing that the latest thing in large truck design is Cab-Over-Engine again.
If you like big rigs, it’s worth minute or two to watch the video, and/or read the article
http://m.machinedesign.com/news/walmart-tests-truck-future?NL=MD-08&Issue=MD-08_20140429_MD-08_123&YM_RID=jwoodward@copleycontrols.com&YM_MID=1463442&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2_b
https://www.youtube.com/embed/NER9X4_gtYk?feature=player_detailpage
I know of your fondness for that shade of green in a tractor, so I tried to find you another Oliver to contrast from the previous era. Attached should be an unstyled Standard Model 80, built from 1937-1948, to go with your Row Crop 66, built from 1949-1954. Not an exact match-the 80 was a beast-but shows the changes. The real styling revolution for tractors came in 1939, with Raymond Loewy’s Farmall Model M and Dreyfus and Assoc’s. John Deere styled Model A. But we have to admit that Oliver is kind of pretty.
P.S. that spare wheel on the back of the truck looks like it came from some kind of ground-driven implement, such as a manure unloading wagon. Perhaps some sort of ground-driven potato digging machine? Likely there for effect-couldn’t hold much weight with those spindly wheel spokes-but a nice touch.
The 235 first came out as a babbit bearing truck engine. Later when the Powerglide was introduced, cars so equipped came with a new improved 235. The later 235’s all had precision bearings and full pressurized lubrication.
Don’t forget the GG-1. They would still be inservice except for the PCBs that were used in the electronics and the EPA banning the interstate movement of said PCBs. They lasted over 50 years in regular service and they ran great to the end.
I believe the odd looking shifter nearest to the front was probably for a two-speed rear axle (I know that was the case on similar age Dodges) and the rearward shift lever was for the four speed transmission, the telltale being the thumb latch which locked out reverse until you lifted the little latch lever.
Here’s an offbase ’39 Chevy COE, noticed in Billboard magazine.
This is clearly a Montpelier cab. Dodge used Montpelier for COE until ’39 when it started making its own. But Chevy was making its own already, so it shouldn’t have needed to outsource to Montpelier. The ad is from Chevy itself, not a dealer or modifier.
I know this is an old post, and perhaps this has been noted elsewhere, but Dick Teague was not Walter Darwin Teague’s son, and as far as I can see they were not related.
Thanks for pointing that out. I don’t remember now whether I just assumed that or got bad info; probably the former. I’ve corrected the text.