Here's a bunch of shots we took at the Brockway show on 8/9/08 on Main St. in Cortland, NY. Enjoy... Note: the gold 361 is one of 6 left from O&G Industries in Conn. with a 1693 Caterpillar. They used to pull 24' dump trailers from a quarry in NY state years ago grossing over 100K every load, single frame 44K rears... The red Gardner truck has a 12V71 Detroit, NY metro area heavy spec lowbed tractor.
This red '74 is as nice as they get. 1693 Cat, all redone. The picture on the rear of cab is a Husky carrying a Mack bulldog in his mouth... The blue pair is owned by the same guy. A '69 single axle and a beautiful (possibly the nicest one there,) '74. Yeah, that's me and my boy, and yeah, he gets his looks from his mother.
Nice pics...certainly don't see too many Brockways around. The only one I have seen is a water truck belonging to Mather Corp. of Bloomfield, CT that is on a project just over the hill from me.
nice trucks, the one i learned on looked just like that red ten wheeler
great pics, appreciate the effort
More Brockway Show Pics. Here's some more photos. There was a good selection of models ranging from 360's to 775's and so many more. Long hoods, short, snubnoses, and custom built pickups and whatnot. The green one with the stacks has a big block Chevy and sounded awesome. The purple Grimm truck has a V12 Detroit all pumped up to something like 1000 HP, and uses it in truck pulling comps. at the fairs around upstate NY. He got in trouble with it the night before the show we heard for drag racing down the main strip, cops weren't too impressed. The single axle with the Mack cab is a real cherry. Nice restoration work. Owned by Richie Bros. Slate Co. up in Granville, NY. Enjoy.
The construction company I worked for back in '79 had a Brockway. I don't know their numbering or what year it was, but it was the prime mover of their equipment. They had a folding lowboy with a winch on the truck that pulled the trailer deck back up to the fifth wheel. The truck had a 8V-71 Detroit with a 13 speed. What a racket it made!! The front fenders flapped as it went down the road, but it always got the equipment there. Nice pics!! I'll have to catch that show one year. I remember when the State of NY had Brockways as highway trucks.
Speaking of the state running Brockways Steve, there was one there that was still all originally painted and decal'd up. It was a 1976 which was the last year for them in production, with the Mack cabs. It was in operation until a couple of years ago at the prison in Comstock (Whitehall) NY doing some type of duties there. The same person owns it that owns that nice little red single axle dumptruck, Ritchie Slate Co. in Granville. They use the state truck to pull the lowbed that transports the dumptruck to shows. The folding lowbed you're referring to back in the day sounds a lot like an old Rogers...mechanical detach. Glad those days are over.
Stretch, there's actually quite a few Brockways still floating around Ct. Waters Construction has a couple still in service. I included a shot or two of Cromwell Concrete's Brockway at the show,too. They run some older iron every day. When I was on that site development project in Shelton, Ct. a few months back, I unloaded a couple of loads of precast concrete curbing off their 1985 Autocar tractor, still in nice shape. There's a couple of nice triaxle dumps running around still every day down there as well I've noticed. My boy took a shot with his cellphone of one sitting at Tri State Diesel recently that was beautiful. A teal colored triaxle with a big aluminum body getting some work done. The one I used to drive many moons ago is still sitting in East Haven I saw, while roaming around after work one day down there. It's a 1970, and she's tired to say the least. Spent a lot of winters plowing snow with the state, with a jet sander on the back. You can throw a cat right through the floorboards now.
That green Brockway with the black fenders looks like the one I drove for Highway Specialties in Yalesville.........had a bungie cord across the hood to hold it down.It had the 318 with a 3 stage jake and a 35 ton Rogers with the state permit number 100 on the gooseneck. After running the dozer all day getting the paving jobs ready for the grader I used to move the equipment to make ready for the next days paving. One never forgets that sound!! I have picked up many times over the years in Cromwell Concretes precast yard and they have brand new cab and chassis parked in their yard ready to put in service it appears but they just sit there for ages waiting for something to die apparently.You get the impression that they forgot about them back there. I think the heaviest load I ever pulled came out of that yard with a 50 ton lowbed and a long nose KW.We sure stacked a lot of stuff on there. .Ron G
I'm pretty sure you nailed the trailer LowBoy. You'd set the brakes on the trailer and back the tractor in to it. Then get out and pull a pipe from each side of the trailer. The fifth wheel deck was hinged to the lower deck, and pulling the pipes allowed the deck to fold flat. The winch lowered the fifth wheel plate to the ground so the whole front of the trailer laid flat on the ground. It was quite an operation to watch, I never actually had to do it myself. I only drove that truck a few times and the machines were already loaded.
Thanks, I'll have to keep my eye out now! Quite a few contractors also have Autocars running around here too.
Nice to see Cromwell Concrete and O & G Brockways represented at the show !
Ironically Steve, there's a guy over by me in North Hoosick, NY that has an old Diamond T parked in the weeds with this same trailer still hooked up to it, like he parked it 30 years ago and never opened the door again. It's a Rogers lowbed, and the same mechanical detachable operation, winch and all. There's a lot of brand new mechanical detach trailers running today, mainly because of lighter tare weights, and the elimination of hydraulics to run the goosenecks. Another thing is they can get these trailers a lot closer to the ground for overheight issues. Not to mention, they're considerable cheaper than a lowbed. They're kind of a pain to hook and unhook, but it is what it is. I'm spoiled...flip the PTO in and hit the lever on the neck. If you watch Ice Road Truckers, Eric (the top dog right now for most loads hauled...) has a similar setup to the old school rigs. Only his is like an oilfield rig setup, where he unhooks and the trailer is guided with the winchline off a roller on the truck frame, and to rehook, it's a reverse operation. I kind of wonder why they don't run normal detachables up there with hydraulics to expedite the loading/offloading gig. Must be a good reason, COLD if nothing else I guess.
I agree. I remember those same trucks running up and down route 8 through Waterbury, Torrington, and everywhere around the Naugatuck Valley when I was around. I especially remember the ones with the 318's screaming up every one of the "hills" on rt. 8 between Waterbury and Torrington. I had an '86 Western Star dump trailer setup back in those days with a hot running 400B that would fill those 6" pipes with thick black smoke evry gear I grabbed and it would roll down both sides of that dump trailer.(Had her tweaked a little:naughty) I used to love to come up behind an O&G or a Larusso Const. truck doing about 5 mph up the shoulder loaded, and I'd tease them a little and then just mash on it and blow smoke in their faces so bad they had to just about turn their wipers on to see. They hated me, but when you're 24...you don't really care what the old teamsters think about you.:laugh Cromwell Concrete was running an '80's Autocar with a bulk cement tank up around Glens Falls, NY every day to get cement for their plant in Cromwell right up until very recently. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same one I unloaded a couple times down in Shelton. It's kind of funny to see a fleet of Palumbo Peterbilts from No. Branford all lined up to load at the cement plant, and here's that old Awefulcar sitting there among all the large cars. I honestly appreciated the A'car as much as the big shiny cars.
That's pretty good Ron. I remember Highway Specialties Brockway well. I drove Letis' Green and black fendered Brockway back in '79, '80. Everybody knew Letis' truck by the sound of that thing. It had Riker mufflers that I always suspected he hollowed out and welded the tops back on, a 5X4 double over two stick and a 3 stage jake that we took off of an old J.M. Rosa Const. Brockway he bought when they auctioned off all their iron. With that jake brake as a newfound toy, boy did we ever make some music around town then! I had the sticks bent so I could grab both at the same time and pulled the main and auxiliary into their proper cogs at the same time, and made it sound like it had a 13 speed it was so quick. I was complimented by many an old veteran truck driver for being so young and having the knack for that 5X4. I wish I had one right now I liked it so much. I saw that old Brockway a couple months ago in his yard, but the years have been pretty hard on her with all the plowing and salting she's done. Another one I distinctly remember was Cherry Hill Construction's Brockway lowbed tractor. It was a sister to Letis', and there was actually 3 in a set all sold at Barnick's when they were on frontage road in East Haven out past the Q bridge. They all were spec'd to go to work on the Alaskan Pipeline project, but never went for whatever reason. All had 20K fronts, 65K Timken rears, and massive triple frames, real rugged son's of guns. Looking back on all this, that was a real nice piece of local history. And we made the noise with those beasts to go with the images.
That red 10 wheeler is a real headturner. It's immaculate in every sense. The owner's pretty proud of her too. A guy was asking if he would sell it, and the owner's wife said...not really. There were negotiations building, but the wife stopped it all by saying "for $100,000.00, we'll think about it". I see it occasionally, it's from Amherst, Mass.
This is a good example of why I like this site...I really enjoy all of these stories that everyone has to tell. Especially if it's from my neck of the woods. Now back to the Brockways! :bouncegri
Something I missed while posting these pics. I didn't realize Brockway built a farm tractor till this show. In Cortland, N.Y. there is a building that they are trying to make into a museum for Brockways. Next door to it is an old milking barn that is all cleaned up and is now a museum for old farm tractors, called T.O.Y.s (Tractors of Yesteryear.) It's stuffed with nice old John Deeres, Case, IH, Olivers, etc. on display for the public, but unfortunately they can't officially open it yet till the town approves a few stupid things to make it legal for the general public to enjoy. I was fortunate the owner said, to be there because of the Brockway show, they are allowed to be open those 3 days. It's a great place to visit if you appreciate old tractors.
Lowboy, didn't know if you knew they have a web site brockwaytrucks.org Lots of pics from the last 7 shows. I went to the show last year,07 but they didn't have the museum open yet. Maybe next year I can get back up there.
Thanks woodee, didn't realize they had a website for that club. The museum is really still a work in progress, only 3-4 really old trucks inside and building is under construction by a bunch of members on an "as time permits" basis. Once they get it rolling though, it'll be great. Do you see very many Brockways down in Jaaawja? Just wondering if they were as popular in the Southland as they were in snow country?:drinkup
I've been down here 10 years and know of 1. It's a tandem dump that a contractor uses as a spare. I've been through alot of small towns and back roads and have never run across another.