More big loads

Trucks have been arriving in the port of Halifax since December assembling a large project cargo for Africa.

This morning three units from Equipment Express Inc of Ayr, ON were waiting to unload. Two Kenworths and a Western Star were spotted in line. All had air lift trailers carrying similar boiler plant modules.

Classic Freightliner

Phil Leil Enterprises of Truro, NS operates this pristine classic Freightliner conventional to move houses. Seen in Windsor, NS January 11, 2011.

I know it is a classic because the split windshield was eliminated many years ago, but was the original cab configuration when Freightliner first started to build conventionals in the early 1970s. Set back front axles came along a few years later, so this might be as old as 1980.

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FWD: Part 4

I don't know what I have been waiting for, but I seemed to have stalled at Part 3 back in November. I alluded to some oddball rebuilds of Nova Scotia Department of Transportation FWDs with Ford Louisville (possibly Scot) first generation, cabs - well here are some more, and some other oddities.

1. NSDot, Middleton, June 1982. Oshkosh cabs, and on one, an FWD rad, hood and fenders. So is it a rebuilt FWD or rebuilt Oshkosh? The answer will not be found here - it will remain an eternal mystery.

2. In 2001 the department was selling off this unit at their Miller Lake garage. The cab is Walter, but the hood says FWD.

3. Doesn't matter much who made it - it looks pretty able!

4. Big one way and wing plow, with Louisville cab and FWD hood and rad, at NSDot in Truro in June 1989.

5. A similar unit, with plows off. The more typical black top on the hood.

6. A side view of this unit shows the transfer case amidships, which means an FWD chassis and running gear. The Louisville cab replaced the orginal, and the hood was modified to suit.

7. This one has a bit of a dip to the hood, but still bears the FWD name and FWD rad. All of these were taken at the Truro NSDot base in June 1989.

8. A brand new Louisville cab in a shipping crate at the Burnside NSDoT garage. NSDot operated some Fords, and some Scots from there, but no FWDs, so this may just have been a replacement.

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Ready to Work

This Grove crane, with its attendant truck are poised and ready to start work for Partners Industrial Crane Rentals.

The crane is a Grove GMK5275, which boasts a 233 foot, 7 section boom (which can be extended to 354 feet with a jib) and a 275 ton maximum lifting capacity. It is mounted on a five axle chassis. All axles can be set up to steer (axle 4 can be disengaged on the highway) and axles 3, 4 and 5 are drive axles, with an optional drive on axle 2.

To keep axle weight down to comply with local limits it is also fitted with a three axle dolly.

The Western Star truck is hauling a trailer with an array of counterweights for the crane.

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Purolator goes Green

1. Unit E1610127 makes a delivery on Brunswick Street, December 31, 2010.

2. There's a bar code indentifier, a convertor's sticker, but no Utilimaster plate-just a blank spot.

3. Offside of another unit on Water Street December 31, 2010.

Purolator Courier (owned by Canada Post Corp) has gone all Hydrid-Electric in its Halifax fleet. The first models were introduced last month, but they have only gradually taken to the streets.

Otherwise not easily distinguishable from their Utilimaster predecessors, they have the graphics identifying them as Hybrid on the doors. There is also a sticker under the drivers side window identifying Balance Hybrid Electric as the conversion company. It also seems that they removed the cast "Utilimaster" name tag in the process - it used to appear just below the drivers side window.

I do see a Mickey Mouse wiring job to the mirrors, but the rubber fender skirts are a dressy touch, even though the rear dualies appear undersized.

There is also a bar code on the drivers side of the hood identifying the unit number - this matches the number painted above the driver side windshield.

[See November 23 post for photos of conventionally powered Utilimasters.]

Update: press reports indicate that these trucks are built on a Ford E450 strip chassis with 5.4 liter Triton gasoline engine. This is the Balance hydrid electric system from AZD (Azure Dynamics.) AZD also produces bus truck and car electric and hydrid drives.

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Christmas Best Wishes

Truckfax goes to the end of the earth to take truck pictures. I had to take this picture in Singapore in 2008. There is so much going on I don't know where to start. The obvious pun potential for the shipyard's name was too much to resist.

Then there is the supervisory pigeon on top of the building.

The neat little Kia K2700 tipper. (A one ton diesel sold by Kia all over Asia, South Africa, Australia and elsewhere - but not in North America - yet.)

Then there is the cargo in the tipper - a number of drying tea shirts, and who knows what else.

What has this got to do with Christmas you may ask? The answer is-nothing whatsoever, but I needed an excuse to post it, and what better time for a little fun than Christmas?

Truckfax will be taking a little break over Christmas, and so Best Wishes to All and Happy New Year.

Bird's eye E-One

1. Engine Company No.2, based at the University Avenue station threads its way along a downtown street. This is 97-108E, a Superior (Emergency-One Canada), acquired in 1997. (See also July 6, 2010.)

2. Halifax runs a number of Superior (Emergency-One Canada) apparatus. This is unit 03-332E, a 1750 gpm pumper with a 750 gallon tank and foam capability. It is operated by Engine Company 6 at the Herring Cove fire station. It dates from 2003.

Most of my truck photos are from ground level (although sometimes the truck is up high - see previous post), but in this case I was up high, and I managed a bird's eye view of one of Halifax Regional Municipality Fire and Emergency engines.

Halifax has a huge array of apparatus, newer ones seeming to come from Pierce or E-One. They still run a number of Superiors, which was a Canadian company that Emergency-One purchased and later shut down.

E-one ran into some financial issues in 2007 and the parent company Federal Signal sold them off to American Industrial Partners in 2008. This year AIP formed Allied Specialty Vehicles to own E-One, Collins (manufacturers of Collins, MidBus and Corbeil buses), Capacity (yard tugs) and a variety of Ambulance makers (AEV, Horton, Wheeled Coach and just recently added Road Rescue, which they bought from Spartan). ASV also has Goldshield, a manufacturer of fibreglasss truck and bus hoods, cabs, sleepers, farings and other components and Lay-Mor which builds walk-behind and ride-on sweepers. (Federal Signal kept the Elgin road sweeper company.)

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