Maritime-Ontario - back then - Part 4 of 4

Back by popular demand, here are still some more photos of Maritime-Ontario trucks from the 1980s.
I started this as a series of thee parts, but have revissed that and extended it to four.

(Regrettably all these are scanned from colour negatives, which have degraded and do not do justice to the original blue colour.)

Another Mack:

This long hood R model might have been the inspiration for Bud the Spud.

Typically the trailer was paired with the truck.

MO # 567 , trailer # 5567

Western Stars (post White) were also popular amongst M-O drivers.

 

There were very few short hood Western Stars so this was a rarity.

M0 # 573 

More typical was the longer hood, and in this case longer chassis with big mid-rise sleeper.

MO # 556

This one look similar, but has a different paint style.

MO # 620

One particular Western Star first caught my eye in  1987 and unbelievably I followed it until 2004:

 

It must have been fairly new when I first saw it in Glenholme in 1987.

MO # 583

Two year later some changes had been made. The stacks were moved back behind the sleeper and an illuminated letter "G" added to the grille.

With trailer # 5583

  

By 1990 there were still more changes. More lights, a more regular "G" and raised air cleaner intakes with chrome extensions.

Fast forward 11 years, and there is a different trailer, with its own illuminated "G". There's also a different bumper with some different lights, and deflectors on the sleeper trailing edge. Also heat shields on the stacks below the sleeper.

 By 2004 - and the truck is at least 17 years old - it is starting to show some age.

These are the last pictures I have of it, and I can still spot some changes, including the Mustang on the hood, just above the headlight. And yes despite the straight stacks it apparently does have a muffler, sort of.

MO # 583

End of the Series - No really - there will be another coming soon 

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Maritime-Ontario - back then - Part 3 of 4

Owner - Operators chose their own trucks to run with Maritime-Ontario Freight Lines Ltd, and so there was considerable variety on the road. All with the impressive blue and white paint scheme however.

Peterbilts were not that common in 1979, so this was a rarity.

M-O # 521

Peterbilt COEs were also relatively rare, especially ones with the double wide sleeper.

M-O # 479

(The truck in the background is not Maritime-Ontario, it is a Canadian Liquid Air Western Star.)

Kenworths were more common, but still considered a luxury vehicle. M-O had flat deck, tarp top and stake side trailers too, not just vans.

M-O # 507

Kenworth conventionals were highly prized, but

GMC Astros caught a lot more attention when they first came out.

M-O # 541

Freightliner came out with a more stylish grille but Kenworth stuck with tradition for its conventionals in the 1980s.

A short hood KW conventional takes an aggressive stance.

M-O # 586

Although a small player in the truck business, Western Star made some impressive rigs.  They were still using the Autocar cab, but had a hi-rise sleeper.

M-O # 569

Another Western Star, this one with a mid-rise sleeper, gives the company some free advertising when it parked at the motel on the old MicMac rotary in Dartmouth.

M-O #  546 

All the photos in the first three parts of this were taken with slide film, mostly Kodachrome 64 ASA, which has survived far better than colour negative film. It wasn't the greatest in low light, which is why some of these are a tad dark.
Unfortunately I stopped taking slides and switched to prints in the 1980s. I still have the negatives, but there has been significant colour loss.

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Maritime-Ontario - back then - Part 2 of 4

Maritime-Ontario Freight Lines had a good many Macks in its fleet in the late 1970s and early 1908s. They were lease trucks, where the owner/operator paid off the ruck over time and then owned it. They seemed to all be  Maxidynes - at least they had the Maxidyne symbol on the hood - but not all had the gold bull dog. Aside from minor differences such as the bumper, they were built to the same spec. Here is a sampling:

A short hood model, with a load of National Sea Products fish.

M-O # 529 
(Background, Harold Legge Transport of Port Williams, NS was running a day cab R Model Mack)

Here it is again showing the entire trailer.

M-O trailer #  5529

Most were the long hood model, with the air cleaner under the hood.

M-0 # 536

 

Two shots of another long hood, with the usual aluminum Mercury sleeper.

M-O # 546

M-O # 546

Four year later, the spec seems to have changed to a different model, and not a Maxidyne, and with a painted sleeper.  At that time you could spec a Mack with any engine and drive train you wished.

M-O #567 

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Maritime-Ontario - back then - Part 1

From 1951 to 1977 the White Motor Company sold and serviced Freightliner Trucks under the White Freightliner name plate. Freightliner had been founded by Consolidated Freightways to build its own trucks, but they proved so popular that they needed a national presence, and made a deal with White, but kept ownership of the brand.
White, which produced trucks under the White, Autocar (from 1953) and Western Star banners was doing all right for a time, but eventually began to lose ground and Freightliner went its own way. Eventually Daimler acquired Freightliner and still owns it today.
White was insolvent when its assets were acquired by Volvo in 1983 and eventually merged with GM trucks. Autocar was discontinued (Boo!) and the name brand was sold and Western Star, which had been sold by White to Canadian owners, eventually reversed its way back into Daimler.
That's the short version of the long story, given here only as a preface to the main point. White Freightliners were immensely popular! The popularity continued and even increased in the post White era.

The Dartmouth, NS based Maritime-Ontario Freight Lines Ltd had a large fleet of largely Owner-Operator trucks, which had to display a blue and white paint scheme, but there was wide latitude in where and how that was applied.  There was also no uniformity in what make of truck the O-O's operated.
Not surprisingly therefore there were a number of White Freightliners in the COE days. All were built at the Burnaby, BC factory and usually had a "Canada" tag somewhere on the body.

Just in off springtime roads, this salt caked COE is carrying frozen fish.

M-O # 473

Another coat of salt after another trip.

M-O # 479

More fish, but this time a predominantly blue colour scheme. 

M-O # unknown

Similar colour scheme, but a single stack, and a bit shinier.

M-O # 550

In the early 1970s Freightliner began to build a conventional truck for the first time. Also with a light weight aluminum cab, they became popular over night, and M-O had their share.

 This rig looks quite new in 1978, so may be among the last built with the White Freightliner badge. 

Just back of the front fender and low on the hood of this one and the next two is the "Canada" tag. 

M-O # unknown

Another combo scheme, and one of the early wind deflectors.

In the background is one of the pair of Cyril L. Dauphinee trucks (both International Transtar 4200). That company had the contract to deliver newsprint to the local newspaper.

M-O # 433

There were still lots of White Freightliners on the road in 1980, by which time this rig had a good many miles on it, but still looked sharp. 

M-O # unknown 

The White name was deleted from the name plates, but there were no other changes. M-O # 549 is a Freightliner, while its fleet mate # 550 (see above) was a White Freightliner.

 Maritime-Ontario also had a lot of Macks on the road in the late 1970s and early 1980s, despite the awkward sleeper arrangement with the narrow R model cab. M-O # 587.

More on Macks in Part 2.

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Roll the Plows

With winter fast approaching in Halifax the plows are ready to roll.

Almost all municipalities and provincial highway departments have yellow vehicles these days, and apply their own graphics, so it is hard to say who will be running some of the new rigs I saw a while back at Parts for Trucks.

This brand new Freightliner had its wing plow mounted on a huge elevator.

Some of its front mounting gear was in the dump body - perhaps to improve the driver's line of sight for the delivery trip.

There was not much doubt about whose this unit was, because it still had Nova Scotia government markings.

Looking like a lion ready to pounce, it dwarfed some regular sized trucks at the GM engine shop.

Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal runs this Autocar, with number 82675.

Meanwhile back to my summer report, I saw a number of civilian snow plows that are obviously never used for other work in the summer.

This collection of 3 Internationals and a Western Star were patiently waiting to be called in Clermont, QC by Fernand Harvey. I did not record a number on the truck at the far left, but the others are number 00-01, 95-02 and 01-01. 

Little used in Nova Scotia, but still to be found in Quebec are these wonderful Sicard snow blowers.

 This older model and the newer model below also work for Fernand Harvey of Clermont.

Both bear the familiar Sicard name and logo and are AWD with separate blower engine.

Bring on the snow!

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HX in HFX

I finally spotted a new Navistar International HX model in Halifax (sometimes abbreviated as Hfx).
It is a fully kitted out HX with dump body at the Navistar dealer in Burnside.

As mentioned before, it is to replace the Paystar series and the CAT truck which has been discontinued by Caterpillar. This particular truck is carrying a dealer's plate, so it is a demonstrator for now at least.

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Long Haul Pete

This Pete, owned by RJ Express and running for Action Express of Regina, Saskatchewan was carrying a John Deere 1270G tree harvester.

 
The harvester was delivered to Halifax by ship, and  the driver was doing some final checks before hitting the road this morning.
Here's more on the Deere:
https://www.deere.ca/en_US/products/equipment/harvesters/wheeled_harvesters/1270g_ft4/1270g_ft4.page? 

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