Mack March Madness Finale?

I've pretty much run out of gas on the March letter M theme-except for Macks! Lot's more where they came from, so here is a finale - for now:
1. What would March Madness be without beer? Oland's Brewery would be pleased to deliver beer by the keg to your favourite licensed establishment using this heavy spec Mack. Seen here at their Halifax brewery in July 1984.

2. Chet's Transport Inc of Charlotte ME and St.Stephen, NB was an early cross border operator. Not seen too much on this side any more, and now based in Pembroke, ME, they had many impressive rigs on the road, including this Maine plated Superliner also in July of 1984.

3. Light weight westcoaster type tilt cabs were popular with movers, such as this one doing military re-postings in July 1980. I think it was running for Burgess of Halifax.

4. Harnum Transport had this elaborately pinstriped R-Model in float bed service in 1980. It was fitted with hydraulics and a beefy rear springs.

5. Cement Cartage of Havelock, NB ran in all the Maritime Provinces with a fleet of R model Macks. They were crudely numbered by stencil (giving the year of the truck) but some drivers added personal touches. The Mack mud flaps and "Tombstone" bug deflector were not standard issue on this basic day cab. Here they were loading a ship with cement for NASA in Florida in December 1979.

6. Mack Maritime, the Halifax dealer had this Superliner with wild colour scheme in August 1979. I never saw it on the road, so perhaps the buyer did a repaint.

7. At the same time this new F-model COE was on display. Note it has the golden bulldog.

8. Single screw lightweight COE was also new on the lot in August 1979.

So much for March, but stay tuned for April.

M is for Military (and Medic)

On January 29, 2011 I chanced to photograph a former military ambulance, ambling up Robie Street in Halifax. http://truckfax.blogspot.ca/2011/01/medic-or-are-we-being-invaded-by-red.html
Thanks to a kind reader it was identified as a Pinzgauer. He gave a link through which all was to be made clear. Here it is again: http://www.difflock.com/diffmag/issue14/pinzgauer/links_and_pix.shtml
On February 19, 2012 I chanced to photograph (I assume) the same vehicle, at rest, in a grocery store parking lot.
So as part of the M for March theme, I offer a closer look:

The Pinzgauer in all its glory!

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Macks and Maritime-Ontario

Riding the March M theme a bit more, the superb looking blue and white trucks of Maritime-Ontario Freight Lines Ltd are worth mention all by themselves.
The company, founded in 1962, has grown into a large intermodal operator, now headquartered in Brampton, ON, where it warehouses and dispatches truck-load and less-then-truck-load shipments by conventional highway truck/trailer and by rail. It now has several other lines of business, all explained very nicely on its web site http://www.m-o.com/
It still relies on owner-operators for its truck operations, and over the years many of those O-Os picked Mack as their vehicle of choice. Obliged to paint the truck in blue and white, they were given considerable latitude in the arrangement of those colours, and there were some impressive schemes.
Here is a selection of Macks only:
1. Mack 529 was a short hood R series Superliner with a little Mercury sleeper tucked in behind-right under the reefer unit on the trailer. Seen here in 1979 at the National Harbours Board cold storage warehouse in Halifax, it was loading up some National Sea Products fish for the trek west.

2. The same truck, showing the entire trailer this time, with National Sea Products' name prominently displayed. Seen in 1980.

3. Unit 536 was a long hood R series Superliner, with a similar sleeper. Instead of a chopped front bumper, it has one with rounded edges. Also taken in 1979.

4. Truck 545 was a twin. Both wore bug screens over the big Superliner rad. Taken in 1980.

5. Unit 546 has dispensed with the bug screen, showing off the impressive Superliner grille. It also has the cut-off style bumper and lower flap for its license plate collection.

5. A close up of 546. There was no reciprocity in 1980 and it carried plates for Ontario and Nova Scotia and PCV plates for Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

6. Mack 587 is a conventional R-Model with painted sleeper. Freightliner 549 has added a black stripe to the paint scheme. Taken in 1984.

7. Mack 567 is a long hood R-model, also with a painted sleeper. He has added some fog lights to the bumper. Taken in 1984.

Aside from the first in this series of photos, all were taken at the Mic Mac Motel in Dartmouth, a favourite stopover point for movers and Maritime-Ontario drivers. You will note that in the 1980s Maritime-Ontario was still headquartered in Dartmouth, NS.

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Maine, Macks and Potatoes

Another Maine potato hauling Mack was easing into retirement in 1980. This appears to be an L-series from the 1940s. Although it had seen much better days, it probably still had some life left in it. That drivers' side mirror certainly indicates it wasn't looking back.

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M is (of course) for Mack

No series of truck photos with the letter M could possibly omit Mack from the list.
And of course if it's Mack, it must include the iconic B model. The Mack of all Macks.
Produced from 1952 to 1966, it exemplified Mack in many ways. Tough and long lasting, there are B-61s still on the road, and many have been restored or rebuilt.
1. A small stone quarry near Baie Ste-Catherine, QC was still running this B model in 1984. Although it saw infrequent use this gas job was kept in tip top shape, right down to its chromed hubcaps.

2. A veteran, running in 1981, had made it up to the Irving truck stop at Steeves Mountain, NB. No headache rack for this steel hauler! Maybe the flames from straight pipe welded the load together. I didn't make a note of the inscription on the truck frame, but it appears to say GoGo Leasing, Chateauguay, QC. This is a B-61 with Mack's own Thermodyne diesel.

3. Jewell Brothers of Monticello, ME, ran an all Mack fleet and wedged their B model in between a couple of F model COEs on this September day in 1980. The chrome rad and vent stack . Many Macks, used in seasonal work such as hauling potatoes, lasted for twenty years or more. Another B-61 it also had the Thermodyne diesel.

There were several B model variants for heavy and off road work, and some were fitted with the older L model cab, which had more room.

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March Mystery Motor

Keeping with the letter M theme for March, I will borrow BigLorry Blog's title of "Mystery Motor."

There is no nameplate or label anywhere on the exterior of this vehicle, so I am at a loss. Any suggestions?

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White/GMC still on the road

It has been better than ten years since Volvo removed the White/GMC *name from its products and began to sell under the Volvo banner exclusively. So this transit mixer I saw Thursday has been on the road for at least that long. It still looks good and will be around for a while longer.

Volvo bought out the insolvent White Motor Company in 1981 and started a joint venture with GM to produce White/GMC in 1988. Volvo bought out GM's interest in 1997, and after selling the Autocar name in 2001 has sold exclusively under the Volvo brand.

Ocean Contracting has a fleet of mixers and dump trucks of the same vintage still running.

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[* a sneaky way to introduce the letter M into the March M trucks theme.]