The Gallery | ||||||
1940 Chevy Dump Truck |
||||||
[an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
17 December 2011 From Allen : My truck story starts at the place where I work. I am employed by the electric utility in my town. Back in the early 1900's, every town had their own electric company to provide its own electricity for the town. Our town (Bluffton) had a coal burning power plant, and rail cars were used to deliver the coal. That system worked out well until the late 1930's when the "Interurban" went out of business. In order to insure coal delivery, the town had to buy their own dump trucks to transport the coal down to the shop from the local coal yard that was on the other end of town. For the next seven years, Grandma delivered coal to the power plant every day. But those days were numbered. Bluffton was growing and more power was needed for the city. So they started construction of a diesel power plant. The old coal plant was phased out and Grandma became a trash hauler. For the next 40 years, she would take a weekly trip out to the city dump. In the 1990's the city dump was closed and Grandma was taken out of service and stored down in our shop. So there she sat, after many years of service, being both abused and damaged. She had been cast aside and transformed into a cardboard box collector. One day the boss had enough and told me and the guy I work with to get it running and to fix the brakes. So we got a new battery and dumped some gas into her. To my amazement, she fired right up! It was like bringing something back from the dead I was so excited to hear it run. The brakes were a little bit harder to fix and took us a few days to get the cups in place and stop the leak. But our hard work paid off and I got to take her out on the open road for the first time in probably 15 years or better! The boss then made it my job to take her out once a week and keep her running. This went on for a few years. To my surprise, after a few weeks of bidding, I won the auction and she was all mine! The next day I paid for her and was awarded the original title which was really cool to get. A friend from work and I got her started and I drove her home. All the guys thought I was crazy for buying her and said she wouldn’t fit in my one car garage. But I knew she would, and I made sure she did. Since getting her home I have started on restoring her back to original condition. Hopefully one day I will get her done. So far it’s been kind of a slow start. I'm confident that with money and time, I will one day get her done. -30- |