Merv Brunt Collection Colac - Part 2

On Sunday October 11 2009 we went with other members of the Historic Commercial Vehicle Club (H.C.V.C.) to view Merv Brunt’s collection of historic trucks in Colac. In the last blog post we looked at the Albions, Beans, Thornycrofts, Leylands and his Morris Commercial. In this post we will look at the some of the American trucks - Brockways, a Federal, an Indiana, a Diamond T an AEC (which is a British truck). In the next post we will look at more of the American trucks.

A 1922 Brockway

A Brockway Junior 1927

1934 Brockway

1935 Brockway

George Brockway , of New York, built his first truck in 1912. The First World War saw the entire Brockway production go to the Military (from 1917, when the United States entered the War) and ten years later the Company was one of the largest truck makers in America, with an annual production of 5,500 trucks. In 1928 the Company took over the Indiana Truck Company. In the 1930s Brockway made 16 models from 1½ to 10 tons capacity. In World War Two the entire Brockway production went into the war effort. They developed a chassis for transporting rubber pontoons and bridge components and the chassis was later adapted to carry general loads ad for use as arcane carrier and airfield crash tender. In 1956 Brockway became an autonomous division of Mack, but the Brockway plant was closed in 1977.

Federal Scout from 1928

I had never heard of Federal trucks before I saw this one, but they were produced from 1910 to 1959 and around 160,000 trucks were sold in that time. The Company was started by Martin Pulcher as the Bailey Motor Truck Company in Detroit, Michigan, but almost immediately changed its name to the Federal Motor Truck Company. Federals were manufactured in Detroit until 1955 when Napco Industries purchased the Company and moved the operations to Minneapolis, Minnestota.

Indiana 1934

This was another truck I had never heard of before. The Indiana was produced from 1911-1939, firstly by the Harwood-Barley Manufacturing Company (from 1911-1919) and later by the Indiana Truck or Motors Corporation. From 1928 to 1932 the Company was owned by Brockway and from 1932 White. The Indiana can claim to be the first production truck offering a diesel engine in America. Clessie Cummins, of the Cummins Engine Company, had a demonstration engine fitted in an Indiana in 1931 and in 1932 the first Indiana Trucks were produced with a diesel 125 hp, 6 cylinder Cummins.

A Diamond T from 1948 and an AEC from the 1920s.

The Diamond T Company was formed by C.A Tilt in 1905. C.A Tilt initially built cars until 1911 when he produced his first truck. The Diamond T logo originated a trademark which had been used by Mr Tilt’s father, who was a shoe manufacturer. The diamond signified Quality and T stood for Tilt. In 1966 Diamond T joined with Reo, to become Diamond Reo. Reo took its name from the founder Ranson E. Olds and the Company made its first truck in 1908. Mr Olds also gave his name to the Oldsmobile Company.

AEC stands for Associated Equipment Company Limited, a Company started in 1912 originally to make buses for the London General Omnibus Company, a related Company. The First World War saw the manufacture of 1,300 buses, modified as transport carriers. AEC also supplied 10,000 Y model trucks, of three and four tons, to the Armed Forces. The Company continued to grow and introduced models ‘such as the Majestic, the Maommoth, Mercury and Monarch. They introduced the first production diesel engine in 1930 a six cylinder, 8.1 litres rated at 95hp. The Matador model was used extensively during World War Two as both a gun tractor and another fully armoured version was used as Mobile Battle Headquarters, equipped with appropriate bodywork and office furniture. After the War a new range of trucks were introduced and AEC took over Crossley Motors limited and the Maudsley Motor Company, then in 1961 they took over Thornycroft. In 1969 AEC was itself taken over by Leyland.