Collectors may love their cars, but they're really passionate about their trucks MIDDLEBURY, CONN.

A 90-year-old truck -- still in running condition -- at the Golden Age of Trucking Museum in Middlebury, Conn., provides a fascinating introduction to the early development of trucks in America.

The 1917 Republic 10 at the Golden Age of Trucking Museum in Middlebury, Conn., sports wooden spoke wheels with solid rubber tires, and acetylene lamps to light the way. Slideshow

With its worn black paintwork with yellow trim, perishing solid rubber tires and acetylene lamps, the 1917 Republic 10 looks every part a vintage truck. But the lack of cabin, the wooden spoke wheels and the seat, with its thin metal frame and upholstered leather, reflect its connections to a horse-drawn wagon.

"There were thousands of automobile manufacturers in the early part of the last century who took [the design of] wagons and carriages and converted them into trucks," said Bob Manchester, a volunteer and close friend of the late Richard Guerrera who founded the museum in 1998.

Guerrera, who built up a successful trucking company, succumbed to cancer before the 32,000 square-foot museum opened in 2002. His widow, Frances, completed the project and remains the museum's vice president while daughter Kathleen Jones is director.

Jones said her father developed an interest in trucks as a child. "As he became successful, he started collecting and taking them to truck shows and lending them to local parades," she said.

The collection is concentrated on trucks from the 1950s, which her father called the golden age of trucking, Jones said. As Guerrera said and is quoted on the museum's Web site: "In the 1950's there was a certain charisma to these machines. The trucks of the '50s had souls: they were alive."

The museum owns 18 antique trucks with an additional 30 or so vehicles on loan, plus three small race cars from the Danbury Raceareana and two antique speedboats.

Jones said one of her father's favorite trucks was the 1954 Diamond T 9515, which features as the museum's logo. It sits next to a rare 1974 Dodge CNT950 BigHorn; the names reflect the brand design and hood ornaments.

No expense has been spared in the museum's design and construction. Bright and airy, the main gallery is lined with trucks on either side of a broad, carpeted walkway. Most of the vehicles have been meticulously restored, and there is no odor of diesel or engine oil. "They didn't look like this when they came out of the factory, believe me," said Manchester. "These trucks are better . . . in terms of fit and finish."

A separate gallery features the two speedboats and a wall of old vanity license plates from across the country. Examples include: BYBYCOP, MYTAG, OXOXOX, BUY ME, HOP2IT, YUHU, GRRRRR8, TKS MOM, L84WORK, INKY CAT, MY KAR, 56 CHEVY and the delightfully simple HECK. An additional gallery serves as an exhibition space for shows of photographs and paintings of trucks and cars as well as model and/or pedal cars and trucks. The galleries are rented for such events as weddings, bar mitzvahs, children's birthday parties, dances, fundraisers and business meetings.

In addition, Jones, a former teacher, has created an extensive children's area with computers, books, puzzles, games, blocks and ride-on toys. Children can also play on the cut-away of a 1996 Volvo tractor trailer cabin, with seats, steering wheel, dashboard and even a sleeping area in the rear.

"Children take five minutes to see the museum," Jones said. "They're impressed because [the trucks] are big, but then they want to touch things."

Interest in the history of trucking and the restoring and collecting of old trucks is a relatively new phenomenon, according to Stormy Wylie, editor of Wheels of Time, a bimonthly magazine published by the American Truck Historical Society in Kansas City, Mo. While it has plans to build a museum -- it owns 10 vehicles that are out on loan -- the society has an extensive library and has hosted an annual convention since 1972, the year after it was founded. It added an antique truck show in 1979. This year's convention and show was in Baltimore in May; next year's will be held in Colorado Springs, June 7-9.

Upcoming truck shows in this area include the ATHS Antique Truck Club of New England's 25th Annual Antique Truck Show in Hudson, Mass. on August 6th and the Little Rhody Chapter of the Antique Truck Club of America's 3rd Annual Truck Show at Foster Fairgrounds on Oct. 10.

As a successful operator of a trucking company, Guerrera was a very typical collector, Wylie said, noting that the ATHS was founded by "trucking businessmen to present trucking lines."

She said truck collecting was new because no one had paid attention to the working vehicles when they were operating. "At the time, they were just something to make business," she said. As a result, Wylie said, certain trucks are quite rare, with the remaining examples often in very bad condition. But she added, "It's amazing what [restorers] can do with a rusty hulk with a tree growing through it."

A 1955 International Harvester DFC 405 at the Golden Age of Trucking Museum, for example, was restored from an original in such bad condition that it required structural elements from a Marmon truck, the fabrication of many other parts and the installation of a new engine.

The truck, which worked as a freight hauler in Colorado, is unique for its height -- getting into the cab requires climbing three steps -- and for the simple padded platform behind the seats which served as a bed on long hauls. "It was a rudimentary sleeper," Jones said.

She said her father wanted all his vehicles to be in working order. "They were meant to be driven. His dream was to have them go out [on a regular basis]," she said, adding that he was a stickler for trying to get the trucks fully restored. "He wanted it like it would be back then. He would look all over for the correct light," she said.

"They are very passionate," Wylie said of truck collectors. "They are proud of these vehicles, which have personal meaning to them. Their fathers or grandfathers had a truck like that and they remember seeing them when they were kids. In some cases they have their actual grandfather's truck. Or they were truckers themselves."

Manchester, a former trucker and the son of a trucker who is a fount of information about the history of trucks and trucking, keeps a number of his own restored vehicles at the museum, including a 1943 Autocar C70T and a 1962 Autocar DC 75T. He said many collectors needed places to store their vehicles and the museum was a perfect venue, because the conditions are controlled and the trucks are looked after.

He pointed out a 1940 Dodge VKDA 60, which he said was one of the first American trucks to be powered by a diesel engine. "They took a gasoline engine and converted into diesel," he said, adding, "It was quite a job, changing to injections from spark plugs, and it was still only 100 horsepower."

Other notable vehicles in the museum include a 1937 Ford Wrecker with a manual crank for winching up the towing apparatus, and a 1938 Mach FG C Cab with a heavy duty chain drive. "You couldn't drive it too fast or you'd throw the chains," Manchester said.

A 1947 Dodge Power Wagon fire truck, with its rugged design and open fenders, reflects the World War II origins of its design. "From 1942 to 1944, it was impossible to get a [new] commercial vehicle," Manchester said, noting that all production at that time was for the military.

Older vehicles include a 1929 Diamond T 550 truck, a 1912 Autocar transit bus -- that, like the Republic 10, directly reflects its origins as a horse-drawn omnibus -- and a 1928 Pierce Arrow Dump Truck from NYC. "Big hunk of iron," mused Manchester affectionately as he looked over the Pierce Arrow.

He also pointed out an orange 1952 Diamond T 950RS flatbed truck. "That vehicle took Dick (Guerrera) to his final resting place. The pall bearers sat in the back," he said. Noting that Guerrera was only 63 when he died, he added, "It's the way he would have liked, only not so early."

For further information,

http://www.goldenagetruckmuseum.com/

http://www.aths.org/

pelsworth@projo.com / (401) 277-7403