JOHN SEIDTS wrote:
>
> There are a few things to consider here.
>
> First, there were literally hundreds of companies in the US before WWII,
> much as there are today, which did custom work on trucks to configure them
> to customer specifications. If yours is olive-drab painted, chances are it
> saw its way into military service, but that is not an absolute. OD paint
> was available in spades after WWII, and if a less prosperous company had
> this truck they may have painted it OD to save money.
>
> Second, trucks built for the AAC or AAF were not all built to go out to air
> fields and maintain airplanes. Air bases, as well as other Army
> installations, were full of electrical power grids, steam heating systems,
> coal fired systems, railways, etc. There were certainly trucks acquired to
> perform maintenance on these facilities. If anybody is familiar with the
> Federal 2G Dump truck, of which there were 750 built, its cousin was the 2B
> utility truck (which I have never seen). This truck supposedly had a large
> utility body and was used for telephone and electrical line maintenance.
> The only person who I ever spoke to familiar with this truck was a person
> who performed heavy electrical maintenance for a Navy shipyard (I don't
> remember which one he worked in).
>
> Third, the yellow and black lines were commonly painted on State Highway
> trucks in Pennsylvania after WWII. I have seen two former military vehicles
> painted like this on the front and rear bumpers.
>
> The key thing to look for is evidence that the OD paint was painted during
> WWII. I would do this by looking for repairs made during that period with
> OD paint on them that wouldn't have been painted subsequently by the
> post-war owner.
>
> 1939 was a year in which the Army began to buy more vehicles. I know that
> their purchases of Indian Motorcycles mushroomed at this time, so I'd guess
> other vehicle makes would have been picked up in greater numbers. And since
> their base expansion plans began at that time, it makes sense that they
> would have acquired vehicles to maintain their facilities.
>
> Good luck, and keep us informed of what you find.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carol Kenyon <Da-Kenyons@webtv.net>
> To: Military Vehicles List <mil-veh@skylee.com>
> Date: Friday, July 07, 2000 10:22 PM
> Subject: [MV] Is It Army Airport Veh. Or Ma Bell?
>
> >Thank you for your great replies. I'm so green
> >that I didn't know about the Army airport stuff.
> >I can tell you that literally hundreds of Bell
> >Telephone retirees (Telephone Pioneers) have
> >looked at pictures and descriptions of my big
> >panel and NOBODY NOWHERE REMEMBERS
> >NOTHING! If it was a public utilities truck, it was made in very small
> >numbers. Most of the
> >tel. trucks, for example, are made according to
> >a formula. A line truck or I/M truck looks pretty
> >much the same whether you're in New England
> >or California. The yellow stripes on this thing is
> >just another curveball!
> >Imagining this thing on one end of a runway
> >trying to rescue a (olive-green) C-47 just puts
> >a smile on my face.
> >However, if it turns out to be more pedestrian-
> >that's OK. I can't e-mail pictures yet so just
> >give me your address and I'll send what pictures I have. Thanks for
> >your input. I am
> >a MVPA member, by the way! Don Kenyon
> >
> >
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> >
> >
>
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Remember, too, that the former Bell System (TelCo) used Olive-Drab green
paint for their trucks 'way back in the 60s.....
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Aug 07 2000 - 22:15:56 PDT