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ABF | Last Sterling Made For A B F.

You are getting there. More mature, calmer, better judgment. Keep on coming, I may just wait on you. Remember back when you were young (er) and if the boss said good morning wrong or the weather changed you changed jobs that week? In 1953 I graduating High School and was pulling stock cattle from West Point, MS to Indy, bringing corn back, Friday night thru Monday 1-2 AM. Sleep a little and meet the school bus for another week. Made $10 for ring boy in the sale and $25 for the trip. It made me what I am today?????
 
ole guy...you might have blowed my doors off running threw the old mississippi night....that old scale house in fulton ms was sure funny late at night....the old guy would fall asleep and the tv would be flickering...no all night tv then...everybody would be quite on the cb...each taking there turn going across the scales..not to wake him up...you could see water mellons and peaches sitting outside...those were good times trucking....
 
I made my first road trip "alone"in 1960". Hauled dressed chickens from S.Indiana to Michigan and dirty stinking peat moss back South. Truck was 57 I-H with 549 V-8 and integral sleeper with 8 speed RR. Would pull aload 70 mph and got a whopping 2 1/2 -3 MPG!! Graduated to hauling grain from elevators around Illinois & Indiana to elevators in Louisville. Had a new I-H with 501" six cylinder with split manifold and duals with 8 speed RR.. Used to sleep on top of tarp on grain so as to not lose place in line when elevator opened !!
 
I made a trip to Norfolk about that same time,remember coming home I was on a Mtn. near Tazwell ,Tn. (maybe Clinch ?) and the road was getting snow covered,came up on the snow spreader of the day. They had a state pickup truck with two guys sitting on tailgate and each one had a bag of salt and was dribbling it in the road. I spun out finally and tore rear end out,got towed to Tazwell and spent two days in a little seedy mote/diner with $2.00 to my name. Tazwell always rang a bell with me as a few years earlier when I was 16 I was on vacation with my parents in Daytona,Florida. I met a great looking girl and we hung around most of the week,she was fron Tazwell. About 4-5 years later my wife and I were watching Miss America on Tv and out comes Miss Tennessee,I about fell out of my chair as it was the beauty I had met In Daytona a few years before. She had invited me to come visit and such but I never did. Neat memories though of Tazwell !! Pardon the rambling !!
 
if you will indulge a rl driver for a few moments. in ealy 70's drove for smiths transfer out of staunton,va.we ran us 60 across west virginia before 64 was done.on one particular mountain, dont remember name, the had an honest to gosh pusher truck to get you over the top when snow and ice was bad, now what you did at the top was your problem. good luck guys, hope your co. prospers
 
I drove for Smith's in 69-70 out of Louisville on team run to Staunton. The safety guy drove the I-H dump truck with the push bumper. They always said he was there mainly to push the dead axle TransCons and McLeans out of the way so our Macks could go through !! We made five round trips a week across old Rt.60 which was a nightmare in bad weather.
 
Old times/Old lines

Pigman 440 said:
I drove for Smith's in 69-70 out of Louisville on team run to Staunton. The safety guy drove the I-H dump truck with the push bumper. They always said he was there mainly to push the dead axle TransCons and McLeans out of the way so our Macks could go through !! We made five round trips a week across old Rt.60 which was a nightmare in bad weather.
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On the Staunton end and up and did you see any Super Service, Mason-Dixon, or ET&WNC (East Tennessee&West North Carolina). They used to eat the mountains up N to S with the 4000 Whites. Just wondered if they ran crossway's. I ran with some of them in the late 50's hauling apples out of Winchester,VA. Don't know when they went out of business.

Old saying: "Two of the most overrated things in the world are Mack trucks and young *****." :smilie_132:
I never really agreed with either/See avatar.
 
I never saw a Mason-Dixon on Rt.60. Mainly Wilson,Smith's,TransCon and McLean.Mason Dixon had a relay break terminal in Louisville with about 140 road drivers that ran N-S primarily and their Kingsport terminal ran up 81 and 411. ETWNC wasn't on 60 that I ever saw. Wilson had just gone to the long nose conventional GMC's with 8v-71 Detroits. Smith in Jan of 69 started getting the new Maxidyne trucks with 5 speeds,they were king of the mountains as far as freight trucks go in that era. Compared to the old thermodyne engines we previously had with the duplexs we thought we had died and gone to heaven.
 
last Sterling built for ABF

On US 60 after you go through the town of Gauley Bridge and start up Gauley Mtn. Hawks Nest State park and overlook are near the top. The other Mtn. farther East is Rainell.
 
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