In '67 I was 13, visiting folks in Calif. I remember seeing Diamond T trux and thinking what beautiful truks they were, and still are. Thanx for the great history of Diamond T.
My Dad bought a 1938 REO school bus in the early 60s and converted it to a camper with 4 bunks in the back the were taken out of a submarine in groton Connecticut. I watched the moon landing on one of those bunks at our summer campground in Kingston Mass Grays beach. We kept that bus into the 70s then it was retired to a field in east Bridgewater mass as a farmshack.the hulk of it is still there.
Thanks for sharing your story. My mom did a similar conversion with a 1950 Ford bus with a flathead V8. We went all over New England, New York & New Jersey. In August of 1969 we were on vacation. I almost had mom talked into heading out to Tasker's Farm (in Woodstock, NY). We missed some history that summer.
My first road truck was a 1966 Diamond T with a 250 Cummins, 10 speed Road Ranger transmission, 411 rears, 36 inch sleeper. In 1966 it was a rare all aluminum wheels, polished aluminum front bumper, duel 4" stacks, duel air breathers and duel air horns. Painted blue with white stripes with red pen strips. It was in the 1966 Dallas truck show. I loved that truck.
Sounds like a Fine Lookin Semi. Question there @ the Dallas Truck Show, Did You, Happen to Run into "Big" & "Little" Enos Burdette, Lol. When you said that Dallas Truck it, made me think of that Damn !! Movie..
Later on he got a conventional with a 5x4 that had the luvers (sp) on the hood. I have a pic of it somewhere. He drove for Cal Herbolds Nursery in the 60’s. They were lifelong friends.
You're awesome smarts delightful s amazing s ! As you're video s Dimon T history was excellent splendidly done ! Gorgeous awesome amazing smart girls Thank you ❤️😍😍❤️😍🎉
Mý father in law was in the 65th Canadian Tank Transport unit . They trained in England hauling tanks with Diamond T trucks and was in the second wave in Normandy. He was very proud of the fact they could haul tanks faster than other units. Their secret, they shifted the truck in neutral going downhill. They called it "whistling gear". He hauled tanks and supplies all over Europe and Holland for 6 months after the war. The drivers were happy there was room in the cab for steel plates because they were often targets hauling ammunition and supplies. His truck was often shot up but it never failed.
REO and then Diamond REO trucks were manufactured in Lansing Michigan until 1974. A photo of the front of the factory is at 10:24. My father was a mechanic at the Lansing dealership for Diamond REO in that era. Occasionally a new rig would find its way to our home's driveway as he was giving it a shakedown run after doing the delivery service on it. The factory is now long gone, but the name remains on the neighborhood it dominated for decades.
The little gal that narrated. The video. Did really good job on that I give the gal kudos. the diamonds were a beautiful truck so were. The federals. And the Reos. Most people don't even remember most of them or when white motors used to be with White Freightliner. Before they split in the early mid-70s. Yeah I'm an old buzzard.
The great Model 980 my favourite served in the British Army from 1941 1 till 1970 amazing truck i have many models of them they are rare in the UK but i can say there are six wreckers i know this as my good friends with Mike Forbes the editor of Vintage Roadscene magazine...
Enjoyed the video . I've had several Diamond T trucks - a 509, 404 and Six 201 pick ups. I like the pre-war trucks from the 30s and 40s the most. They really are great trucks.
I was told about my great grandpa driving a 2 ton Diamond T truck in the teens for a logging company. He was the only man that could handle it and many times it was so overloaded with logs, no one but him could get it out of the base camp.
Oh yes, I had a friend who used an old model back in the 1950s to haul hay on. I do remember that, because hauling hay was a big deal back then for farmers. I did a lot of it. I also had a friend who asked his dad to let us use his tractor and truck to haul hay on one summer. I drove the truck because i had a drivers license, and he drove the tractor because he was only 15 and he had no license. He also hired the workers who were in his class at school. Last time i hauled hay was at age 17. At 18 uncle Sam had me then. We had a draft back in those days. It all comes back to me slowly, lol. Now I am finished. thanks for watching this. 80 year old man.
MY Dads garage in Stowmarket, Suffolk England had a 6x6 Diamond T wrecker in the 60's - I used to love sitting in it as a kid & when cleaned up, it was the Garages centre stage for all the County shows.
Was in the u.s park service on alcatraz island 1994-2017 in 2005 we got our 1934 diamond T fire truck restored by inmates at a prison in los Vegas, they did a nice job pin strips and gold leaf the worked! To this day i go to alcatraz to clean the trunk now and then! Thanks
My father was serving in the REME in Palestine on peace keeping duties in 1946. They were attached to five brigade guards. They were struggling with old worn out trucks but suddenly they took delivery of a number of Diamond T & White trucks. They were both held in very high regard.
Thanks for a great report. I occasionally spend some time online trying to find out what happened to Diamond Reo; I find bits and pieces around, but nothing close to this. Well done!!
Loved the old Diamond Ts, in the '50s, my dad worked for a family owned sawmill they had two Diamond Ts, a '42 and a '46. He hauled lumber with the '46 to town and hauled fertilizer back. The sawmill went to newer trucks and a farmer that I worked for in '60 and '61 bought the '46 and I drove it on his farm during the summer on school break. The thing I remember the most about the Diamond T is the rough ride and was really slow, but would pull a mountain.
My dad bought a diamond t semi tractor with sleeper back in the mid 50’s. Took each one of us kids on a road trip, 1 at a time. Mine was to New York City to the shipping docks. Picked up a trailer load of bananas to haul back to the Midwest. Met up with some of his friends before picking up his load and spent the night sleeping in the trailer, with the doors wide open. Can’t do that in New York City nowadays.
I drove a Raider for about a decade. Actually, just one trip, but spending a long day in that thing felt like a decade. But, I was a COE guy through and through. That 38 foot hood (looked like it, anyway) gave the impression of driving a locomotive on the highway.
I remember the Diamond Reo trucks, from when there was a huge construction project near my house, back in 72. I’ve always thought of them as powerful trucks, right next to the old Mack trucks from back then
As a retired truck driver I have driven about all different brands of trucks but I have never drove a Diamond T or a Diamond Reo. I'm sure I haven't missed anything.
The iconic heavy haulage company Wynns of Newport, South Wales really got off the ground after WWII using ex-US Army Diamond T tank transporters, they also had some Pacific 'Dragon Wagons' as well.
As a kid growing up in Barnet a suburb North of London UK, It had a steep hill and was the main route from London to the north, the road was numbered A1. Several trucks would breakdown on the hill and a towing company would arrive with an ex WWII Diamond T wrecker. So seeing this video has brought back those memories.
@@TheByard If you go on Flickr, 'The Beckingtonian' there's a couple of shots of a Diamond T rig that hit a half shaft off on Bath Street, a steep hill on the way out of Frome, Somerset back in the sixties.
@@jonathangriffin1120 Bedford TK's were terrible for snapping half shafts, but to make matters worse the hand brake worked on the prop shaft. Came across a TK driver stopped on a hill waving me down, he'd been there for 2hrs and nobody had stopped. The half shaft had gone and he had to hold the truck on the foot brake.
As a kid growing up right next door to the manufacturing plant in Lansing, I got to see White and Diamond REO trucks leaving the plant 24 hours a day on flatbed railcars being pulled by big black noisy steam locomotives. The facility is long gone now as I'm sure most of the trucks too that left the place way back when.
I always knew about Diamond T because my Dad drove one back in the 60 s when he started driving for Eureka Cartage Company in Cicero Illinois he took me and my mom with him on some late runs Then later on in the 70s at another company I rode with him in a new Diamond REO When I started trucking. In 87 it was always GMC or Fords or I - H s all the really cool trucks were gone I am sure glad Jacks Chrome did this piece I think you guys did every truck except Chevrolet You did GMC but they used the military designations and Chevy used North American land Mamals
JCS also has not done any research on SICARD trucks out of Quebec Canada. 1927 and they would fit in the looks like a Diamond-T. The company’s on-highway and vocational trucks were a common sight in eastern Canada and Northern Ontario. Paccar purchased Sicard’s truck making unit in Ste Therese, Quebec (north of Montreal) in 1967 and began assembling both Kenworth and Peterbilt truck models there from 1970. There were a lot of Sicard trucks in the late 60's, to mid 70s, 10's of dozens of them in the Logging and Wood chip van hauling industry.
The one thing that's really sad is it's just like everything else now the trucks back then had a personality you could look at them and knew who built that truck not like today everything looks the same. Just like the crappy cars. All look like the same little kid Drew in first grade. All look like electric shavers. No class no Chrome no nothing This is like so many other things it's a. bygone error. Kind of like how we've lost our innocence and our own personality. How much things have changed since I was a kid.
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In '67 I was 13, visiting folks in Calif. I remember seeing Diamond T trux and thinking what beautiful truks they were, and still are. Thanx for the great history of Diamond T.
My Dad bought a 1938 REO school bus in the early 60s and converted it to a camper with 4 bunks in the back the were taken out of a submarine in groton Connecticut. I watched the moon landing on one of those bunks at our summer campground in Kingston Mass Grays beach. We kept that bus into the 70s then it was retired to a field in east Bridgewater mass as a farmshack.the hulk of it is still there.
Thanks for sharing your story.
My mom did a similar conversion with a 1950 Ford bus with a flathead V8. We went all over New England, New York & New Jersey. In August of 1969 we were on vacation. I almost had mom talked into heading out to Tasker's Farm (in Woodstock, NY). We missed some history that summer.
My first road truck was a 1966 Diamond T with a 250 Cummins, 10 speed Road Ranger transmission, 411 rears, 36 inch sleeper. In 1966 it was a rare all aluminum wheels, polished aluminum front bumper, duel 4" stacks, duel air breathers and duel air horns. Painted blue with white stripes with red pen strips.
It was in the 1966 Dallas truck show.
I loved that truck.
Sounds like a Fine Lookin Semi. Question there @ the Dallas Truck Show, Did You, Happen to Run into "Big" & "Little" Enos Burdette, Lol. When you said that Dallas Truck it, made me think of that Damn !! Movie..
250 Cummins and 10 spd. Perfect.
I knew a man who drove Cabover Diamond T’s with a 5X2 trans and gasser..... Hauled Hay from Blythe to Chino. That man was my dad!!
RIP Al Ross!
Later on he got a conventional with a 5x4 that had the luvers (sp) on the hood. I have a pic of it somewhere. He drove for Cal Herbolds Nursery in the 60’s. They were lifelong friends.
You're awesome smarts delightful s amazing s ! As you're video s Dimon T history was excellent splendidly done ! Gorgeous awesome amazing smart girls Thank you ❤️😍😍❤️😍🎉
Mý father in law was in the 65th Canadian Tank Transport unit . They trained in England hauling tanks with Diamond T trucks and was in the second wave in Normandy. He was very proud of the fact they could haul tanks faster than other units. Their secret, they shifted the truck in neutral going downhill. They called it "whistling gear". He hauled tanks and supplies all over Europe and Holland for 6 months after the war. The drivers were happy there was room in the cab for steel plates because they were often targets hauling ammunition and supplies. His truck was often shot up but it never failed.
REO and then Diamond REO trucks were manufactured in Lansing Michigan until 1974. A photo of the front of the factory is at 10:24. My father was a mechanic at the Lansing dealership for Diamond REO in that era. Occasionally a new rig would find its way to our home's driveway as he was giving it a shakedown run after doing the delivery service on it.
The factory is now long gone, but the name remains on the neighborhood it dominated for decades.
One of the Best Trucks that helped making trucking a industry
GREAT VIDEO AND HISTORY LESSON!!! THANKS FOR SHARING!!! I LEARNED SO MUCH!!! I LOVE VINTAGE DIAMOND T TRUCKS!!! THEY ARE SO BEAUTIFUL!!!
The little gal that narrated. The video. Did really good job on that I give the gal kudos. the diamonds were a beautiful truck so were. The federals. And the Reos. Most people don't even remember most of them or when white motors used to be with White Freightliner. Before they split in the early mid-70s. Yeah I'm an old buzzard.
Love the Diamond T & Diamond REOs...they had plenty of style and bling! 🥰 It’s a shame that they are no longer made. What a loss!
The great Model 980 my favourite served in the British Army from 1941 1 till 1970 amazing truck i have many models of them they are rare in the UK but i can say there are six wreckers i know this as my good friends with Mike Forbes the editor of Vintage Roadscene magazine...
Enjoyed the video . I've had several Diamond T trucks - a 509, 404 and Six 201 pick ups. I like the pre-war trucks from the 30s and 40s the most. They really are great trucks.
Thanks for the history I don't know Jack or own a rig but I do enjoy the vid. Thanks
I was told about my great grandpa driving a 2 ton Diamond T truck in the teens for a logging company. He was the only man that could handle it and many times it was so overloaded with logs, no one but him could get it out of the base camp.
Oh yes, I had a friend who used an old model back in the 1950s to haul hay on. I do remember that, because hauling hay was a big deal back then for farmers. I did a lot of it. I also had a friend who asked his dad to let us use his tractor and truck to haul hay on one summer. I drove the truck because i had a drivers license, and he drove the tractor because he was only 15 and he had no license. He also hired the workers who were in his class at school. Last time i hauled hay was at age 17. At 18 uncle Sam had me then. We had a draft back in those days. It all comes back to me slowly, lol. Now I am finished. thanks for watching this. 80 year old man.
MY Dads garage in Stowmarket, Suffolk England had a 6x6 Diamond T wrecker in the 60's - I used to love sitting in it as a kid & when cleaned up, it was the Garages centre stage for all the County shows.
Very good program. I always wondered what happened to them. Did not know that they lasted so long. 80 year old man.
Was in the u.s park service on alcatraz island 1994-2017 in 2005 we got our 1934 diamond T fire truck restored by inmates at a prison in los Vegas, they did a nice job pin strips and gold leaf the worked! To this day i go to alcatraz to clean the trunk now and then! Thanks
My father was serving in the REME in Palestine on peace keeping duties in 1946. They were attached to five brigade guards. They were struggling with old worn out trucks but suddenly they took delivery of a number of Diamond T & White trucks. They were both held in very high regard.
Our fire company has a 1968 diamond reo firetruck.
Thanks for a great report. I occasionally spend some time online trying to find out what happened to Diamond Reo; I find bits and pieces around, but nothing close to this. Well done!!
The most beautiful voice you have as a commentator to the video...... 10.15
I learned to drive in a 54 Diamond T with a 220 Cummins and a 5x4 Spicer with a split twin screw
Long time ago...
Loved the old Diamond Ts, in the '50s, my dad worked for a family owned sawmill they had two Diamond Ts, a '42 and a '46. He hauled lumber with the '46 to town and hauled fertilizer back. The sawmill went to newer trucks and a farmer that I worked for in '60 and '61 bought the '46 and I drove it on his farm during the summer on school break. The thing I remember the most about the Diamond T is the rough ride and was really slow, but would pull a mountain.
There's a Diamond T fire truck here at 30:58, would like to see a better picture of it. th-cam.com/video/7sB5Cm0Lt9w/w-d-xo.html
Pull a house down
Diamond REO, "The World's Toughest Truck!!!"
Let's not forget Diamond T made a 3/4 ton 1936-37 model 80 and a 1 ton 1938- 49 model 201 pickup truck too!
Maddie....your the best....
I love Diamond T. I have a 1941 model 406 D fire engine. Hercules JXD for power.
My dad bought a diamond t semi tractor with sleeper back in the mid 50’s. Took each one of us kids on a road trip, 1 at a time. Mine was to New York City to the shipping docks. Picked up a trailer load of bananas to haul back to the Midwest. Met up with some of his friends before picking up his load and spent the night sleeping in the trailer, with the doors wide open. Can’t do that in New York City nowadays.
Thanks for doing this video. I drove Diamond Reo C116's and Raiders back in the 70's. i always thought the Raiders were good looking trucks.
I drove a Raider for about a decade. Actually, just one trip, but spending a long day in that thing felt like a decade. But, I was a COE guy through and through. That 38 foot hood (looked like it, anyway) gave the impression of driving a locomotive on the highway.
Never drove a Diamond T but drove for a moving & storage co, we had about 30 Reo;s & Diamond Reo's
Those diamond T's and diamond Reos moved houses when I was little, and I mean castles. 200hp and mind boggling torque.
Literally!
Back in the 50's I saw one pull a house through town. They had guys with poles to lift the wires that were over the street.
I remember the Diamond Reo trucks, from when there was a huge construction project near my house, back in 72. I’ve always thought of them as powerful trucks, right next to the old Mack trucks from back then
Diamond T made some of the most beautiful trucks.
Thanks for these videos.
Nice series. Thanks.
My first over the semi was a Cabover D - REO 5 x 4 transmission 238 Cummins hauling swing beef from Iowa all over the Midwest
As a retired truck driver I have driven about all different brands of trucks but I have never drove a Diamond T or a Diamond Reo. I'm sure I haven't missed anything.
Whoa. Never knew Diamond T made trucks for the US military! Thanks for the info
The iconic heavy haulage company Wynns of Newport, South Wales really got off the ground after WWII using ex-US Army Diamond T tank transporters, they also had some Pacific 'Dragon Wagons' as well.
As a kid growing up in Barnet a suburb North of London UK, It had a steep hill and was the main route from London to the north, the road was numbered A1. Several trucks would breakdown on the hill and a towing company would arrive with an ex WWII Diamond T wrecker. So seeing this video has brought back those memories.
@@TheByard If you go on Flickr, 'The Beckingtonian' there's a couple of shots of a Diamond T rig that hit a half shaft off on Bath Street, a steep hill on the way out of Frome, Somerset back in the sixties.
@@jonathangriffin1120 Bedford TK's were terrible for snapping half shafts, but to make matters worse the hand brake worked on the prop shaft. Came across a TK driver stopped on a hill waving me down, he'd been there for 2hrs and nobody had stopped. The half shaft had gone and he had to hold the truck on the foot brake.
I first heard of this truck from Steve on the junkyard crawl or one of his other shows, hurry up and get well Steve we miss you man
As a kid growing up right next door to the manufacturing plant in Lansing, I got to see White and Diamond REO trucks leaving the plant 24 hours a day on flatbed railcars being pulled by big black noisy steam locomotives. The facility is long gone now as I'm sure most of the trucks too that left the place way back when.
Steam locomotives? What year what this?
@@josephmac2684 Oh... somewhere between 1951 and 1954 around then.
I would walk past on Washington Avenue and see all the deuce and a halfs all being shipped to Vietnam.
Drove one back in day 1968 and 1970s
Great information didn't know this love big rigs 😮😊
I always knew about Diamond T because my Dad drove one back in the 60 s when he started driving for Eureka Cartage Company in Cicero Illinois he took me and my mom with him on some late runs Then later on in the 70s at another company I rode with him in a new Diamond REO When I started trucking. In 87 it was always GMC or Fords or I - H s all the really cool trucks were gone I am sure glad Jacks Chrome did this piece I think you guys did every truck except Chevrolet You did GMC but they used the military designations and Chevy used North American land Mamals
JCS also has not done any research on SICARD trucks out of Quebec Canada. 1927 and they would fit in the looks like a Diamond-T. The company’s on-highway and vocational trucks were a common sight in eastern Canada and Northern Ontario. Paccar purchased Sicard’s truck making unit in Ste Therese, Quebec (north of Montreal) in 1967 and began assembling both Kenworth and Peterbilt truck models there from 1970. There were a lot of Sicard trucks in the late 60's, to mid 70s, 10's of dozens of them in the Logging and Wood chip van hauling industry.
@@iBackshift interesting thank you for that information
Facts checks out 💯
Amador County fair has a great steam saw mill! fun place,
I learned how to drive a stick shift in a Diamond REO firetruck.
My Favorite ! Finllly got 2
Now we know where the inspiration for Twinkies came from🤣
My dad drove a Diamond Rio tanker in the oilfield.
Good video.
Good wagons
Never heard of Diamond trucks. I've heard of Kentworth & Peterbilt and I have seen those
awesome trucks
My grandpa had one when i was a kid i got to ride in the tractor
And kids now you know how the most beautiful pickup trucks in the world were built
The Diamond T appeared in the movie Convoy.
Yeah, it was Spider Mike's truck.
@@bluejeans9449 Which was actually a Diamond Reo if I remember right.
@@jonathangriffin1120,. No it was a Diamond T 921 Dfn.
My father drove a diamond rio cement truck in the 60s. JJ White cement company L.I N.Y
Any involvement with the Mack Motor Co, also a Diamond T competitor?
It was a Peterbilt in Convoy
Convoy featured a LOT of different truck models. Rubber Duck drove a Mack, though.
The co-50 looks like a kw k100 knock off!
I have my doubts that Diamond T built those curved-windshield cabs in 1950-up…I thought International built that cab. L series.
I don't mean to be a Karen. But how about giving Jim Bryant some credit for his video of the Diamond that was seen in your video?
Have him contact us - we always give credit but if there isn’t any branding on the footage we don’t know how to to credit most of the time.
Could have mentioned Diamond T connection to Spartan Motors
It's nice, but every time he has traffic backed up behind him
. He needs to step it up a bit.
I have a 48 diamond t truck
I know of a storage lot where a conventional cab truck sits. Don't knowthe year or model. I'd love to get it going and use it for Sunday drives!
"Over 100,000 ft long assembly line"? That would 19 miles long.... I don't think so....
That caught me off guard also and it distracted me from the rest of the video. An obvious mistake that should've been edited.
@Darkfeet7 on telegram is a real vendor I can’t believe my eyes that man too real Go on his telegram He sell credit card with high balances
It's not in a straight line😅
Spider Mike's truck
What model is in the middle 4:17
Where does Diamond Reo come in?
Around 7:35... Also be sure to stay tuned for our next episode #28 of Truck History specifically about REO Trucks which will be coming 10/23! :)
I think they're pleaded in nickel
0:33
Shackman Chinese best
Also... you should work on your story telling... its awkward and really annoying me
I agree ---
I love it
Must we have the "Valley Girl" narration? Spoiled an otherwise interesting video. Does nobody actually listen to voice overs these days?
What a great informative video. Cool cool trucks 🚒😊
Thanks sir
The one thing that's really sad is it's just like everything else now the trucks back then had a personality you could look at them and knew who built that truck not like today everything looks the same. Just like the crappy cars. All look like the same little kid Drew in first grade. All look like electric shavers. No class no Chrome no nothing
This is like so many other things it's a. bygone error. Kind of like how we've lost our innocence and our own personality. How much things have changed since I was a kid.
Love the Diamond T & Diamond REOs...they had plenty of style and bling! 🥰 It’s a shame that they are no longer made. What a loss!