Historic Freightliner No. 162 Restored, Ready to Show Off
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(TT-File)
Freightliner's No. 162 truck, with pup trailer No. 135, will be displayed at various events to showcase the company's history.
here are no snowy mountains and rolling hills, perilous destinations or steamy blacktop heat awaiting Truck No. 162 today, only an occasional swipe of a polishing cloth glazes its shiny green coat.
The company purchased it last year at a Consolidated Freightways bankruptcy liquidation auction for an undisclosed amount.
“We are very happy to preserve this piece of Consolidated Freightways and Freightliner history,” Brandt said.
The cabover truck was the vision of Consolidated Freightways founder Leland James, who, in the 1940s, yearned for lighter, stronger and larger-capacity trucks to work in the mountainous western states.
But when Detroit automakers rejected the idea of building the trucks, James began manufacturing them in 1947 for CF’s exclusive use.
James named them “Freightliners,” and Truck No. 162 rolled off the company’s Portland, Ore., plant assembly line in 1947, the 31st truck produced. It remained in service for the company for six years, then was bought and sold by eight owners over the next four decades.
Among the commodities the truck hauled were hay, lumber, farm equipment and agricultural goods over several million miles.
Freightliner sold its truck-manufacturing business to Daimler-Benz in 1981, and today, Freightliner LLC is North America’s largest truck manufacturer.
CF bought the truck in 1987 for $5,500, then 10 retired mechanics spent 4,000 hours over several months completely restoring it.
The truck has a rebuilt Cummins Inc. NHB 200-horsepower, six-cylinder, fuel-injected diesel engine with a top speed of 55 mph. It gets seven miles per gallon.
“It’s a nice piece of history,” Brandt said.
This story appeared in the Feb. 23 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
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