Old-Time Trucks Draw History Buffs, Collectors

(Michael James - Transport Topics) The antique truck show brought a wide range of vehicles for display, including the 1958 Ford/Pirsch firetruck with a Pirsch body shown above.

FREDERICK, Md. — The drivers pulled their antique trucks into a new-truck dealership here on a recent Saturday, both to show off their personal handiwork and revel in the history of the U.S. trucking industry.

They came from parts of eastern Pennsylvania and northern Virginia as well as western Maryland. They lined up their vehicles at the Grimes Truck Center, which sells Navistar’s International brand, for an event billed as “Where the Old Meets the New.”

This was the annual daylong show put on by the Mason-Dixon Chapter of the American Truck Historical Society, with vehicles ranging from small trucks that pulled freight along narrow roads in the early 1900s to giants that by the 1970s were hauling huge loads down superhighways.

Allen Fisher, who began organizing this antique truck club chapter nearly 10 years ago, explained that his love of big rigs began with his childhood in western Maryland.

“When I was a kid, all I saw was coal trucks, clay trucks and lumber trucks, and I was fascinated with it.”

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