  1964 fleet of Pak-Mor RL-15 series rear loaders for Norwood, Ohio CRT News Update, Spring 2008 SHELVOKE AND DREWRY Brian Carpenter sent word that his latest issue of the Enthusiasts Newsletter at Unofficial Shelvoke & Drewry Website marks the 5th year of publication. Among many other interesting features, the latest edition has an interesting article about some of SD's competition in the refuse truck business. As a tribute to Brian, I felt it would only be fitting to have an SD Pakamatic as the featured truck here at CRT. Those of us with this interest are indeed fortunate to have such a resource. Congratulations Brian! We at CRT salute you and thank you for producing this excellent website. BEMARS AND WESTERN ALBUMS UPDATED I received so many good pictures from Dana Gregory recently, among which are some classic California front loader pictures which have probably never been published before. Those, coupled with some recent finds of my own necessitated a total revision of the the Bemars and Western albums. Western, in particular has been greatly expanded with 20 new photos a full page on the Shu-Pak. And believe it or not, we may possibly have a solution to the "A & P Fistpacker" mystery which was detailed in the Fall 2007 issue. Bemars also gets 12 new photos, many of them taken right in front of their shop in Montebello, and probably shown here for the first time since the 1960s. Dana also sent in some super rare shots of the Norba KI-8 rear loader, which are featured on page two of this news update. MARSHALL COOKE LTD. CRT Contributor Tim Byrne mentions the hooklift detachable REL body shown in the Reynolds-Boughton pictures in the last news update (with the marking "Raven Waste Eater") is actually made by a company called Marshall Cooke Ltd. Among their other container products, the Hook REL packer body is still in production HEIL MARK V RAVE HEIGHT, AND A U.S. SIGHTING Tim also wrote to correct a comment I had made accompanying his photos last month of the UK Heil Colectomatic Mark V. I stated that with the Mark V that... "Industrial, commercial and residential hand routes are served by one truck." Tim informs me that use of the Mark V for hand loading routes is not allowed by British regulations. Tim says: "'Heil Mark V's in the UK are totally illegal to hand load, as the loading rave (taking into account it has to be low for the pinning tubes of REL containers) gives a total rave height of only 1080mm. CE Legislation dictates that you can only load hoppers of RCV units if the loading rave [a.k.a. "hopper sill" ] is 1400mm." The Mark V rear loaders are still in production by Heil Europe (as the "Big Bite"), but they have not been made in the United States since about 1980, when they were replaced by the Formula 5000 model. Only recently, one showed up for sale on Ebay in working condition, which is truly a rare occurrence. It is a 25 cubic yard model from 1977, and the seller took some very good pictures, including some inside-the-body shots of the telescopic packer plate. As this is published, the auction is still in progress, but even afterward the pictures usually remain posted on Ebay for several weeks. 
COLLECTORS CORNER As most of you probably know, First Gear Models will soon be releasing versions of the their 1/34 scale Mack front loader, rear loader and roll-off with right hand drive and "Cleanaway" markings. As of this writing, the front loader was supposed to be available, with the others following this summer. 
William Jackson also sent word of a new solid-wood model Roll-off truck now available from his Wooden Wheels collection. This hand-made model is 32 inches long and features moving parts and detachable container. A front loader, featured in these pages awhile back, is also available.
We have no new featured models in this edition of Collectors Corner, however there ares some Ebay auction highlights which may be viewed here REFUSE TRUCKS ON FILM There is a slight change this edition to our ever-growing list of films and television shows that feature refuse trucks. The original CRT Films Page, is the alphabetical list of titles featuring encapsulated descriptions. It is now joined by a Titles Only list which features links to both YouTube and the higher quality MegaUpload film clips (when available). Both film lists are cross-linked to each other. This titles-only list was needed to replace the old titles list at the MSN Member's Area, which would no longer accommodate the ever-growing list. Visitors to the MSN Films page will be directed to the list here at the main site. Travis Giles found four more examples of refuse trucks on film, including a show from (of all places) The Food Network! Also, Bruce Polit sent along a neat YouTube posting of another old Sesame Street segment from the late 1970's which shows some vintage DSNY Loadmasters, Heils and an E-Z Pack MSL in their prime. These titles are identified with a "NEW" icon in front of them. THE OLD AND THE NEW 
Between materials Brad has sent in, and other recent acquisitions here at CRT, I can now construct a more complete overview of the history of this brand, and will revise the E-Z Pack Album in the near future. MEMPHIS 1968, REVISITED In the last issue, these pages discussed the February, 1968 deaths of two Memphis, Tennessee sanitation workers who were crushed to death while seeking shelter in a refuse packer, an event that contributed to the calling of a strike that spring. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was in Memphis in support of the striking sanitation workers, was assassinated on April 4th, just over forty years to this day. At the time, I noted that some of the details of the story of the workers deaths (as I then knew them) did not seem to make sense. Just at deadline time, however, I received in interesting e-mail from David A. Lucas with some important details of how it happened. Most pertinent is that the the men were clearly not riding in the hopper of a rear-loading Heil Colectomatic as was previously supposed. David writes: "Like you, I could never understand why anyone would try get into the hopper of a rear loader - inclement weather or not - or how the packer mechanism could then then malfunction, killing the occupants of the hopper. The answer is that that the men were standing in a late 1950s "barrel type" side loader with the packing plate being used to squeeze a rather full load into the truck body while in transit to the dump. Apparently, the men were standing between the front bulkhead and the packing plate (possibly a routine, if ill-advised, practice) when an electrical short caused the packing plate to return to its normal position up against the front bulkhead, trapping and killing the men in the process. The short was caused by an improperly secured shovel somehow coming into contact with the 11 year old packer mechanism's wiring. The shovel, wiring, and surrounding surfaces were all wet from the rain. I've attached an article published in the Memphis Commercial Appeal (a daily newspaper) on 2 February 1968 that describes the fatal accident in detail. The packer body was almost certainly a Pak-Mor, given the description and the in-service year that is stated in the article. From what I understand, this accident was one of the final occurrences leading up to the well known Memphis sanitation workers' strike. While information on the strike is available from many sources, a good overview that may appeal to your readers appears in a book called "American Alchemy: The History of Solid Waste Management In The United States" by H. Lanier Hickman, Jr. (Forester Press 2003). You can read a significant portion of this book online at books.google.com. I've also attached a photo from a later edition of the Memphis Commercial Appeal taken by Barney Sellers on the first day of the sanitation workers' strike. The photo shows one of the city equipment yards. You can see many of the Heil Mark III Colectomatics previously presented by your reader Bruce Polit, along with two of the "barrel type" packers. This photo was republished by the Memphis Commercial Appeal on 16 January 2008 as part of a 40 year retrospective of the strike and the King assassination.
A "barrel type" packer is preserved at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. I've not seen the display in person, but I did find a (not great) photo of the exhibit on the Museum's web site Apparently, the truck has been on display since 1992 (the Museum opened in 1991). I can't find anything that indicates if it is an actual City of Memphis unit, or one that was obtained from another source to complete the exhibit. In any event, a preserved refuse packer is a rarity and worthy of a visit. On a related note, in 1969, a sanitation workers' strike took place in Macon, Georgia. A TV report from the Macon strike has some brief footage of the city's Leach packers." Our sincere thanks go out to David for this detailed report, which answers a lot of the questions satisfactorily. I would note that it was unlikely that many I-series Pak-Mor bodies of the fifties would have electric controls. These were quite simple machines, with the packer plate drive chain typically driven by the vehicle engine through a mechanical power take off (PTO). However, when one reads the 1968 newspaper account of the accident, the term "trailer" is used repeatedly. It is therefore possible, even likely, that the accident occurred in a Pak-Mor Lo-Boye compaction trailer. 
The trailer version, being articulated, can not be driven by the truck PTO, and typically carried an auxiliary gasoline engine to provide power to the packer. The Lo-Boye did in fact have push-button controls, undoubtedly actuating electric solenoids which can easily be shorted across their terminals by a conductor, such as a metal shovel.
As for the truck shown in the museum, a conventional side loader, it may only be a representative truck. As David points out, no claim is made that the museum piece is the actual truck involved in the accident. If the truck is indeed an old I-series Pak Mor (chain driven packer, not hydraulic), then it would be a somewhat rare truck in any case. These "mechanical" Pak-Mors were gradually replaced by the all-hydraulic H-series, which was announced in the fall of 1961. In light of this new information, we can perhaps construct a better picture of how this hazardous situation devolped, and ended so tragically. There were already two crewmen and a driver in the truck cab, so the victims would have had no choice but ride outside the vehicle. A Pak-Mor, with an enclosed front end would provide shelter from the rain, with the packer blade at least partially extended against the load in the rear of the body. Once inside the packer body, the men were vulnerable to entrapment for at least two reasons. First, on a loaded barrel truck, hopper extensions are often raised to prevent fallback of trash to the street. If these were used, the would have more difficultly escaping over this higher barrier. Second, their escape attempt would be hindered by poor footing inside the round body, which was also probably full of water (it was raining) which would make the smooth metal interior very slippery. Further advancing the possibility that it was a Lo-Boye trailer unit is the fact that the crew consisted of a driver and four loaders, which would not be uncommon for such a large truck serving densely populated residential areas. I am aware of an incident somewhat similar to the Memphis tragedy, which happened in the Washington D.C., area several years ago, involving a Manual Side Loader packer. The driver was trapped and crushed to death behind a cycling packer blade while attempting to remove an object jamming the packer. This is an occupation fraught with dangers from the equipment, not to mention road hazards. It is a sad reminder of the terrible price sanitation workers sometimes pay in the performance of their jobs. The News Continues, Click the Button for Page Two 
© 2008 Eric Voytko All Rights Reserved Logos shown are the trademarks of respective manufacturers Photos from factory brochures/trade advertisements except as noted |