Classic Refuse Trucks NEWS

New 14-Yard Helix Tite-Pak side loaders fresh off the Crown Point, Indiana assembly line in 1973

What's New at CRT January 8, 2012

COVER STORY
Open-type refuse trucks are somewhat outside the scope of this web site, inasmuch as CRT tends to focus primarily on packer trucks, self loaders and other types of mechanized refuse equipment. However, I could not resist running this editions featured truck sent in by Frank Vizcarra, which is a 1953 International that spent many years in storage at San Anselmo Garbage Disposal. It is in working condition, and features an enclosed one-man cab, which is very unusual in refuse collection duty.

The City of San Francisco has long delegated refuse collection to an independent association of scavengers, who popularized this type of truck body almost as soon as motor trucks began to replace horses. The scavenger body was a basic dump truck with high sides (best suited for rubbish) which was loaded from the front of the body, instead of from the sides as was common practice in the east. Two sets of steps were welded to the front section of the truck, so loaders could ascend from either side. A common top step was attached to the front of the body on which the men stood when they reached the top, and emptied their carry barrels. It's not difficult to imagine the how physically demanding this job was!

Since steps were specified on either side of the cab, one-man cabs (when they became available) would have been ideal. International Harvester has offered the center-mount one-man cab since the 1950's, if not earlier. These cabs were more commonly used by steel transport companies, allowing them to carry long I-beams astride each side of the cab. International was still offering this option at least into the 1960s. I can attest from personal experience that they are very unusual looking when you spot one coming up the road! The San Anselmo truck featured on these pages may be factory one-man cab, or a modification done after it left International Harvester. The inset photo shows a 1964 factory one-man cab as used on the Loadstar line.

Bay Area haulers stayed with these open scavenger bodies long after enclosed packer trucks had made them obsolete. To their credit, these open trucks were cheap to own and operate. Short hauls to the landfill, located in the marshes of nearby San Francisco Bay, made their relatively light payloads cost-effective in the old days. The burden of climbing those steps was probably seen as "just part of the job" of being a San Francisco Scavenger.

More than a few examples of SF Scavenger trucks still survive. Two are frequently shown by Recology, which is the successor company to Scavenger's Protective Association and Sunset Scavenger Service. Also, Mill Valley Refuse has a nice restored International Loadstar from the 1960s, illustrating just how late in the game these trucks were being used.

By the time the Mill Valley truck entered service, the technology of mechanized refuse bodies had long-ago passed it by in giant leaps. The Leach 2-R Packmaster was already on the streets, and ejection-discharge was becoming standard on packer trucks. San Francisco scavengers would thus eventually abandon most of the these old-fashioned dump trucks during the 1960s. Undoubtedly, most men were happy to bid farewell to the steps. The parade audiences viewing these trucks today are probably oblivious to how difficult it was for the crews who once manned these trucks.

SUMMARY OF NEW ALBUMS AND UPDATES FOR THIS EDITION

*Page Title*	*Description*
Cobey Waste Control	NEW ALBUM PAGE with 35 new images
Athey Products	NEW ALBUM PAGE with 10 new images
Active Enterprises	NEW ALBUM PAGE with 5 new images
Rand Automated Systems	UPDATED with 1 new image, revised text and links

   With this issue, Cobey and Athey albums finally make their debut at Classic Refuse Trucks. These were long overdue, but it had taken a while to assemble materials that would provide a more complete overview of these companies. It is an interesting history. Harsco corporation had taken a small player in the industry (Cobey) and built it into a diverse and competitive product line by the middle seventies, only to fall victim to the economic malaise of the latter part of that decade. Athey Products, who were then building the Mobil Sweeper line, picked up the pieces of Cobey in 1981, added a modern ASL to the stable, but made a hasty retreat themselves within a few short years.

   Related to Athey, the Rand Automated Systems page has been extensively revised to clear up the lineage of the many products that wound-up under their umbrella. Mostly, the text has been revised to provided a clearer picture of what happened during those years, when a confusing amount of name-changing took place. Look for the new Rand Family Tree which has been added to the bottom of the page, as well as links to related pages on CRT and elsewhere.

   A reader identified only as Mike reports that Unsolved #8 (Innovative Waste FL) from the CRT Unsolved Mysteries Page was built by a company known as Active Enterprises of Hacienda Heights, California, and is now out of business. This unusual truck has defied identification for a long time. Since it now has a name, an Active Enterprises album has been created containing the only known photos of this rare front loader, which were taken by Bill Teterault.

SOME MORE UPDATES AND CORRECTIONS
   Another truck featured in the Unsolved Mysteries Page has been tentatively identified by Scott Mattson. Scott believes that Unsolved #6 (Hollister FL) is probably an AMREP special body, based on some key features he spotted. The page has been duly updated. My apologies to Scott, who passed this information along to me back in April, after which it got lost in my stack of things to do!

   Earlier last year, an anonymous reader sent along information on some California micro-builders (CRT Summer 2011 News Update), including a reference to an all-aluminum octagonal front loader purportedly made by CMD Disposal of Whittier. However, Alex Marikian recently contacted CRT and notes that the aluminum-bodied front loader was in fact built by one Carl Claussen, owner of Agen Disposal in Los Angeles, later known as Cal-Waste Industries. Cal-Waste and CMD eventually merged in the early 1990s, which may explain the confusion here. If anyone has an pictures of this truck, please contact CRT and we will get them published.

VINTAGE DAYBROOK
   This unbelievably rare find showed up on Ebay in late December; a 1968 International Harvester CO with a Daybrook Power-Packer body! The truck has been sitting since the late 1970s, when it was relegated to back-up status. The body information reads: Series 12000, Model PP5, serial #PP591. This appears to be one of the later variations (and the final one) of the Power Packer, America's only continous-feed rear loader, produced during the middle-1960s. Any surviving Daybrook Power-Packers, going back to 1957, are to be considered extremely rare, having been in production for only a decade. None have been made since the mid-1960s!

A successful winning bid was placed on this truck. CRT has been in contact with the seller, and hopefully will have some more detailed pictures of this truck in the future. The final disposition of the packer body is not clear and depends solely on the wishes of the new owner. If the body subsequently becomes available for sale, I will post any details on the message board at the CRT Members Area. This is well worth preserving, and may be the last of its kind left in existence.

EDITOR'S CHOICE VIDEO
The editor is me, and I love old Loadmasters, so here we are! But seriously, this is actually a 2001 model LM-431 found down in Florida by George Lanoszka. Though still in production, these packers are somewhat hard to find. Until now, we had no video of the 400 series in action. George did a fantastic job filming this one, in HD with good steady camera work and excellent lighting. The crew was great too, providing a good, safe demonstration. These trucks are functionally identical their 1970s predecessors, and nearly identical in appearance. I hadn't seen one of these work since the mid-1980s, and appreciate George's fine work. The video will also be embedded in the Loadmaster album here at CRT.

CRT COLLECTORS CORNER

Collectors Corner returns with a short-but-sweet edition featuring a fantastic model Norba RL35 rear loader with working hydraulics by Gloomshadow, and some other faithful reproductions of classic trucks.

Click here to view the current issue of CRT Collectors Corner.

Finally, I received many new pictures of French-built SEMAT Superpac II rear loaders from Borja Migoya, but not did get them posted in time for this update. Look for them in the SEMAT album during January. I'm also having trouble with the new CRT Uploads feature, but will try to get more brochures posted in the coming weeks.

Many thanks to all of our contributors, and enjoy the new year!

Eric Voytko
January 8, 2012