Chain Driven Trucks of the 1920's-1930's

Monday, November 15, 2016
Cloudy with Sunny Periods
11 Celsius 52 Fahrenheit

Chain-Driven Trucks

of the 1920's-1930's

Please click here to visit this fine American toy auctioneer

You can learn a thing or two from toys. When I started out, I was too busy to look at the toys carefully. I was retouching the photos, colour-balancin them, and spotting them. I did not pay too much attention to the toy or the details of the toy.

However, I did notice that on Mack truck cast iron toys, there was a chain in the back of the 2 wheels. I did some research, and as it turned out, the Mack trucks of the 1920's and 1930's were in fact moved by rear-driven chains. Eventually rear-driven drive trains would replace the chains.

Last year, I was in Calgary, Alberta, Canada to visit my brother, and my brother decided to take me to a car museum there. Sure enough, there was a mack truck there, and it was in fact chain-driven. 

I didn't bring my camera with me, and forgot to ask my brother to take a photo.

A few days ago, I was meandering around the Internet searching for Mack trucks, and lo and behold an excellent photo of a chain-driven Mack truck appeared. I wrote to the website, and got a "yes" reply.  Interestingly, the photo was on another website with the name of the company. I then had to contact them to get the permission. The name of the company is Shorpy.

Please click here to visit this most fascinating website

What's so fabulous about Shorpy's website is that it has lots and lots of old photographs and fine-art prints for sale. Over the years, Shorpy has purchased original photos and the rights to old photographs to sell. THey've spent a lot of money to acquire these photos, and they then resell them to people who might need them for writing articles, or for nice artwork. Back in the 1900's-2010's, there were 4"x 5" and 8" x 10" cameras. These cameras used the correspondingly same-size film for the respective cameras.  If we're talking megapixels, then we're talking large-format (as these view cameras were called. So what's large?  A 4" x 5" ( 101 mm x 127 mm) negative or slide will yield a 300 megapixel image file scanned at 300 dpi (dots per inch). Today's high-megapixel 35mm camera can go up to 28 megapixels, while the Hasselblad will give you 60 megapixel files and higher for a price of $ 20,000 USD and higher for the magazine back.  an 8" x 10" scan of the correspondingly same size negative or slide will yield a 300 megapixel file. 

So of you like lots of detail in a photo, these camera and their corresponding images are just absolutely fantastic!

The photo above is a small-sized image. I was asked to make the image smaller and I naturally did so , so that I could present a chain-drive Mack truck to you. However, if you go over to the Shorpy.com website, you will be able to see large-sized images with lots of detail.

If you look at the rear end of these trucks, you will be able to 

see the chains that are located on either side of the truck.

ARCADE MACK GASOLINE TANK TRUCK

Cast iron, painted in red overall, gold fill caps, embossed "Gasoline" on sides, 

Mack Cab with embossed door and rubber tires. 13" long (330  mm)

ARCADE MACK DUMP TRUCK
Cast iron, blue body, dual rubber tires, decal on doors, nickel T-bar. 

12" long ( 305 mm)

ARCADE MACK STAKE TRUCK

Very scarce example, c. 1930, cast iron, painted in green overall, open stake body, contains one milk can, seated driver and nickel spoke wheels, decal appears on frame. Ex. Donald Kaufman Collection. 11" long ( 228 mm)

Hubley Gas Truck 

Cast iron, painted in red body, yellow cast iron spoke wheels, seated nickel driver, Mack cab, gold painted fill caps on tank body, decal on rear panel, has Hubley decal. Ex. Bob Stewart Collection. 

11" long ( 228 mm). Crack to driver's door.

Eventually, the truck and car industry improved the movement of their vehicles. 

The new method was via an axle, with rear driven movement.  I'm assuming that this type of movement was better, and less-dangerous than having the chains exposed to people and the elements (weather).  That's progress!

Thanks for dripping by,

and as always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com