A view of the Past, Vintage Photos

The steel fab shop I worked at from '05 til last year was located on this site. The old ALCO plant, you can see some of our steel in the foreground. The main steel shop would be off to the left which our company owned. We rented this building for maybe 5 years before everything (except our shop) was demolished for a casino (progress?) If only this building could talk, I can imagine the stories it could've told...
Supposedly, when this building was built in the early 1900's it was the longest brick building on the planet.
That tall part of the building had a huge crane up in the rafters, where I understand they used to stand the boilers on end at some phase of their assembly. I used to park my truck right under that section, although G.E.(the previous occupant of the building) had put a false ceiling in to close off that tall section probably to conserve heat. You can almost read "AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE" across the top of the building, which, according to legend had been painted over a few times, but kept re-appearing (the ghost of ALCO)

 

The guy that lives across the street from me (in his 80's) told me that his grandfather was among a group of immigrants from Poland that settled in Pennsylvania working in the coal mines. When they heard about work available at ALCO, some came to Schenectady. He says his grandfather worked at ALCO swinging a sledge hammer ALL DAY LONG

 

ALCO also had a racecar. They won a couple road races on Long Island in 1909-'10 and then I guess this thing competed in the 1911 Indianapolis 500. It had a straight 6 around 600 cubic inches (+/-)
Back in 2010, with the impending destruction of the old industrial park, these guys brought the car back in an enclosed trailer. Fired it up and ran around for some pictures. I stole this off the internet, but I was there and saw them...

 

Had several Diamond Reo's in early 70's with the Rooftop Models, believe they were made by Keyser

The 1st one was a high profile, boxy unit and the next 2 were a much more stylish lower profile

 

1984, we had 24 of these to move about 100 miles. Most of them were around 70' long, but a few were up around 90' and this one was 108' long. Our stretch trailers were only 65' back then, so we did it this way, that's a 40' trailer out back. They were 14' high and the first one that went, driver whacked a redlight, and the left turn arrow was laying on his trailer when a cop pulled him over...
Back then, didn't need certified escorts, so that's the bosses wife in front and the office secretary in the rear.
That's me standing with the boss (he's the short guy)

 

Looks like a late 70's R600 Mack with a 237 ( small air cleaner)

 

237?!? we had BIG motors, 350's! We had 5 ('81,'82,'83,'84,'86) Mack 12 spds. camelback spring. Spent many-a-year in those R models.
Before the Macks, they always bought Internationals, 318 Detroit, 13 spd, walking beam suspension. When I started, I had the last 4300, had a V8 Detroit with a turbo on top, but it was derated to 360 HP (I think?). Can't remember if it was 8-71 or 8-92.
Somewhere, I have an old picture of "the fleet". Think it shows a couple of the Cornbinders and maybe 3 Macks

 

I drove every one of those R models for years. I think it was around '91, the company kind of downsized and there were only 2 drivers left. Never thought we'd ever see another new truck (they actually cancelled an order in '88 I think it was)
Then in '98, they bought this "off the lot". Man, I was stylin'!! 454,13 spd, air ride.

 

That was just a wild guess on the motor, seeing the year now, I should have known. I see you are younger than me, as I started my trucking in the late 70's when we never had "big" motors. A 300 was a big motor, compared to the 237's, 238 Detroits, and 250 Cummins, or gas jobs ( yup, my 1st HD truck was a gas job in 1976) It wasn't until the late 80's when I got my own truck, a 82 Western Star, did I drive anything with 350 hp, and my red Pete had a 400,,

 

Started in '77 delivering fruit and vegetables in a 6 wheeler. Went to peddling carpet in '79, that's where I got my trailer license in '81. Carpet company started using trailers for freight in and a little bit on freight out. I think there were 1 or 2 guys with a class A, so we all got permits and everybody rode with each other. Eventually, we all had our licenses. Started hauling steel in '84...
BTW, roadtested in a 238 with no powersteering.