I was sad to see the Golden Age of Trucking Museum in Middlebury, CT is closing as of July 20. As some may know, the museum was built by the late Richard Guerrera to house his truck collection. Read the entire story here:
One of the museum's trucks is the late Asa Hall's father's M-16. Below is the story of it, taken from the Museum website, by Asa himself:
On one trip from Connecticut to Maryland in late summer of 1957 my father let me drive the Bumblebee on the New Jersey Turnpike south. After about 85 miles, I got pulled over by a member of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority who was driving one of those famous 1955 Hemi Chrylser New York cruisers. I was 14 years old at the time, and, of course, too young to be licensed. The trooper had been headed northbound and thought I looked too young to be driving, but complimented me on having done a good job. Anyway, we got to experience that Chrylser Hemi power and ended up with a $15.00 fine.
By about 1958 my father phased out his trucking days in the Bumblebee and it sat in the yard for several years. Eventually parts of the wood in the body began to decay and he finally removed it from the chassis. The sleeper was taken apart as were the sides, and the platform used to pile steel on. As the wood was taken apart, almost all of the ironwood was saved and used on the new body it has today. Next, the frame was torched off which included the third axle, and it was back to a 6-wheeler again. It sat that way for 5+ years. Finally I talked my father into letting me have the truck, which he did in April of 1968. At that point I put it in storage until I convinced my friend and professional restorer, Ralph Snyder from Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, to restore the truck and chassis to a ten-wheeler. Dick and Dominick Guerrera and I trucked the Studebaker to Mount Joy on Saturday 30, September 1995 with Dicks 1974 Dodge Big Horn. The restoration was completed in September 1998 and the truck returned to Connecticut the following month.
One of the museum's trucks is the late Asa Hall's father's M-16. Below is the story of it, taken from the Museum website, by Asa himself:
On one trip from Connecticut to Maryland in late summer of 1957 my father let me drive the Bumblebee on the New Jersey Turnpike south. After about 85 miles, I got pulled over by a member of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority who was driving one of those famous 1955 Hemi Chrylser New York cruisers. I was 14 years old at the time, and, of course, too young to be licensed. The trooper had been headed northbound and thought I looked too young to be driving, but complimented me on having done a good job. Anyway, we got to experience that Chrylser Hemi power and ended up with a $15.00 fine.
By about 1958 my father phased out his trucking days in the Bumblebee and it sat in the yard for several years. Eventually parts of the wood in the body began to decay and he finally removed it from the chassis. The sleeper was taken apart as were the sides, and the platform used to pile steel on. As the wood was taken apart, almost all of the ironwood was saved and used on the new body it has today. Next, the frame was torched off which included the third axle, and it was back to a 6-wheeler again. It sat that way for 5+ years. Finally I talked my father into letting me have the truck, which he did in April of 1968. At that point I put it in storage until I convinced my friend and professional restorer, Ralph Snyder from Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, to restore the truck and chassis to a ten-wheeler. Dick and Dominick Guerrera and I trucked the Studebaker to Mount Joy on Saturday 30, September 1995 with Dicks 1974 Dodge Big Horn. The restoration was completed in September 1998 and the truck returned to Connecticut the following month.
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