More on the history of the Great
Northern Motor Freight Division shown through additional pictures.
Click on a picture
for a larger view.
A 1948 model 825
Kenworth with a 1948 Brown trailer. The unit had yet to have logos and
numbers applied.
A 1948 Stan
Warner Photo
Model 825 Kenworth no.
33 pulling a peg axle Brown trailer. This unit is sporting the old GN
Stages logo. The aircraft style peg axles on this trailer proved to be
very unsatisfactory for highway vehicle use. The trailers were returned to
Brown Mfg. in Spokane, WA to be equipped with a spring suspension system.
A 1949 Stan
Warner Photo
A 1951 view of 4 units
just out of the Great Falls terminal's wash rack. They are loaded and
ready for departure with an early morning next day arrival at their
destination point. The front trailer vent boxes are open, indicating iced
trailers with perishable goods aboard. There would be enough ice in the
bunkers to last 24 hours.
A 1951 Stan
Warner Photo
The 1949 GMC tractor
was delivered with a 504 cu. in. gasoline engine. It was replaced with a
NH220 Cummins diesel engine in 1954 giving the unit an additional 75 hp.
This required the front frame rails to be extended six inches, a rebuilt
of the hood, radiator mountings and shroud along with the radiator
grill.
A 1956 Al
Seeley Photo
A GMC tractor pulling
a Minuteman missile silo liner on a specially built tri-axle trailer. A
third rear axle was added to the tractors that handled the liners. The
liners weighed 102,000 lbs., were 62 ft. in length and 14 ft. in diameter.
Special use permits were required for most of the silo liner work.
A 1961 S.J.
Warner Photo
Two eighty ton cranes
have lifted the silo liner from the trailer and have started to lower it
into the ground. The GN Freightliner trucks moved missile silo components
from the various railheads to the missile sites in Montana and North
Dakota.
A 1962 S.J.
Warner Photo
Kenworth F31 with
Brown trailer FT405 at Elk Park hill 20 miles south of Butte, MT. This
type of combination represented the typical equipment used throughout the
area served by the trucking operation.
A 1965 Robert
Meade Photo
Two truck line
mechanics watch as the Kenworth delivery driver inspects and prepares for
unloading and final delivery of the three model 925-W 1967 tractors at the
Great Falls truck line shop-garage. The units are numbers 82, 83 and 84.
All the Stages / Freightliner power units were painted white over blue
until the introduction of Big Sky Blue in late 1968. Freightliner 4x4
units 89-93 came painted the solid Big Sky Blue.
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