As I was out driving for work down highways, biways and unstriped blacktop roads I saw a semi trailer from a trucking company I had not seen in years. It had the marking of Campbells 66 Express. A running camel was painted on the side with his tongue hanging out and snort marking coming from the nostrils. I remember the camels name was Snortin Norton. On the trailer was also painted “Snortin Norton sez, humpin to please.” Growing up we ran up and down RT 66 from Springfield MO to Chi IL and I saw them all.
What common carriers that are now a memory do you remember?
Consolidated Frieghtways / White Frieghtliners, white in color with green/red stripes. I remember long ago these tractors had air starters.
P.I.E. Pacific Intermountain Express. These guys always pulled doubles. They also triple but I never saw it.
Navajo/ Thier logo was a brave looking straight at you but I have recently seen the Navajo trucking name return with a Navajo princess for the logo.
Can’t say as I remember the camels. Who had the red and green ugly trucks with the bumpers cut off by each front wheel? Used to see them a lot until they went belly up and everyone was called back to Oregon or someplace to end it all. Maybe that was PIE. Really ugly trucks.
I remember the Campbell’s trailers but had forgotten about them decades ago and can’t even start to remember the last time I saw one of their camel trailers.
What about Mistletoe Express? They seemed to have disappeared off the face of the Earth.
A more recent one might be Arrow Trucking which I think went under here a few years ago and in a pretty inconsiderate way. Many of their drivers were left on the road with loaded rigs and non-valid fuel cards, etc.
@Bing
What you are describing are the Consolidated Frtwys before they went white in color. http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/cf_tribute.htm
The chopped bumpers were so the ends did not get into the tires (I believe). They always had the snow chains hanging on the tanks.
@meaneyedcatz Yep that’s the outfit. Really interesting pictures and a sad deal all around. Especially the KC demolition and auction. Interesting that that truck in the lake was being serviced by a green boat.
Not that long ago, but in the late 80s there was a company called South Eastern Xpress (spelled like that). On the trailers there was a large “SEX” under which the full name was displayed. A friend of my cousin’s had one of their shirts, with the large “SEX” prominently displayed.
A web search seems to indicate that they may still be running, based in Fort Worth, but I haven’t seen one of those trucks in about 20 years.