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You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On The Road – Steve from Mendocino – Wrecking Yards 1/2

On The Road – Steve from Mendocino – Wrecking Yards 1/2

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On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

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Steve from Mendocino

During the early stages of my photo explorations I particularly enjoyed subject matter that was chaotic and broken down.  Each picture provided a puzzle to solve in how to create order out of chaos, and the age of the objects gave a wonderful textural richness.  The material works particularly well in black and white because there just isn’t that much color interest.  That was fine with me.  All I wanted was to play around with geometry in the frame.

At this point I’ve pretty much stopped taking pictures.  I’ve said what I have to say about Mendocino, and I have an endless supply of these composition puzzles from the pictures that Janie sends me to edit.  They are beautiful to begin with but mostly need some cropping to balance the elements – same as these junkyard exercises.  Apropos, she and I have just launched her website, and it’s an opportunity for you to see her work in its full glory without the limited resolution and destruction of the Balloon Juice software.  View it with a good monitor!  https://www.janiemat.com/

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Reader Interactions

15Comments

  1. 1.

    Rusty

    As a guy who loves rusty metal, old cars, old trucks, old tractors and so on, these are beyond wonderful. Thank you for the link to the higher resolution pictures. (How many other Balloon Juice gearheads are there? I have a 1942 Ford pickup I drove in high school, in a bout 800 pieces in a shed and garage awaiting time and money for a complete restoration, a 1954 Farmall Cub, and a 1976 Chevrolet Cosworth Vega, from college and this one is in my garage and is waiting for spring to get started to get back on the road).

  2. 2.

    raven

    These are awesome. The upside down tractor reminds me of a time when I was on a two-lane Hwy 83 coming back from Macon. I was with a colleague and we came around a corner and a lot truck was upside down with the engine racing at full throttle. There was another motorist who was comforting the truck driver one the side of the road and I asked him where the cutoff switch was? He told me an I climbed through the shattered windshield and shut the rig down.  There was quite a bit of fuel leaking on the ground and, if it had gone up, I would have been a goner but it didn’t. We stayed until the state troopers came and then left. My colleague was astounded, “how did you know how to do that”??

  5. 5.

    raven

    In 1939, Crown purchased the assets of the Moreland Motor Truck Co., a small truck manufacturer located in nearby Burbank, California that was an early proponent of heavy-duty 6-wheeled truck chassis. Organized by Watt L. Moreland on July 31, 1911, the firm was originally located in a small plant in East Los Angeles, but by World War I had expanded along with the Los Angeles economy to the point where a new plant was sorely needed.
    Watt L. Moreland was born on February 11, 1879, in Munsey, Indiana to John B. and Alethea (Grice) Moreland. After a public education, at the age of eighteen Moreland went to work for the Republic Iron and Steel Co. where as a machine’s apprentice he took a mechanical engineering course with the International Correspondence School.
    After three years with Republic, he was engaged by the Toledo Machine and Tool Co. as a die maker, but three months later was hired by the assembly and testing department of the Winton Motor Carriage Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, eventually being placed in charge of the mechanical engineering department of the firm’s New York branch.
    His next position was with the Haynes-Apperson Auto Co. of Kokomo, Indiana, where he helped design and build the firm’s early endurance racers. In 1902 Moreland traveled to Los Angeles on vacation, and liked California so much that he decided to remain there.
    Moreland helped organize the Magnolia Auto Co. of Riverside, California where he was the firm’s general manager. When that small automaker succumbed to threats from the Selden patent combine, he became associated with the Auto Vehicle Co. of Los Angeles as superintendent of construction. In June, 1908, Moreland helped organize the Durocar Co., a small Los Angeles-based manufacturer of automobiles, of which he became vice-president and general manager.
    Moreland eventually sold his stake In Durocar and returned to the Auto Vehicle Company as chief engineer. He eventually left AVC and after short stints with a number of Los Angeles-based automobile firms, he organized the Moreland Motor Truck Co., of which he became general manager. Moreland’s officers were as follows: R.H. Raphael, president; C. J. Kubach, vice-president, and J. L. Armer, secretary and treasurer.
    In 1917 the nearby city of Burbank enticed Moreland to build his new plant there through the donation of a $25,000 site at the corner of San Fernando Blvd. and Alameda Ave., the former site of the Luttge farm.
    Moreland’s early vehicles included four models from 1½ to 5 tons in conventional or cabover versions. In 1924 Moreland introduced the industry’s first six-wheeled truck, the TX6, which took advantage of new liberal weight limits that had been spearheaded by the firm’s founder. The TX6’s dual rear axles allowed them to carry much larger loads than 4-wheel trucks.
    The Los Angeles Fire Department eventually became a good customer and Moreland supplied their Hercules and Continental engined chassis to many of the regions small bus manufacturers, including Crown Carriage Co. During the late 20s, Moreland introduced a drop-frame bus chassis and competed against Fageol in the lucrative California bus chassis market. In fact the two firms entered into merger talks during 1931 but could not come to terms.
    Moreland continued to struggle through the Depression and in 1935 sold their huge Burbank plant and consolidated operations in a much smaller Los Angeles facility located on S. Main St. between 24th and 25th Streets. At that time Watt L. Moreland stated that the company has built in the 28 years of its life, more than 12,000 trucks, ranging in capacity from 1½ to 30 tons.
    By 1939 Moreland called it quits and sold of their chassis-building assets to Crown who combined them with their bus building operations in a new factory which was built at 2500 MacPherson Street, now East 12th Street. Moreland stayed in operation as a truck repair outlet into the 1940s and their Los Angeles facility was eventually taken over by Cook Brothers in 1949.

  8. 8.

    Rusty

    @raven: I love your trucks.  Previous to my current car (a Fiat 500 convertible of all things), I had an ’87 GMC 3/4 ton long bed, base model but with every heavy duty option.  350 with a turbo 400 and the first year of the throttle body injection.  Loved that truck, sadly totalled by a brand new Infiniti SUV running a red light.  It did keep me and then 4 year old spawn safe so it what it needed.  Prior to that was a 92 Dakota with the V6 and a 5 speed.  My 42 has the flathead 6, not the V8.

  9. 9.

    BruceFromOhio

    These are great photos! Thank you for sharing them.

    @Rusty:

    and a 1976 Chevrolet Cosworth Vega

    I had a 1975 that I bought for $100 in 1981 and beat it like a snare drum. It drank oil and ate sparkplugs, and I could never get it into 3rd gear without grinding it unless it was at the perfect combination of speed and rpms. The drivers door finally rusted shut, I had to climb in and out the window, or crawl across to the passenger door. The hood prop was a piece of 2×4 cut to length because the original hood prop went mysteriously missing. Finally the differential was spitting teeth, and the wrecking yard came and towed it out of the driveway, gave me $50 for it. Whatever you do, never let it come into contact with road salt, otherwise it will disintegrate before your very eyes.

  10. 10.

    Unique uid

    Great photos!   We moved to the country about 3x years ago, had a ’63 F100.  Found a pull your own yard about two small towns away, great selection, must have been over 500 vehicles there. The last time I went it was spring and on-and-off raining, the colors were fantastic with green grass, wet paint, rust and clouds.  Wanted to get back with my camera sometime, but drove by a few years later and it was totally gone. I couldn’t believe it, just an empty field – such a great resource gone!

    Raven: sweet Chevy truck!  My Dad had a similar vintage, but short bed and step side.  Seeing the gas tank cap there reminds me of riding in the back up to the Famous gas station and him filling up with 28 cent Regular.  I drove it some in the ’70s after I got my license, sure miss doing the 3-on-a-tree motions to get moving.

  11. 11.

    Death Panel Truck

    @raven:

    Nice! I had a ’61 Apache 10, 283, four-speed with granny and the original oil bath air cleaner. After a while I went to put a stereo into it, but discovered someone had set the system to positive ground. I repolarized the generator and got the stereo going. I had tunes, but that damned truck ate batteries for breakfast from then on. The fuel gauge didn’t work either. If I wanted to know if I had gas, I had to slam on the brakes and listen for the slosh of the gas from the tank located behind the seat. Funniest thing was, when I was almost out of gas I could hear this faint sound like a bell ringing. I never did figure out what it was or where it was coming from, but it did it every time.

  12. 12.

    JustRuss

    Brings back memories.  My high school photography teacher took us on a field trip to a wrecking yard, it was a lot of fun.  My pics didn’t come out quite as nice as yours, although I did get one I liked.

  14. 14.

    Rusty

    @JustRuss: It was really exotic for the time. A four valve per cylinder engine was unheard of even in expensive European cars. The engine really has to rev to make power, not a lot below 3500 rpm, but after it wakes up!  It’s a pure sports car experience, power steering, power brakes and air conditioning weren’t even options. All were manuals, mine has the 5 speed with overdrive that was only offered in 1976, it allowed for a steeper axle ratio, 4.10, which helped pick up with a high revving engine. It’s real strength is handing.  Chevrolet rebuilt the suspension, especially the rear, and the car has perfect 50/50 weight distribution.  It’s stiff, and the roll bars are big for the size of the car. They also came with special alloy wheels, very uncommon for that era.  At the time, one of the car mags ran it through their slalom course and it was the fastest car they ever had do it, beating Porsches, Ferraris, etc.  My dad’s comment after borrowing it for a week when his car died was it didn’t do much below 70, but after that, wow!  It is the best handling car I have ever driven and is a real fun drive.  In the end they only made 2000 in 1975 and 1500 in 1976. The 75’s are all black, as we’re the majority of 76’s.  Mine is red with a tan interior, a desirable combination.  The whole car is there, it’s got some rust but not fatal.  This spring I am going start going through the engine to get it back on the road and then do the body work over time.  There is a small but active club of owners.  There aren’t a lot of them left, I am unlikely to run into another one even at a car show.

  15. 15.

    J R in WV

    My dad was a ragtop lover, and once my younger brother was old enough to stay seated dad always had one. The first one l remember was a ’64 Studebaker with a 289. Followed by a ’68 Ford Torino, black, white top, wide gold stripes, and a 302.
    There were a couple of SL450s, but the last one was a Chrysler TC by Maserati with a V6, which I still have. It isn’t as hot as the 450 was, but is a Grand Touring car on a pretty spring day.

    I should sell it to someone who would drive it more, I’m not really a convertible guy, nor a sun worshipping guy like dad was.
    My favorite vehicle was my last PU truck, a ’08 F350 Powerstroke.

    These old junkyard photos are wonderful, thanks for sharing!

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