Experienced cold weather Diesel truck owners/users needed

A buddy was moving to Texas years ago , and we all helped him pack and move. He had a great big( say, high) rental van and, someplace in Missouri he baked into and knocked down a KFC sign and got arrested for a couple days because it was a weekend and they couldnt get a judge to think up a fine until Monday..

Yeah, sorry farmerman, my bad.

Roger, you got my drift dead bang on! I should have put a smiley face on the end of the comment.

Timber absolutely great picture with some great memories. The Korean War period jet (wasn't that an elegant design? What model was that anyway... F-1?). The 50's GM models with sheet metal gauge about the same as the era's military's armored vehicles plus that absolutely wonderful locomotive...believe I once had a Lionel electric model just like it (remember when the tinsel from the Xmas tree would fall down on the track and short the damn thing out? The one piece of tinsel would quickly become 3.) All this in one picture of the Drive-In-Movie.

Uhhh... is it me or is there some blurred motion in the back seat of that chevy on the far right?

JM

Didja notice tyhe Studebaker up in the front row?

Is that it right in front of the (Chevy Nomad??) two toned station wagon?

Wasn't studebaker bought out by Chrysler? Wait, is it also a ragtop?

JM

An old-timer's memories of stuff a half century back, so expect a bit of imprecision. That said, the steam loco is a Norfolk & Western 2-6-6-4 "Class A" - 2-wheel leading truck, 2 articulated 6-whell driver trucks, and a 4-wheel trailing, or firebox, truck - a post-WWII production heavy freight design representative of the pinacle, final evolution designs of the steam era. The jet on the drive-in screen is a '51-'52 vintage North American F-86 Sabre Jet, looks to me like a like a "C" or "D" variant, though without being able to see the dorsal perspective, I can't be abdsolutely sure of which. I'm gonna say the foreground convertible strikes me as a '53 or '54 GM product, most likely a Buick Custom - might be a Supreme, but I don't think so - though it could be a Pontiac or an Olds, but the left front fender, the hood line, and what can be seen of the dash sorta says "Buick" to me. The station wagon looks to me like a '54 Dodge or De Soto, the 2-tone hardtop to it's right absolutely is a '55 Olds Rocket, and the 2-tone hardtop to the wagon's left looks like a '54 Chevy Bel Aire. The light-colored hardtop up front looks to me to be a '54 Studebaker Starliner. 'Course, I'm an oldster now, I was pretty young then, that was a long time ago, and its a pretty small photo for old eyes.

Oh, and, no, Studebaker wasn't exactly bought by Chrysler - in '54 or so, Studebaker, Hudson-Packard, and Nash-Kelvinator (including the remains of Crosley and Willis-Knight) merged, forming American Motors, which later (late 1980s) merged with Chrysler.

I'm gonna guess the photo was shot not earlier then '55, not later than '57.

Wow Timber, good eyes. This was apparently shot in some drive in in Pa or NJ, cause the Norfolk and Southern was (and is) a trunk line that shared E Coast track assets with PEnnsy. A few years ago, at an auction, I bought a photo journal; of ALL the rolling stock of the B&O, the Norfolk SOuthern, Redaing, LOS, and the PEnnsy. It was actual original photos that were done by the War Department , just before the Korean war. Its 3 very thick expandable cover ledgers of pictures of the cows only. I got the whole thing for 50 bucks figuring I could sell RR photos (8X10's) when I retired. But Ive grown so attached to em that ... you know.... from my cold dead hands. Ill look for that one train (unless this was just some trick composite photo ). Did you see any numbers?

If you're having trouble starting a diesel, something's wrong, I don't care how cold it is.... unless you have a diesel from 1935.

The Cummins we had in our school buses would start without glow plugs in -20F weather

Ill bet you plugged them in at night.

Never once. Most of our fleet had cummins 6BTs (no glow plugs) and the garage where my bus was kept didn't even have electricity. At least once a year we had double-digit sub-zeros and I never had to worry about it.

Diesel designers make sure that they'll start in whatever temps they can find. Most of them have glow plugs and will start in any temperature. If a modern diesel doesn't start because of temperature, I guarantee its because of one of two things: the fuel has gelled, or the glow plugs or their circuit have failed. The first scenario is not generally an issue since fuel companies use blends of #1 diesel (mostly kerosene) along with the normal #2 diesel to prevent that. The second scenario is shame on you for not keeping the glow plug circuit working

My 95 Powerstroke would start as low as 30F even when the glow plug relay died. After I replaced the relay, I remember starting it in Franklin, PA when it was 18 below and it fired up like it was 80 degrees outside.

Bottom line... after driving for an all-diesel bus fleet in PA, owning 3 6BT cummins, two 6.5/6.2 GM diesels, and two powerstrokes in PA, IN, Ontario, CA, TX, MD, and British Columbia, I can safely say that they'll start in darn near any weather. The old stigmas with diesels are gone. Buy one, enjoy the resale value, the torque, the reduced repairs, double the longevity of gas engines, and the joy of knowing you are reducing HC and CO emissions.

Better yet, burn biodiesel or WVO and be up to 90% carbon neutral