Driving The Turnpike In The '50s
A recent trip over the PA Turnpike brings back trucking memories.
Jim Winsor
Executive Editor
Bear with me for a trip down Memory Lane and some "then" and "now" comparisons I hope you'll find interesting. The "now" was a trip over the Pennsylvania Turnpike last month - 300 miles from the Philadelphia area to Pittsburgh. The "then" was driving the same road as a trucker in 1954 while in college, trying to make weekend money.
If you're doing the math, that's 51 years ago and, yes, a half-century has brought about phenomenal changes, especially in tractors, horsepower and driver comfort. And the Turnpike's a lot better, too.
In case you're not familiar with the PA Turnpike, it crosses PA through and over the Allegheny Mountains. It now connects New Jersey with Ohio, a distance of about 400 miles. The original section, opened about 1940, ran from Carlisle to Irwin - basically the mountain section of the state.There are five tunnels, several measuring more than a mile long. Most of them were started by railroad builders and then abandoned. The approaching grades by today's standards are steep and curvy. In the '50s, they'd often slow a tractor-trailer down to 20 mph or less.
In 1954, Pennsylvania's maximum gross vehicle weight was only 60,000 pounds, if memory serves. Tractors were mostly two-axle, as were semis. At least 60% of highway tractors were still gasoline-powered and under 200 hp. Power trains were predominantly five-speed transmissions teamed with two-speed rear axles giving a high and low ratio in each gear position. By split shifting, there were eight useable ratios.
The alternative was an auxiliary transmission, usually two or three speeds with its own shift stick. One of the first things I had to learn was how to shift both boxes at the same time. Example: an upshift from Third Overdrive to Fourth Direct. That took two hands and required steadying the steering wheel in the crook of the left arm and reaching for the near stick, while at the same time grabbing the second stick with the right hand. If you screwed up - and I sure did for awhile - you'd end up with one or both transmissions in neutral. You were a smart driver if you could get into any gear at that point. On a grade, you'd lose so much speed you would stop and have to start all over again. That was embarrassing. Worse yet, when going downhill, many a trucker burned out his brakes trying to slow down without any engine retarding. And this was years before Jake brakes.
The Turnpike had two lanes each direction. Truckers were expected to stay in the right lane climbing the tunnel approaches. Some tried to pass and would block the second lane while creeping by a slower truck only 1 mph faster. Sometimes this maneuver took up to a half mile, really annoying the four-wheelers behind you. Today, there is a third climbing lane for slow trucks, but with today's horsepowers, I found most 80,000-pound five-axle rigs seldom dropped below 45 mph.
In my college days, it was macho - and more comfortable on hot summer days - to pull out the hand throttle (yes, big trucks had them), open the door and stand out on the running board, steering with one hand while crawling up the grades gear bound. Cabs were hot and noise was deafening. "Riding the board" at least got some air in your face.
Oh, by the way, fuel was 25 cents a gallon max. There were no commercial driver licenses in many states, including PA. And thousands like me never took a truck test. Coffee was 10 cents a cup. Tires were still predominantly tube-type. We frequently carried two spares. Turnpike tolls today run $90 for maximum gross weight over the entire length. I think I paid less than $5 in the '50s.
Did I enjoy it all? As a 21 year-old college kid, a trip to Pittsburgh and back (600 miles over two days) paid me $35. I was rich. That money paid for dinner and movies for the gal I later married right out of college. And this month it'll be 50 years. Gad, time flies! And to think, driving the PA Turnpike is where it all started.
Pardon all the nostalgia.
And thanks for listening.
