4070 Tramcars

Still a few of the old Inter Transtars around, turn up at the open day/ exhihibitions. The cabovers, I mean. Always thought they were fully imported, but a bloke tells me they came out here CKD and were assembled in either Geelong or Dandenong?

Happened to be taking a bus full of locals up to Morang couple of weeks ago (will go anywhere for a feed!) and driving through Tarnagulla spotted that old 4070 on the right hand side halfway through town. Got the big "G.M.Power" sticker across the front just below the windscreen. I reckon I spotted it there at least twenty years ago, don't think it's turned a wheel in that time. At one stage it had a hand written sign propped against the front, "NOT FOR SALE", reckon they must have got jack of people trying to buy it. When we propped for lunch, asked another old truckie on the bus if he knew anything about it, said the same as me, been there for yonks with nothing done to it, maybe it's part of a deceased estate? He then said that someone or other had told him that it was a "Series 2" cab.

Heaps of blokes ran them of course, Jack Knight from Kilmore , didn't he have the jig for straightening the cabs? Bruce Panucci ran a few? Bunkers had some as well? The ones I do remember were from down Moss Vale way, used to do Ansetts rocket to Adelaide out of Sydney, iridescent blue slim lines, used to go like the clappers. Lindsay Fox had a few as well, cupla single drives with either 270 or 290 Cummins in'em. Bloke I worked for many years ago rebuilt one as a project, remember him telling me that the slim lines were notorious for cracking the metal around the radiator cap hatch and once it started, would spread in all directions. He reckons he was bringing his home when he first bought it, bobtail, hit a pot hole and the windscreen jumped out and he ran over it.

Someone will no doubt correct me here, but didn't the Air Force have a couple of these cab over 4070's on line haul work, transferring their own stores from depot to depot? Much the same set up as the Army with the Diamond Reos and later those International thingo's?

dave

Hi Dave .. about 1980, when these old things doing interstate were getting traded in regularly, most of 'em were pretty heavily cracked up around the fronts, and occasionally the rear tunnel copped it as well....

....One particular one that springs to mind had a broken rear window, so we got the windscreen guy out and replaced it. In the course of our painting activities over the days we masked up the cab and had to jack her over to paint in behind the intake/exhaust gantry. When we dropped it down and unmasked her....the bloody back window was broken again !!.....Gawd

Now its not nice to talk about old trucks and not put the piccys up....
so here we go taken at about 10 years ago...







Not a deceased estate (then) just not ready for sale, as you can tell by the fact the drivers window is down ready for a quick away... slight problem, stuck the number 7 leg out of bed...
Last time I gave it a pat, grease had long left all the seals and bearings, rubber had become dirt and what ever lived in the cab had left in disgust.

A couple of experts with cash were hard on the owners hammer but no joy.

we did have a few champion tramcar owners among us, been busy of recent times and not heard from them;

Hope you all check in again one day Baz,Pat & Rick

Those iridescent blue slim lines that did the Ansett rocket were operated by someone called Whitelaw I think. Bloke I started off-siding with at B&M had driven for them. Name rarely comes up so presumably not a long lived fleet or of significant size.

Re the cracking problems the previous owner of mine had the cab sub frame reinforced and did not have any issues after that as he did a lot of stock and grain carting with it

Came across an old magazine today....

Canberra rego, no less.....

Jarrod.

Ace gutters had whole fleet of nice looking units , we had one at russo's that always cracked around the rad cap door .

JIMBO
Those slim-lines that Whitelaw had did a lot of local work. I fitted up the air system for the lazy axle lift on one of them when I worked at Fruehauf trailers. 8V-71 with Road-ranger RTO 915 from memory. They were a nice looking truck in their day.