Keystone Truck & Tractor Museum

Just like most of you probably, I had seen the picture of the rusty semi with four equally rusty cars in the woods quite a few times, when finally I decided to hunt it down. It look a while but I finally tracked it down, it’s a 1951 Chevrolet COE 3600 Car Hauler with four 1956 Chevys. The truck was found in a field and belonged to an expansive personal collection in Wilson, NC. The four Chevys weren’t on the truck originally, they were placed there by the owner of the collection in Wilson, NC. The truck and it’s load were purchased and moved to the present location by owner of the Keystone Truck & Tractor Museum. The lettering on the doors of the semi say Anchor Motor Freight of Delaware. The 4 door hardtop Chevrolet BelAir on the bottom front has a 1967-68 NC inspection sticker in the window. Both of the cars on the top and the car on the bottom front have NC 1966 license plates.

 

 

If you search for the hauler long enough you will find sloppy pictures that claim the old truck and its load have been restored ... nope ... it's fake. The Hauler still sits in the parking lot of the Keystone Truck & Tractor Museum in Colonial Heights, Virginia in the same rusty condition. The original collector sold the hauler and the cars under the understanding that they were most likely too far gone to be restored.

 

There’s something for everyone at the sprawling Keystone Truck & Tractor Museum in Colonial Heights, Virginia. Despite its name, in addition to the 185 tractors and 100 trucks, there are about two dozen classic cars along with 10 fire engines and a handful of motorcycles, scooters, and bicycles.

The collection is rounded out with 2,000 toy trucks, plus petroliana and Americana that includes antique gas pumps, vintage tools, tobacco farming memorabilia, and a treeful of chainsaws.

 

(Museum curator Alan “Bones” Stone demonstrated the arduous process of starting the German-built 1939 Lanz one cylinder hot-bulb tractor. The Bulldog is a behemoth and takes giant amounts of courage to crank over.)

 

(The mammoth German-built 1939 Lanz Bulldog single-cylinder hot-bulb semi-diesel engine has one of the more archaic starting systems. It’s a 20-minute process that involves a blowtorch, along with the driver taking the steering wheel and shaft out of the cabin and inserting it into the side of the engine to crank it up. It’s not exactly conducive to quick startups.)

 

1939 German-Built Lanz One Cylinder Hot-Bulb Tractor

Keystone Truck & Tractor Museum Founder Keith Jones - 1939 Mack Model BM Hauling 1935 Freuhauf Trailer

1950 Freightliner Model 800 Bubble Nose Heads Up A Row Of Ancient Big Rigs

 

 1938 Minneapolis-Moline UDLX - Designed To Be Tractor/Automobile - Only 125 Produced

 

1917 International Harvester Titan 10-20 - Could Be Ran On Kerosene