Euclid Road Machinery Co. is well-known as developing the first successful heavy-duty off-highway end-dump and bottom-dump haulers in the mid-1930s. What is much less known is that their product line of those years included an apparently brief go at medium and heavy over-the-road trucks. And not just the trucks, but also van trailers and what we now know as intermodal containers, plus the cranes and trailers to handle those.
Although technical information on the vehicles is unavailable, these rare images give a representation of the line. Given that General Motors was forced by the U. S. Department of Justice to divest the Euclid line in 1968 or face anti-trust prosecution for building both highway and off-highway trucks (which competitor International Harvester was allowed to do unmolested), one wonders if Euclid would have been similarly prosecuted had the highway trucks survived.
The Historical Construction Equipment Association (HCEA) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the history of the construction, dredging and surface mining equipment industries. With over 3,600 members in over a dozen countries, our activities include publication of a quarterly educational magazine, Equipment Echoes; operation of National Construction Equipment Museum and archives in Bowling Green, Ohio; and hosting an annual working exhibition of restored construction equipment. Our next International Convention and Old Equipment Exhibition will be September 22-24, 2023, at the National Construction Equipment Museum in Bowling Green, Ohio. The HCEA is raising funds for construction of a new purpose-built building to house its equipment collection. Individual annual memberships are $35 within the U.S. and Canada, and $55 elsewhere. We seek to develop relationships in the equipment manufacturing industry, and we offer a college scholarship for engineering and construction management students. Information is available at www.hcea.net, or by calling 419.352.5616 or e-mailing [email protected]. Scan the QR code for information on joining.
