A Diamond T overseas

Hi Paul,

Very happy to hear, after perhaps forty-five years, about the good old Diamond T. I always wondered what was the meaning of the “T”. We drove that truck from 1948 until 1955, when a Chevy 4400 with the famous panorama-windshield replaced him. Diamonds of the load-capacity we need were no longer available at that time.

After WWII in our country, it happened to be that, if you did very much need a truck to maintain your nutrition-business, you had to do a request at some government-office. After that to keep your case in attention of the authorities, you had to make several visits in order to lobby for a fast and positive decision. Mostly, when you got an assignment, it would be a 3 1/2 ton Ford or Chevrolet. In our case, after two years of patience, we got a 2 ½ ton Diamond T-chassis without cab (which was usual in those days), obviously with the Hercules flathead engine and spoke-wheels. The color was red and the grille very imposing. Until that moment we were keeping our business going with a second hand Chevy pickup and a cut off 1934 Plymouth with a little wooden pickup bed, who had served in the German army.

So first, we had to equip our new acquisition with a cab and a cargo bed. This was realized at the premises of a coachbuilder in a village nearby. In those times, I was a schoolboy, in the same form, there was a later Formula 1-driver, and my classmate was fond of big rigs, especially Macks. So there was much chatting about automobiles. No wonder that after some time, I got the nickname “Diamond”.

When I was eighteen years old, I was able to get got a drivers license and I could drive our Diamond in a legal way. Now I am very glad to discover on Internet that the good old Diamond is not forgotten. By the way, I live in Europe. In a small country, and we have a queen.

Greetings from Evert Jan Vermeulen