[TG57Roadmaster]

Tom,

"Mahalo," does that mean you're in Hawaii? If so, then that's a pretty far-flung tanker you've got there!

@ 1984 I went to the Brooklyn Museum while living in NYC, to see their Machine Age; 1919-1941 exhibit. Smack dab in the center was a '34 Chrysler Airflow sitting amongst all manner of items designed during an era that overlapped with the Art Deco period. The industrial designers of the Machine Age considered "Deco" to be effette, and applied their skills to everyday objects like toasters, radios, cameras, vaccuum cleaners, gas stations, automobiles, and even locomotives.

One of the leaders of this movement, Walter Dorwin Teague*, designed the famed Texaco Service Station with its signature three-striped streamlined awning. Beginning in 1936, these gas stations eventually appeared across the country and were quite sensational (and widely copied). They were fre-fab units, built like erector sets and delivered to the site on a truck; completion took only a matter of days.



This 3-bay Texaco in Anderson, SC began life in 1931 as a small cottage with awning station with an outside lift and separate wash bay+. Around 1938 they built the first Teague-designed building, a 2-bay unit very similar to the one below. In 1957, it was enlarged to the 3-bay version using the 1938 footprint but with considerable alterations.



The station soldiered on till the late 90's and became a repair shop, though still owned by a "Texaco Man." When he died in 2005, the widow sold the building to the city so it and the closed Gulf station next door could be razed for a parking lot. In August 2006, the widow contacted my car club, the Hornets Nest Region, AACA in Charlotte, NC to see if anyone might be interested in some spare parts her huband had left. They called me (I live four blocks from the site), I called her, and on investigation I found I didn't need the parts.

But as I stood inside the building, looking around at the once-gleaming interior porcelain-enamelled panels, a light bulb went off. Though a bit grimy from years of service work, the building ought to "clean up" well enough; if it was erected with nuts and bolts, surely it could be dismantled the same way. And knowing what petroliana collectors pay for gas pumps and globes and signs and bathroom keys...#

I raced home and called City Hall (right next door to the station) and asked for a meeting to talk about selling the building...on ebay. Why spend the money to demolish and cart it off to a landfill, when it could be revived by some deserving collector? So very "Green," too! (Though I must add the ebay thing had been done before, just not by a municipality).

Long story short, they agreed, I listed it for them and it sold (for $3,700 after 57 bids) to a car guy who plans to reopen it as a petro/auto-themed diner/burger joint in Auburn, IN. The buyer (now a good friend) had a small crew come in, diassemble & number the parts, and hauled it away in a semi-trailer truck. The city made some money, got great publicity (even on NPR!), and I made a commission for running the auction.

Everybody won, and I can't wait to go to the annual Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Meet one day and have a double cheeseburger and a beer in the triple-bay Texaco station!



Getting back on point (and sorry for putting the gas station before the tanker), here's a post card of the Henry Ford Museum's 1939 Dodge Airflow Tanker, @ 1989 at Greenfield Village. Imagine a period B&W photo of one of these Airflow beauties topping off the tanks in front of a streamlined station...now that's a picture worth a thousand words!

Regards, and keep us posted on your progress,
Tom G.

* Teague's other design credits include the Lucky Strike cigarette package, Kodak's Brownie camera, and the body styling for the 1931 Marmon V-16.

+ An excellent research tool for the design evolution of service stations is The Field Guide to Gas Stations in Texas, published by the Texas DOT.
http://www.txdot.gov/publications/en..._stations_.pdf

# www.oldgas.com can't be beat as a source for all kinds of petroliana.

[Nollie Neill Jr]

Hi,

Contact me direct and I can email you photos of several Dodge Airflow Tankers. The one at the WPC Museum is the nices I've seen (I saw this truck in SC, years before the museum got it), the Henry Ford's is nice, but no motor, so I've been told. Have Bill Richardson's book from New Zealand, it shows a photo of the one in his museum. Found one that a Fire Department used as a tanker truck until mid 1960s and they don't know what happened to it. Was just recently in the restoration shop that use to own the one that is at the WPC Museum, this guy started the restoration, but it was later finished in Auburn Hills. He had a lot of photos of it on the wall in his new shop, here in NC.

Email me direct if you want some photos.

Nollie
dodgefiretks@hotmail.com

[Nollie Neill Jr]

Here's the Airflow tanker, that ended up as a Fire Department tanker.

[BJM]

Any ideas on how many were made? What a shame. Old cars were thought to be worthless and scarpped, by the mid fifties, these commercial trucks - same deal. Makes you wonder though, that because of their size, some might still be around.

Think about it - if it starts to sink into the mud, tires go flat, and it weighs a lot, it stays put in a yard whereas the 1985 Dodge Omni gets crushed.

Keep those eyes out for one, I would like a shot at one inmy lifetime, but probably a pipe dream.

[Nollie Neill Jr]

I've got a total wrote down or seen it in print, for some reason I'm thinking around 250-300 were built. I'll have to look for number.

At one time 2 were in KY, so I was told, but in ruff shape, then the one that was in SC, that became the WPC Museum piece. Each time I've learn of any for sale, I've called, but always out of my price range.

Of course they built a few more, with the same airflow style tanker body, but NOT what I call airflow cabs. Photo below shows the 1940 Dodge with same body as earlier Airflows.

Like you I hope more show up one day.

Nollie
NC

[elmo39]

According to a book i have (The Dodge Story) there were 236 Airflow trucks built between Dec 1934 and Feb 1940 not all were tankers some were beer trucks plus other uses.

[airflowcoupe]

Here is a photo of my tanker body.

[keiser31]

Here is a Dodge Airflow tanker truck that a friend of mine made using cast iron. He made the full length versions using the Texaco and Richfield logos. The one pictured here has been dissected to use in the "Safari set" toys. You can see the front half in the lower right side of the photo.

[keiser31]

Try this.

[keiser31]

More toy Dodge Airflow truck photos. My buddy made these cast iron toys a while ago. They are actually 1934s, but who can tell? They are about a foot long and very heavy. He even made the rubber tires! He made some with the TEXACO logo, but got a C&D letter from the execs telling him to stop.