For years, my dad was a long-haul trucker. We picked him up from the truck, we drove him to the truck, and in-between, the eighteen-wheeler Kenworth that he piloted pretty much dictated every last waking moment around the house. The trip to and from the depot where he was based out of meant some time driving along Illinois Route 3, the state highway that runs parallel to the Mississippi River. As we would make the drive up to the terminal in a white Chevrolet Cavalier wagon that deserved to be nothing more than a chock block for one of the trailers, we got a second show: the occasional train that was running along the Illinois Central Railroad. When you’re a young kid, big trucks and trains are just awesome. The size of the machine and the idea that you can just hop into one and go roam the country and get paid for the privilege…to a kid in elementary school, that’s the dream. Of course, the lure of money and, at least for the 1990s, the influence of adults who thought that working with your hands meant a lifetime of drudgery meant that the dream soon got pushed out of mind.
What you’re looking. at is a Brandt power unit. Brandt is a Canadian company that converts heavy-duty semi cab units into railway-ready workhorses. In this case, a Peterbilt setup has been repurposed to haul railcars around on the tracks like a locomotive. It’s not going to crate around a full train that’s loaded for bear, but it does combine the world of big rigs with the world of trains. Imagine the looks on kids’ faces when you tell them what you do for a living. It might not be glamorous and it won’t dump cash into your bank account by the ton, but all the same it isn’t a bad way to go!
is this the 3rd or 4th time this truck has been blogged? Not a bad write-up, mind you, but pretty light on the Ooga and there is absolutely zero Booga. Never forget the booga.