SP piggyback, Part 2: modeling PMT

In the preceding post, I presented an overview of the history of Pacific Motor Trucking (PMT), a Southern Pacific subsidiary proving both intra-city and inter-city trucking throughout SP territory, and I showed photos of some representative PMT equipment. You can view that post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/09/sp-piggyback-part-1-pacific-motor.html . 

It is important for modeling purposes to understand the service that SP provided via PMT. What on many railroads would be LCL (Less than Car Load) package service, often in dedicated baggage or box cars, was done by PMT in SP territory, by Southern Pacific Transport Company on T&NO lines, and by Southwestern Transportation Company on the Cotton Belt (begun prior to SP control of the St. Louis Southwestern in 1932). Thus SP did not operate LCL box cars; that service was via PMT.

Naturally SP worked hard at publicizing this arrangement. Below is an example, from SP files in the Shasta Division Archives, an offprint from the Journal of Commerce issue of October 17, 1935. (At the time, PMT’s in-town service was by a separate company called Pacific Motor Transport, the successor to the original Pacific Electric Motor Transport. Pacific Motor Trucking, incorporated on April 1, 1933 to provide trucking services, absorbed the Motor Transport company in 1935).

A consequence of this fact is that modeled locations in SP territory not only do not need any provision of LCL rail service, but also means that there should be a presence of PMT equipment to represent the corresponding truck service. Here one might find anything from highway trailers, to box trucks, to local delivery vehicles. I have tried to represent all of them.

First, of course, is the semi-trailer making a road movement. Both the trailer and tractor were painted by Jim Elliott, and the tractor is in fact a Chevrolet, typical of PMT. This scene is on Bromela Road in my layout town of Ballard.

The local box truck kind of delivery is also essential to be included. Here I show one at the freight dock alongside the team track and depot in Santa Rosalia on my layout. This also is a Jim Elliott product.

Naturally there would be times when a trailer might be spotted for loading or unloading, probably at the freight house section of a depot. This is an example, pictured at the Shumala depot, of how the side door would be handy.

I don’t have a photo of a prototype PMT “step van” type of delivery truck, but the late Paul Koehler, who worked for SP and knew PMT well, told me that they did indeed own such trucks. Here’s one at the depot freight dock in my town of Ballard.

Finally, an example of a flat-bed truck, shown spotted at the freight shed in East Shumala on my layout’s team track, illustrates still another truck type. Here a very large crate is the cargo.

So the point I am making is that my layout does indeed depict railroad LCL services, just not in rail cars, but in highway equipment operated by PMT. My next post will take up the primary topic of this series of posts, namely SP piggyback operation.

Tony Thompson