It’s been eight years since the Upper Canada Chapter of the Antique Truck Club of America moved its summer show from Kingston to Athens, Ont.

TruckNews.com was in Kingston in 2015 for that show, and in Athens for the 2016 show. With just more than 50 trucks on display that final year in Kingston, organizers were worried about running out of room.

Organizers got lucky in a round-about kind of way this year. The usual venue for the show, Centennial Park, aka the Athens Fairgrounds, had been deluged with rain this summer.

The ground was deemed too soft to support hoards of trucks and trailers, so organizers shifted the event to organizer Charlie Tackaberry’s business facility on Washburn Road, just a few miles outside of Athens.

Soft ground notwithstanding, several officials were heard saying they didn’t think they would have been able to squeeze the more than 300 trucks in attendance this year onto the grounds at Centennial Park.

What a problem to have.

We were told there were almost 275 trucks registered, plus Tackaberry dug into his collection and brought out about 30 more. They came from as far away as Manitoba, New Brunswick, Quebec, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and Virginia.

The oldest truck in display was Mike Fox’s impeccably restored — and running — 1919 Ford Model TT.

One of Fox’s other gems attracted its share of attention, a 1963 Seagrave “convertible.” It started life as a fire truck, but Fox’s restoration removed the roof, and opened up the rear-facing back bench seat. The bright orange flame motif paint job and the bold grille make you think this truck belongs in the movies.

One interesting rediscovery was Gary and Garrison Mack’s (that’s really their name) 1935 Mack BM. I last saw this truck in 2015 at the last show in Kingston. Then, the restoration was still in progress. Gary and his grandson rebuilt the truck from the ground up after buying it mostly for the engine.

This truck, at one time, hauled gasoline for BA Petroleum in Toronto and Canadian Pacific in British Columbia hauling railroad ties. Of the more than 3,000 units built, this is one of about a dozen still around.

There were a handful of trucks I hadn’t seen before, like Tom Kile’s 1930 Brockway. He’s from Homer, N.Y., and his truck is a work of art.

And perhaps the homeliest truck I’ve ever seen (opinions will differ here, I’m sure), a 1937 Studebaker J37, owned by the Keystone Museum in Colonial Heights Virginia.

Not many people are aware that Studebaker built trucks, but the company made delivery vans, pickups, mail trucks, cabovers, and even highway tractors. According to Studebaker historian, Jil McIntosh, the company started producing trucks as early as 1914.

The truck on display in Athens this year would have been from the first model year it was produced. According to Classic.com, the J-Series was available in several variants, including 1/2-ton, 3/4-ton, 1-ton, 1 1/2-ton, and 3-ton capacities. Production of the J-Series only lasted for one year before it was replaced by the K-Series.

Of course there were dozens of more contemporary “classics,” the 60s, 70s and 80s vintage Peterbilts and Kenworths that always inspire a note of nostalgia.

Between the Clifford Truck Show, held in June in Clifford, Ont., and the show in Athens, antique and classic truck fans can get a decent fix of old iron. Both shows are growing in popularity and attracting more visitors. That bodes well for the future of such shows.

Even if you’re not a fan of old trucks, if you’re involved in this industry, it’s worth a few hours’ drive to get to one of these shows and learn something of the heritage of the trucking industry. It’s full of colorful characters and equipment.

If you’re a driver with a gripe about what you’re driving today, come out and see what it was like to hand-crank your truck to start it, sit in one of the horsehair seats for a few minutes. You’ll soon appreciate how much truck technology has improved over the decades.

Photo Gallery

(All photos by Jim Park)