Photo Gallery: More than a century of trucks come to Athens

It was almost like the Covid pandemic never happened. After staging a virtual version of the show last year, it was business as usual at the 7th annual Athens Antique and Classic Truck Show. Most of the usual suspects were back, their trucks as well kempt as ever. The friendly conversations just picked up where they left off two years ago.

Athens, Ontario, located about 25 km west northwest of Brockville, is an easy-to-reach destination for truck owners in eastern Ontario, Quebec, and upstate New York. Attendees came from as far away as Maine, Virginia, New York City, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, as well as all over Ontario.

Organizer Dave Muir says there were 208 trucks registered this year, complemented by about 50 trucks from the Tackaberry Collection, owned by George and sons Kevin and Charlie Tackaberry. Their family business, G. Tackaberry & Sons Construction, is based in Athens.

The Athens Truck Show is a non-profit, non-competition affair. All trucks are welcome — old, new, borrowed or blue. Amazingly, the scope of trucks displayed this year spanned more than century. There were several 2022 models on the ground. The oldest was a 1919 Ford Model TT in showroom condition. There were many models from ‘40s and ‘50s, including a 1948 Peterbilt 344DT owned by Harry and Diane Kloosterman of Campbellford, Ontario, and a 1958 Mack M63T in Roadway Express colors owned by Keith Jones of Colonial Heights, Virginia.

Saturday afternoon saw the slow-truck showdown, a competition for the slowest truck — think, lowest final drive ratio. It featured a 1958 Mack wrecker and a 1980s-vintage prime-mover Peterbilt once used to move Saturn V rocket boosters. The Pete won this year, creeping along a pace slower than one can walk heel to toe. It was, well, hardly exciting. More like watching grass grow. But it’s more than a little amazing to think of the gears needed to keep these things at such slow speed.

The Athens Truck Show is sanctioned by the Antique Truck Club of America – Upper Canada Chapter.