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ROY AND SHIRLEY GRAINGER’S
1939 DIAMOND T TRUCK THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY! WORDS AND PHOTOS GREG PRICE
Invercargill’s late Bill Richardson was famous, not only for his magnificent truck collection, but also for the fact that he purportedly never sold any of them – except this one! If this truck looks in any way familiar it is probably because you may have seen it featured on the cover of Steve Reid’s Vintage Trucks and Commercials book, which was part of his Kiwi Collections series. For my part my formative years were spent perusing comics of the era which quite often had classic American trucks scattered in among the characters to add to the storyline. I vividly recall early Superman comics and New Zealand’s own Zane Grey’s King of the Royal Mounted series often had Diamond T trucks involved in their story lines somewhere. Diamond T trucks were probably favoured by the artists because they were relatively easy to sketch, with their separate grilles, single headlights mounted on the front guards, and traditional lines. Whack a canopy on the back and you’ve got the ideal vehicle for concealing something nefarious. In reality though, Diamond T trucks were a popular American workhorse, and the larger variants had a strong presence in WWII. 26 Beaded Wheels
Bill Richardson (1940-2005) for those who didn’t know, “was a loving family man, successful businessman and avid truck collector”. During his lifetime he amassed a private collection of over 170 trucks. Eventually his passion culminated in becoming the largest private automotive museum of its type in the world. Definitely worth a trip to Invercargill if you haven’t already seen it, and allow at least two full days, because the former classic motorcycle museum from Nelson has now been relocated down to Invercargill.
WHAT WAS IT ABOUT DIAMOND T TRUCKS? Back in 1905 – when automobiles were just beginning to make an appearance – Charles Arthur Tilt of Chicago, USA made the first Diamond T vehicles. Reportedly, the company name was created when Tilt’s shoe-making father fashioned a logo featuring a big T (for Tilt) framed by a diamond, which signified high quality. The company’s hood emblem on trucks was a sled dog in harness. He started out with cars but ultimately became well-known for his beautiful trucks. Tilt had a vision and wanted people to think of class and quality when they thought of Diamond T – which wasn’t the usual blurb about truck brands! In 1927-28 Tilt designed stylish
