Diamond T

Other images of this truck can be found here: thaumadzo2.deviantart.com/art/… and thaumadzo2.deviantart.com/art/…


This 1947 Diamond T is owned by Hugh Lumgair. The truck was originally owned by Standard Gas Engine Works, the predecessor to Farm King in Morden, Manitoba. It was used to haul material from Winnipeg for the manufacturing plant in Morden.

The truck contains a Hercules engine. The original engine was replaced with an engine from a John Deer Combine by Hugh's uncle. The same engine was used in both machines.

Bob Lumgair bought the truck prior to 1956. To give you an idea of the size of this truck, Hugh has a picture of it with a thrashing machine on the back. They used the truck in 1956 to move the thrashing machine from Morden to south of Boissevain, a trip of about 2 hours on today's highways. Back then, it took considerably longer.

DIAMOND T Trucks known as “The Cadillac of Trucks” was started in 1905 by C.A. Tilt, son of a Chicago shoe manufacturer. Initially, he established a machine shop in a corner of his father’s Diamond T shoe factory and began manufacturing automobiles. The Diamond T Motorcar Company produced cars until 1911. At that point a customer asked Tilt if he could make a truck. He did, and soon Diamond T quit making cars to concentrate on trucks. By 1915 the company began selling trucks outside the Chicago area. During the First World War, Diamond T built 1500 class B trucks for the army. The company continued to grow through the 1920’s, and in 1927 and 1928 made a major change, switching from slow, heavy duty vehicles, to lighter, faster, and much more stylish trucks. The company became one of the major truck manufacturers, and from 1911 through 1966 produced over 250,000 Diamond T trucks.

While "The Handsomest Truck in America" became a long-standing slogan, Diamond T also emphasized its engineering leadership. In World War II, Diamond T produced nearly 50,000 thousand prime movers, half-tracks, army wreckers, tank tractors, and tank movers.

The White Motor Company purchased Diamond T in 1958; moving production from Chicago to Reo's manufacturing facilities in Lansing, Michigan, in 1960, creating the Lansing Division to produce Diamond T and Reo trucks. Both Diamond T and Reo ceased to be separate trucks starting in 1967 when White's new Diamond Reo Division began producing Diamond Reo trucks.