Mystery Machine #518 - Duro Metal Products Company Bus (Further detail welcome)

[Otto Puzzell]

Not home a home improvement product retailer or contractor. Think smaller.

Locked for one more answer from you.

[pguillem]

A gardening center ?

[Otto Puzzell]

Not a retail establishment of any kind.

Open again to all.

[pguillem]

A repair company ?

[Otto Puzzell]

Not a services company.

[Bill Murray]

Could this thing have been operated by a Department of a City?

[targhediferro]

A restaurant?

[Otto Puzzell]

Could this thing have been operated by a Department of a City?

Not a municipality or government.

[Otto Puzzell]

A restaurant?

This bus was not operated by a service-sector company. 

[4popoid]

A manufacturer of earthmoving or mining equipment?

[targhediferro]

An aquarium or mini-zoo?

[pguillem]

Let's summarize : this is a shuttle bus for a company

- which is not in appliances/aircraft/automobile/radio/food/showbusiness/chemical products/furniture
- not a retailer
- not in services of any kind
- not a city or a government
- but a company which is in hard goods made of metal, wood and other materials, including bearings
- but which is not a construction company

This bus seems to be registered in Illinois. The economy of Illinois is based on services (excluded) and agricultural machinery with giant companies such as Caterpillar and John Deere.  A manufacturer of agricultural implements is not too far from the answer.

That's all I know, but I can't find the eye of the needle,    But I remain perplex with the inscription, which doesn't help me at all.  Maybe my photograph could help, if Otto allows me to post it,

[Otto Puzzell]

A manufacturer of earthmoving or mining equipment?

Think smaller

[Otto Puzzell]

An aquarium or mini-zoo?

Nothing to do with animals or public amusement.

[Otto Puzzell]

Let's summarize : this is a shuttle bus for a company

- which is not in appliances/aircraft/automobile/radio/food/showbusiness/chemical products/furniture
- not a retailer
- not in services of any kind
- not a city or a government
- but a company which is in hard goods made of metal, wood and other materials, including bearings
- but which is not a construction company

This bus seems to be registered in Illinois. The economy of Illinois is based on services (excluded) and agricultural machinery with giant companies such as Caterpillar and John Deere.  A manufacturer of agricultural implements is not too far from the answer.

That's all I know, but I can't find the eye of the needle,    But I remain perplex with the inscription, which doesn't help me at all.  Maybe my photograph could help, if Otto allows me to post it,

Sure - why not.

[pnegyesi]

a manufacturer of mobile houses?

[Bill Murray]

I salute pguillem for doing that list which I was going to do but just did not find the time.
On the back of the copy of the bus photo I printed off my PC I have almost covered the page with incorrect guesses.

From my side, the bus is a very close replica of the Union Pacific M1000 (or M10000 depending on the reference source) engine made in the 1934-1935 time period.  From what I can find, most of them were named after cities on the West Coast of the US.

The logo we see on this bus is very similar to the style of logo used on the engine for "The City of Portland" train, Portland being in Oregon. As such, I have concentrated my search to the State of Oregon.  pguillem feels it comes from Illinois and he may well be more correct than I am. 

According to Otto Puzzle, the bus was made "several years later than the engine",
quotation marks are mine, which would make it closer to what??  1938-1940 maybe?

What is really baffling is that using several dozen search parameters on Google (and I do not use SBI of course) I have not found either this photo or any other photo of a similar bus.  Given that I have found hundreds and hundreds of "Art Deco busses", "Streamlined busses" and I am tired of looking at Gilmore trucks, GMC Parade of Progress trucks and busses, Labatte brewery trucks etc. etc. I find it hard to believe such a unique bus was not discovered by some other enthusiast forum and commented on.

So for this post, may I ask if the venue of the truck Portland, Oregon?

[pguillem]

Another image of our mystery machine.

[Bill Murray]

Thank you pguillem for posting the new photo.

Sadly, it only seems to make the mystery deeper.

I agree that the license/registration plate is from Illinois.  It appears to be a "Commercial" plate with 2 numbers separated with a - and then 3 numbers and with some sort of wording on either side of the numbers.

The last two words on the top line in the logo area seem to me to say "Produce Company" as you have earlier stated.

Not to further confuse the issue, but the shape of the windscreen on the driver's side in your photo seems to be different than the shape on the entry side as in OP's photo.  This might be the way it was designed, the different angle of the two photos or there may have been two or more of these vehicles produced???

I have tried to find the names of Produce Companies in operation in Illinois in the 1934 to 1940 time frame but came up empty trying to match the first word or words.

And........even as I said earlier that this very rare bus must have been discovered on some other enthusiast forum, I cannot find your photo on the net either using the standard search parameters.

1.5 hours of searching and thinking and I am no further ahead than I was........

Snap.

[pguillem]

And........even as I said earlier that this very rare bus must have been discovered on some other enthusiast forum, I cannot find your photo on the net either using the standard search parameters.

Snap.

It is described as a beer truck from 1937 on the H.A.M.B. forum (presently getting a database error)

[Hiawatha]

Vert nice picture, I really love the beast.
As my nickname shows I am deeply interested in streamlined trains and I have spent a lot of time on this M 10000 clone, with no success of course and like you, Bill, I have seen hundreds of pictures of the Labatt's beer trucks. I'll rest for a while, in the hope that some fellow puzzler may solve the mystery.
Luciano

[pnegyesi]

Could this have been coachbuilt by the General Body Co in Chicago?

[4popoid]

I'm going to go way out on a limb, and say that this shuttle bus was the property of: The Heil Furnace Company.  At the time of the picture, Heil was headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and I agree that the license plate appears to be from Illinois, but perhaps Heil used this bus to transport commuting employees from the Chicago area to southern Wisconsin.  An alternate theory would be that the license plate is a dealers plate, and this is a builders photograph.  The bus so resembles the Union Pacific M10000, I wonder if the body wasn't built by Pullman-Standard, who built the M10000 and successors, and Pullman-Standard was located in Pullman (south Chicago), Illinois.

[Bill Murray]

Excellent detective work 4popoid.

I cannot come up with the Heil connection but am still looking around.
I agree the plate is a bit odd, it has the numbers of a commercial plate but I cannot match the writing on either side so it may well be a dealer/manufacturer plate.  Google was little help here.

I like the Pullman-Standard thought and will be looking at that some more in a bit.

In any case, I believe we are looking at a COE chassis and that would most likely put the year from 1936 or later as there weren't many COE trucks in the popular lines before then.

A most challenging puzzle to be sure.

[Otto Puzzell]

It was not used by a produce company, a beer company, nor a furnace company. I don't know who built the body.