Barry Caulfield.

We talked to Barry about his restored Pacific on Episode One of Toll's Talking Trucks along with his brother Robby, and Harry Wills talking about logging in the old days, and Barry talked about the history of the old Pacific. Barry also has a museum of trucks he's collected as you can see in the background. Barry was also instrumental in organising what has become known as the Richardson Run, where other old truck enthusiasts went to Invercargill as a memorial to Bill Richardson, who started the Richardson Truck Museum there.

Here we all are by Barry's Pacific with Barry giving us a run down on the truck. From left is Robby, Barry, Bill and Harry.

This truck is a 100 ton rated truck, with about 300 h/p. Certainly nothing compared to today's horsepower but back then it was huge.

We took the old girl for a run up an old dusty road as it might have back in the day to get another load of logs.

It certainly was an intimidating truck for its sheer size and ruggedness.

Here's the view out the windscreen going along the same road. Looking from this angle the road doesn't look big enough to take this truck.

We did in fact meet a car coming the other way on a corner, and I bet the people in the car had to change their pants after the fright they would have got.

The Pacific's dashboard was way ahead of its time, and in front of the steering wheel is probably one of the first computers. This device recorded information about the truck's performance each day. They inserted a card into it and locked it in place.

Barry's Pacific came from NZ Forest Products and is painted up in their colours. The other big boys in the forestry game was the Kaiangaroa Logging Company and here's a line up of their Pacific's here. Most of these giants were operated on private roads especially made for them

Here's a Kaiangaroa Logging Co's Pacific with two trailers. They could haul huge loads like this because they were on private forestry roads. Barry says 100 tons wasn't out of the question.

Now here's a load of logs being hauled by a Pacific, and that's what you call a load of logs!

 

Barry had this DVD made of the Richardson Run called the Long Lap. It looks at the journey of the participating trucks that started in the North island and went to Invercargill. As the convoy progressed it was added to all the time as others joined in the trip along the way. An impressive look at many restored and fully operational old trucks of New Zealand.

For a copy you can email Barry at: bwcaulfieldltd@xtra.co.nz for the details. Or you can call me on (09) 425-6797