Marcel Pontbriand and his wife Valerie had never been to a major truck beauty show before they rolled their 20-year-old Peterbilt and dry van into Overdrive’s Pride & Polish competition at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center in Louisville.

The couple wasn’t sure what to expect. Theirs was one of some 71 custom rigs that screamed for attention, and many were veteran winners of the show truck scene.

But in the end, it was neither an old-school regular among the circuit nor an upstart rat-rod that captured both Best of Show Working Combo and People’s Choice. It was what Pontbriand calls his “Little Train of happiness,” an eclectic mix of old-school features, wooden sculptures and detailed murals of a style typically not seen on show trucks.

The Canadian from Beloeil, Quebec, has a fleet of 20 rigs in his Owner Operator Systems fleet. But the Midnight Blue Peterbilt 379 pulling a muraled 1992 48-ft. Stoughton van is his baby.

Pontbriand’s Peterbilt is both a rolling diary of his life and his tribute to the trucking/transportation industry that has put bread on his family’s table for 35 years. Now 49, he started driving trucks on Canada’s ice roads at 14, following his father, who also was a truck driver.
Pontbriand spent thousands of hours hand-painting the murals, sculpting the wood carvings, customizing the cab and sleeper, and keeping his rig in top shape.

Each item on his truck has a special meaning, too. For example, the wooden train carving spanning the trailer’s flaps is made from a piece of wood he found while delivering a load in Virginia; the pistols used as the trailer door handles are from Tombstone, Arizona; and the railroad spikes on the trailer’s sides, which he had chromed, were found alongside a spur in California.