John Stewart’s memories of truck stops go back to 1963, when he started driving his first 18-wheeler, a 1956 Autocar diesel. Now an owner-operator and resident of Visalia, Calif., Stewart ran routes near Los Angeles. One of the truck stops along his route, Al’s in Ripon, Calif., had more excitement than the then rookie driver had ever expected. Read about his encounters with helpful stop’s owners at “Readers Remember” on OverdriveRetro. “About the old truck stops, I could tell about a hundred of them,” Stewart writes.
In addition to a collection of readers’ memories on the site, gearheads interested in the technology that helped make the diesel engine powerful can learn about Mack’s Maxidyne diesel delopment in 1965, under “Equipment Innovations.”