Vintage Pics

[Merle Coggins]

This photo was posted on a Facebook page related to history of my hometown of Ladysmith, Wisconsin. According to the story with it, this guy had just joined the State Highway Patrol. He became the 41st State Patrol Officer, hired in December of 1948. 

 

I thought you guys might appreciate the picture…

Edited April 1, 2023 by Merle Coggins

[Sniper]

Hopefully, they sprung for the optional heater, lol.  If our PD had cars like that I'd speed everywhere, lol. 

[Robin (UK)]

Love that picture, Merle. Thanks for sharing.
Here are some others I've 'harvested' from the web, through the years...

[Dan Hiebert]

Thanks for posting those!  An interesting note on the color schemes of the NYPD cars in case anyone is interested, in the first photo, the car body was green, the fenders black.  Second photo, the roof is of course white, with the same green and black body and fenders.  Growing up seeing only black & white, black, white, etc. police cars, I always thought that was a rather unique color palate for police cars.  NYPD kept that scheme into the '60s, I believe, when they changed to the light blue bodies with white roofs.  When I lived in Jersey City, NJ, across the Hudson from NYC, their city police cars had blue bodies with yellow roofs.  Must have been a northeastern seaboard thing. 

[JerseyHarold]

NYPD went to blue lower body with a white roof in 1972.  This was a mid-year change from the green/black/white color combo.

[Plymouthy Adams]

black and white curisers......panda cars...!

[Young Ed]

Interesting most of them look like 2 doors either business coupes or sedans. They must not have been willing to step up to the 4drs

[Plymouthy Adams]

harder for detainees to jump from a two door without alerting the officer......

 

 

[Dan Hiebert]

Two doors were the least expensive.

[Sniper]

Wood shampoos negated the need for the officer to transport all but the hard headedest people, then they called for the paddy wagon.

[soth122003]

Your right about the wood shampoos, Sniper. How do you think all the cops in the pics look so fit compared to todays cops.

 

Joe Lee

[Plymouthy Adams]

fewer dunkin' donut shops.....

[DonaldSmith]

Notice how many of the uniforms harken back to the horseback days.

[48jumpdoors]

So who were they thinking they could catch in these cars? hopefully they ran an overdrive in them so they could get above 65 for any amount of time.

[keithb7]

I was given another old photo of my 1938 Chrysler coupe. Here it parked on the road. Just a normal daily driver. They tell me the car in the foreground is a 1955 Hudson. So the photo was snapped at some point after that I guess.  Its neat to have these old gems of my car. 
 

[Sniper]

My 51 has been up to 70 mph.  But it's mine so I didn't run it there too long.  If it wasn't mine and I was chasing a bad guy I'd mat the pedal till I caught him or threw a rod trying.  I wonder if they had radios in them?  In which case no one outruns Motorola.

[Booger]

Dudley Do-right at your service!. Orlando had patrol officers back then? Patrol what? Cows?

Broderick Crawford in Highway Patrol. Thats a big 10-4

[Los_Control]

6 minutes ago, 48jumpdoors said:

So who were they thinking they could catch in these cars? hopefully they ran an overdrive in them so they could get above 65 for any amount of time.

I would guess because is just my opinion .... not a fact.

Looking at the years of the cars .... Who was the competition? .... Cadillac, Packard .... there were a few fast cars back then.

 

What were the road conditions?

If we are talking a high speed chase through New York City .... Traffic would limit speeds.

They did not have the quality of freeways or highways at this time .... Just because a car was capable of going faster, does not mean it was safe to go faster.

 

Mopar did have what some consider the best braking of the day.

The engines had a better oiling system then some other cars of the day .... they would run hard longer then others.

They had a good front suspension & steering compared to other cars.

Ford came out with the V8 in 1932. .... My 1951 Ford V8 factory has 5 HP more then my 1950 Dodge 218 6cyl. ..... In this time era, the 218 was quite capable.

 

You are very correct in your assumptions though .... I want to think around 1948 .... Mopar was good enough for most competition.

Was during this time that competition did get stronger .... Mopar kept up.

[48jumpdoors]

12 minutes ago, Los_Control said:

I would guess because is just my opinion .... not a fact.

Looking at the years of the cars .... Who was the competition? .... Cadillac, Packard .... there were a few fast cars back then.

 

What were the road conditions?

If we are talking a high speed chase through New York City .... Traffic would limit speeds.

They did not have the quality of freeways or highways at this time .... Just because a car was capable of going faster, does not mean it was safe to go faster.

 

Mopar did have what some consider the best braking of the day.

The engines had a better oiling system then some other cars of the day .... they would run hard longer then others.

They had a good front suspension & steering compared to other cars.

Ford came out with the V8 in 1932. .... My 1951 Ford V8 factory has 5 HP more then my 1950 Dodge 218 6cyl. ..... In this time era, the 218 was quite capable.

 

You are very correct in your assumptions though .... I want to think around 1948 .... Mopar was good enough for most competition.

Was during this time that competition did get stronger .... Mopar kept up.

its dirt roads to my parents farm and rough as heck, that old Plymouth is heavy with a light suspension and rides real nice. Dad street raced a 48 Plymouth coupe in Seattle in the early 60's. He said he had a hopped up flat six with dual carbs and Fentons (I still have the Fentons) he said that he would catch someone by surprise on occasion when he leaned on that motor! Im putting the Fentons on my P15.

[DonaldSmith]

In the photo from a few hours ago, the car in the foreground looks like a 1955 Studebaker.  But Wait!  Studebaker-Hudson?  I googled the two.  Identical twins.  

 

JUST A MINUTE...

 

It was Studebaker-Packard, and Nash-Hudson.  Studebakers and Hudsons had similar reverse-sloped "C" pillars, but the

Nash-Hudsons seemed a little fatter than the Studebaker-Packards.  

 

The car in the photo is indeed a Hudson.  On the Hudson, the back edge of the back door has the reverse slope, and there is a fixed glass panel in the door behind the moveable glass.  On the Studebaker, the top rear of the back door is vertical, while the glass and back window have the reverse slope.   The door glass does not need the fixed panel.  

Edited April 11, 2023 by DonaldSmith

[LazyK]

sister sitting on the fender/hood of "Betsy" about 1953

I don't think dad ever saw this photo as he was stationed in Germany.

 

Where the car sat from 1986 till 2013 when I retrieved it

 

Mom Dressed for work, also about 1953

 

Edited April 11, 2023 by LazyK

[48jumpdoors]

On 4/1/2023 at 4:53 PM, Robin (UK) said:

Love that picture, Merle. Thanks for sharing.
Here are some others I've 'harvested' from the web, through the years...

those guys in the coupe from the ESD look like they are having a junk on the bunk (JOB) inspection!! Thanks for the pics

[keithb7]

1938 Plymouth back in the day. 

[Happy 46R]

So adding a lilttle "North of the Border" info to this memory tells me the Mounties never had AM/FM radios in the cars until well into the 1980's when they found out it was costing them more to have the production line stopped to have the "standard equipment" removed. They never had vehicles with "air conditioning" until it became standard equipment from the manufacturer or unless they were ordering a car for the dog unit. They also changed from the black and white color scheme in late 1973 / 74 when they moved to the blue and white scheme. From there it was some where around 1994 when they went to straight white with a decal kit for accent. That was all due to reductions in cost per unit. It was some where around this time that the roof becons also changed to light bars and then more recently the LED lights installed in the lighting fixtures. This increased top speed capabilities until you factored in the hundreds of pounds of equipment they had to carry in the trunks. Early decals were unilingual english, then bilingual french and english and then reflective unilingual. Some are very collectible. Don't ask how I know all this! Dave

[Ivan_B]

Thanks for posting. Those 1940s uniform breeches with knee-high pull-on boots look great! Too bad these went out of style.