Truck as it was on 12-3-07 before any refurbishing

Bare chassis 12-11-07 as it was ready for sand-blasting

Truck to look like this brochure picture by 9-30-08

    There were two Truck Companies that manufactured delivery trucks in the late 1920’s to early1940’s Era that were know as Gas/Electric Trucks. These two Companies were the Thorne Motor Company of Cleveland, Ohio and the Walker Vehicle Company of Chicago, Illinois. (Vintage Truck Magazine published an article in the February 2008, Vol. #15 No 6 issue about the Thorne Motor Company and Gas/Electric Trucks). Thorne stopped manufacturing trucks in 1937 and Walker stopped the end of 1941.

    Both of these companies had an unusual way of powering their trucks. They used four or six cylinder engines as the power source. Coupled to the flywheel of that gas engine was a huge generator that produced electricity while the engine was running. The electricity that the generator produced was controlled by relays and switches, that sent the electricity to an electric motor mounted in the rear of the chassis. Thorne mounted their motor forward of a typical differential and had a short drive shaft that was connected to the output shaft of the electric motor and it connected to the differential. Walker had a special designed rear axle assembly that had the electric motor installed sideways within that rear housing. There was a very small differential spider gear assembly on one end of that electric motor and the ring gear assembly was mounted inside a drum attached to each rear brake drum. These ring gears were turned by the axle shafts connected to the electric motor in the rear housing. (See picture diagram). This was a very unique method of propelling these delivery trucks. It was the forerunner design of the Diesel Locomotive power source of today.

Walker rear wheel gear assembly

Walker rear electric motor housing

Walker & Thorne engine & generator

    These Gas/Electric trucks were very easy to drive. There were no clutch/pressure plates to wear out, no gears to shift, no gear grinding, no transmission to repair, no drive–line to step over. It was just like having an automatic transmission of today. Not only was it simple to drive but the electric motors had maximum torque at the first revolution compared to the gas engine having to run at higher rpm to get maximum torque.

    The Walker Dynamotive Delivery trucks have been off the road for many years. I never saw one but I heard of them over the years in conversations now and then when we were talking about the Gas/Electric Trucks. You can imagine the surprise I had when I received an email with pictures of two trucks from a man asking me - “What are these darn trucks?” I wasn’t sure so I asked some of my knowledgeable friends. Two responded that they were Walker Dynamotive trucks. One gentleman, who is an expert on Gas/Electric trucks, said “Wow, I haven’t seen one of these in about 50 years.” After further investigation into the trucks to find their location and who owned them, I decided that I would like to take part in the restoration of these trucks if at all possible. The owner of the trucks was NATMUS (National Automobile and Truck Museum, in Auburn, IN). I contacted them through the help of the man that sent me the email. I talked to Mr. Don Grogg, Executive Director of NATMUS, and we ended up developing a Project Partnership to restore one of the Walker Dynamotive Trucks.

    I took possession of these two trucks on November 29, 2007 when they were loaded into my transport trailer and hauled to Pennsylvania. To view the step by step restoration pictures of the Walker truck, click on the phase 1, phase 2 and/or the phase 3 sections.

    My Goal was to make one restored truck out of the two units and have it completely restored and ready to exhibit at the Hershey AACA 2008 Fall Show. We completed the project in 10 months and 9 days, two days before the Show date. To the best of our knowledge and the historians of these vehicles that we have been able to contact, this is the only known Walker Dynamotive 500 Gas/Electric truck to be in existence.

    This truck has received the 2008 AACA Junior 1st at Hershey, The Senior Award at the 2009 Gettysburg AACA Eastern Region Show, was nominated for consideration of a 2009 National Award by the National Judging Committee and has received the AACA 1st Grand National Award at the New Bern NC 2010 National Show. The Walker will be shown at many different Shows each year and will also be on display in the NATMUS Museum in Auburn Indiana on a flexible schedule when possible.