The Diamond T Model 201 was a pickup truck built by the Diamond T Motor Car Company in Chicago between 1938 and 1949. It was one of only three pickups the company ever made, and it was powered by a Hercules QX-series six-cylinder engine.
Diamond T Model 201 at a glance
| Maker | Diamond T Motor Car Company, Chicago |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1905 by C. A. Tilt |
| Model | 201 pickup |
| Production | 1938–1949 |
| Engine | Hercules QX-series six-cylinder |
| Other pickups | Model 80 (1936–1938) and Model 202 |
| Cars | touring cars of up to 70 hp, 1905–1911 |
| Truck cab | all-steel cab with doors from 1933, V-style windscreen from 1935 |
| War production | commercial truck output stopped in 1942 |
| Post-war range | five models in 1946, fourteen in 1947 |
| End of the name | merged with Reo in 1967 as Diamond Reo Trucks, Inc. |
Diamond T has no Wikipedia article on the Model 201; this page is based on the section on the company’s pickups and commercial range in the article on Diamond T (based on one source).
History of the Diamond T Model 201
A company named after a shoe-maker’s logo
The Diamond T Motor Car Company was founded in Chicago in 1905 by C. A. Tilt. According to the company’s own account, the name came from Tilt’s father, a shoe-maker, who designed a logo with a large “T” for Tilt framed by a diamond, a mark of high quality. The trucks carried a hood emblem of a sled dog in harness. The firm began by building touring cars of up to 70 hp between 1905 and 1911, then turned to trucks and became known for them; by 1967, as a subsidiary of White Motor Corporation, it was merged with the Reo Motor Company to become Diamond Reo Trucks, Inc.
Three pickups in thirty years
Diamond T built only three pickup trucks: the Model 80, the Model 201 and the Model 202. All three used Hercules QX-series six-cylinder engines. The Model 80 was made from 1936 to 1938, and the Model 201 from 1938 to 1949, keeping the same basic recipe through the second half of the 1930s and the whole of the 1940s. The trucks of those years shared the improvements made across the range: in 1933 Diamond T introduced an all-steel covered cab with doors and roll-up windows, and in 1935 came a “streamlined” V-style windscreen together with mechanical updates. That cab was used on commercial and military trucks until it was replaced in 1951.
The war years and the return to civilian trucks
Diamond T sold 6,454 trucks in 1935 and 8,750 in 1936; the figures were 4,393 in 1938 and 5,412 in 1939, so the Model 201 arrived as the company was growing quickly. In 1940 Hercules six-cylinder petrol and diesel engines of up to 118 hp were used, and Cummins diesels of up to 200 hp were introduced. In 1942 commercial production was stopped for military work, and a small number of civilian trucks began to be built again in 1944 and more in 1945. In 1946, the first full year of peace production, there were five models and in 1947 fourteen, so the last Model 201s were built alongside a much broader post-war range.
Design and features
- One of three: the Model 80, the Model 201 and the Model 202 were the only pickups Diamond T ever built.
- Hercules power: every Diamond T pickup used a Hercules QX-series six-cylinder engine.
- Long life: the Model 201 stayed in production from 1938 to 1949, with a wartime interruption.
- Shared cab: the all-steel cab of 1933 with its 1935 V-style windscreen served commercial and military trucks until 1951.
- Chicago built: the truck came from the same works that supplied heavy trucks and military vehicles.
Diamond T Model 201 versions
- Model 80 (1936–1938): the first Diamond T pickup.
- Model 201 (1938–1949): the middle and longest-lived of the three pickups.
- Model 202: the third pickup of the range.
- Post-war Model 201s: trucks built after civilian production resumed in 1945, when the range had grown to fourteen models.
The same Chicago works built heavy commercial trucks such as the Diamond T 921 and the Diamond T 969, and its post-war conventional range is described in Diamond T Model 306. More vehicles are in the Diamond T collection.
Video: 1948 Diamond T 201 “Wrecker” Tow Truck For Sale at volocars.com
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Diamond T, English Wikipedia: pickup production, Hercules engines, company history
- 1948 Diamond T 201 Wrecker, YouTube: identification of the model year in the film
