The Hyster 1.50 is a lift truck from Hyster, the American materials-handling company founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1929. Its designation is written in metric form, a 1.50XL version appears in the video below, and the truck belongs to a range sold through five world regions. No Wikipedia article covers the 1.50 itself, so this page sets it against the history of the company that built it.
Hyster 1.50 at a glance
| Maker | Hyster Company, Portland, Oregon |
|---|---|
| Type | lift truck, materials handling |
| Model designation | Hyster 1.50 |
| Metric designation | 1.50, written in tonnes |
| Variant in the video | Hyster 1.50XL |
| Company founded | 1929, as the Willamette-Ersted Company |
| Owner from 1989 | NACCO Industries |
| Owner from 2012 | Hyster-Yale Materials Handling |
| Plants | Illinois, the Netherlands, China, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Northern Ireland, South Africa |
| Engineering department | Irvine, Scotland |
| Name origin | from the loggers’ call ‘hoist ’er’ |
| Distribution | five world regions, from North America to Asia-Pacific |
No Wikipedia article covers the Hyster 1.50: the facts here come from the English Wikipedia article on Hyster Company, a single source, together with the video below.
History of the Hyster 1.50
The 1.50 in the records
The Hyster 1.50 survives in the site’s older records under its number alone, and the video below shows a 1.50XL example. Hyster is an American manufacturing company specialising in forklifts and other materials-handling equipment, so the 1.50 belongs to the lift-truck side of the business rather than to the compaction machinery the firm was also known for.
1929: logging roots in Portland
Hyster was founded in 1929 as the Willamette-Ersted Company in Portland, Oregon. The name is said to come from the Pacific Northwest logging trade of the late nineteenth century: when a load of lumber was ready to be moved, a logger would shout ‘hoist ’er’, and according to the Hyster Company web page the phrase became a synonym for Hyster trucks. The home office stayed in Portland while production spread to Berea, Danville, Peoria and Kewanee in Illinois, the Netherlands, China, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Craigavon in Northern Ireland and South Africa, with a specialist engineering department in Irvine, Scotland.
1989 and 2012: two changes of ownership
NACCO Industries bought the company in 1989 and made it part of NACCO Materials Handling Group. In 2012 NACCO spun the materials-handling business off as Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Inc., which continues to market products under the Hyster name. Distribution and support are organised around major world regions: North America; Latin America; Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and Asia-Pacific.
Design and features
- Metric model number: the designation is written as 1.50 rather than as a plain whole number.
- Lift-truck line: part of the forklift and materials-handling range that gave Hyster its name.
- 1.50XL: the variant named in the video below.
- Global support: distribution arranged around five world regions, from North America to Asia-Pacific.
- Industrial pedigree: Hyster also built compaction machinery, road-rollers, logging winches and attachments for other makers’ machines.
Hyster 1.50 versions
- Hyster 1.50: the model covered on this page.
- Hyster 1.50XL: the version shown in the video below.
- Metric-numbered sister: the Hyster 2.50 is the other metric designation in the collection.
- Pound-numbered trucks: the rest of the range uses plain numbers, from the Hyster 50 upwards.
The Hyster 2.50 is the other metric-numbered truck in the collection, and the S series covers the smaller end of the range. All Hyster trucks are in the Hyster collection.
Video: HYSTER 1.50XL
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Hyster Company, English Wikipedia: company history, ownership, plants, name origin
