Photographer Robert Ward, of Davenport, Iowa, published three photo essays 44 years ago of some of the most prominent trucks of the 1940s and ’50s. In OverdriveRetro’s Readers Remember section, he describes growing up near Harlan’s Triangle Truckport on U.S. Highway 6 and how he fell in love with trucks and archiving photos.

His photo essay in Overdrive, ”The Good Ol’ Days,” Part 1, had 12 photos, including this 1958 so-called “Wide Track.” Ward queried readers: ”Who can remember [this truck]? It’s not made by Pontiac.”

He also featured a 1950 Diamond T that had a factory sleeper, shown below. Owner-operator Ernie Fyke, a resident of Hammond, Ind., owned the rig, which was equipped with a 180-hp Cummins. It had a swing-out windshield, and the four sleeper windows could be rolled down for ventilation, in the era before air conditioning units.

Ward appreciated some of the customized parts on trucks, like the one shown below with stacks and air horns on the hood of the 1948 GMC “6-banger,” he writes in the cutline. The truck came with a factory sleeper.