Freightliner kicked off its 60th anniversary celebration at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky., last week with the display of two historic trucks.

The display included a 1942 Freightliner COE and a 1930s-era conventional truck, both fully restored to original condition. The trucks will be featured at company and industry events throughout the year.
The 1942 Freightliner Bubblenose COE, a truck with an all-aluminum cab, helped revolutionize how highway trucks are built. Lighter than competitors' trucks by at least one ton, Freightliner's COEs allowed operators to haul more payload and increase their revenue, making it the industry's first practical cab-over-engine truck.
The restored conventional began its working life as a 1937 Fageol and was one of dozens of "no-name" conventional trucks rebuilt and recycled by Consolidated Freightways Inc. in the 1940s when new trucks were not available. The trucks were dubbed "no-name" conventionals because they didn't carry a manufacturer's nameplate. The historic conventional was used as a wrecker unit for the Consolidated Freightways fleet into the late 1950s.
Freightliner's beginnings are intertwined with those of Consolidated Freightways Inc. and with Leland James, the founder of both companies. James wanted lightweight, more durable trucks that could haul more legal payload for his trucking company. He was dissatisfied with the designs of the day and the response from existing truck manufacturers, so James took up the project himself and began experimenting with lightweight designs using aluminum components.

In 1940, Portland, Ore.-based Consolidated Freightways Inc. and five Western motor carriers joined together to form Freightways Manufacturing Company Inc. The partner companies shared the vision of a lightweight, longhaul truck that would allow for higher payloads. Working out of a small garage in Salt Lake City, Utah, Freightways Manufacturing managed to design and produce an innovative COE truck that featured weight-saving aluminum components, so operators could haul more freight.
The hyphenated "Freight-Liner" nameplate first appeared on a Freightways truck in 1940, referring to the truck-and-trailer combination that the company then built. The Freightliner nameplate first appeared on a truck in the summer of 1941.
In August 1942, Freightways Manufacturing Company Inc. changed its name to Freightliner Corp.
By mid-1942 the Utah plant was building parts for airplanes and ships but was shut down in 1944 for the balance of World War II. Freightliner resumed operations in Portland, Oregon, in 1947, with a small factory near the Consolidated Freightways facilities. The company produced 30 trucks that year for Consolidated Freightways, and 40 in 1948 when it began sales to other carriers.
In 1950, Freightliner inked a sales agreement with White Motor Corporation that lasted until 1977. Freightliner built custom trucks and White dealers sold them. Freightliner debuted its long-nose conventional in 1973 and set up its own independent dealer network in 1976.
Freightliner was acquired by Daimler-Benz AG in 1981, setting the stage for dramatic increases in production and sales, as well as expansion into export markets.
Today, the company markets and sells heavy- and medium-duty trucks under three brands - Sterling (started in 1998 after the acquisition of Ford's heavy truck business), Western Star (acquired in 2000) and the traditional Freightliner brand.
The Freightliner LLC family of companies now also includes American LaFrance (fire and emergency services vehicles), Thomas Built Buses (school buses) and Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation (chassis for walk-in delivery vans, school and shuttle buses and motor homes).