AMONG THE PUPPIES AND BUGS

This month, we feature the work of Paul Livsey, one of life’s genuinely nice blokes. Humble to the extreme, he holds a senior position at TR Group, the perfect workplace for a man who’s passionate about all things trucks. Here’s what Paul told us about his look back down the road.

“I was lucky enough to have time on my hands (but not a lot of money) in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and It allowed me to spend a lot of time at my favourite North Island picture spots, with many nights sleeping in my car. It was the era of the Mack Cruise Liners, Super Liners, Ultra Liners, and the classic Kenworth trucks I took a shine to, leading to my focus over the past 30 years of keeping track of trucks as they passed through their various owners. It was also the era of independent carriers and the transition to the aerodynamic trucks we see today. Here are a few photographs that represent the day, and focused my interest in this era in grassroots applications of loggers, flat-decks and livestock trucks.”

1) A classic stock truck of the 1980s era – a 1980 Kenworth K144 waiting to load out of a Wairarapa farm before heading back to its home base in Levin. 2) On any Saturday in the 1980s, there was always a Mack at Senton Sawmills yard in Orini. This is their 1984 Mack Cruise Liner, photographed washed up, loaded and ready for another week. 3) The Catalog, a 1993 T900 Kenworth operated by Bayline Trucking from Napier, at the 60/8 on the Napier Taupo Road. 4) Murupara Weighbridge at the railhead was always a favourite spot, especially when the Hunter Brothers 1985 Mack Super Liner, ’Super-brat’, made an appearance. 5) Craig Dixon owned this 1984 Mack Cruise Liner and for a short time it was in Moore and Chapman’s colours. It’spictured here unloaded at the Tomoana works in Hastings, ready to head home. 6) H.A. Frank’s 1990 Mack Ultra Liner in the Central Hawkes Bay. It was an impressive farm truck in the day.