Barney Pollard
Posted by Bill_OBrien On 2010/7/27 20:34:40
Not sure if many know the story of Barney Pollard. he actually worked for the experimental department for packard in the teens.
Mr. Pollard ended up with a construction company in the Chicago area and ammased a huge car collection of about 1,200 cars!! He had a curious way of 'branding' his cars with a welded on 'Stolen From BJ Pollard' or 'BJ Pollard' on the front of the frame.
He started collecting in 1938 and kept them parked about his property where he parked his trucks. In flying recon missions around Detroit the government saw what Mr. Pollard had as a treasure trove for materials. The government insisted he give up the cars for the war effort.
Mr. Pollard went to Washington in an attempt to make a deal with him. He bought tons of scrap (both steel and aluminum)that they had not discovered and the deal he made was to strip all of the tires and give them all of the scrap he had found and to give up one car a week that he had to deliver to the Ford Rouge plant.
Mr. Pollard and Henry Ford were not the best of friends (due to a couple of incidents but one story as he related to the Ford writer David Lewis) as Mr. Pollard laid miles of roadbed for the railroad tracks at the rouge and Ford sent his associate Bennett to intimidate Mr. Pollard into taking less.
mr. Pollard being one hell of a tough guy told Bennett to take a hike. Long story short Mr. Pollard had many Fords in his collection and so he took over only Fords, one a week for a few weeks and then he stopped. Ford never turned him in as he figured Mr. Pollard would only continue to bring Fords.
Mr. Pollard decided he had better hide the cars from any more prying eyes so he sunk telephone poles into the ground and put 90 lb railroad rail from post to post and hung the cars from the rail with wire rope. Then he built walls around the buildings and so when you went in the buildings there were hundreds of cars hanging from their front bumpers. Crude but it saved a bunch of cars.
In April of 1976 a fire hit one of the buildings housing his cars that litterally hung from the rafters and destroyed about 100 cars. The fire was thought to have been set by a spark from a passing locomotive.
The irony is that the cars in the building were to be auctioned a month later. The cars had been stored in that building for over 40 years. During a warm spell Mr Pollard had considered removing the cars from the building in anticipation of the up-coming auction. But cold weather set in again and he decided to wait. The cars in the building were not insured.
Some of the destroyed cars include:
???? Very Early Chevy
???? One of the earliest Dodges
1909 Maxwell
1911 Cadillac
1912 Reo
1912 Oliver
1918 Olds V8
???? Marmon V-4
???? Two Packards
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Mr. Pollard ended up with a construction company in the Chicago area and ammased a huge car collection of about 1,200 cars!! He had a curious way of 'branding' his cars with a welded on 'Stolen From BJ Pollard' or 'BJ Pollard' on the front of the frame.
He started collecting in 1938 and kept them parked about his property where he parked his trucks. In flying recon missions around Detroit the government saw what Mr. Pollard had as a treasure trove for materials. The government insisted he give up the cars for the war effort.
Mr. Pollard went to Washington in an attempt to make a deal with him. He bought tons of scrap (both steel and aluminum)that they had not discovered and the deal he made was to strip all of the tires and give them all of the scrap he had found and to give up one car a week that he had to deliver to the Ford Rouge plant.
Mr. Pollard and Henry Ford were not the best of friends (due to a couple of incidents but one story as he related to the Ford writer David Lewis) as Mr. Pollard laid miles of roadbed for the railroad tracks at the rouge and Ford sent his associate Bennett to intimidate Mr. Pollard into taking less.
mr. Pollard being one hell of a tough guy told Bennett to take a hike. Long story short Mr. Pollard had many Fords in his collection and so he took over only Fords, one a week for a few weeks and then he stopped. Ford never turned him in as he figured Mr. Pollard would only continue to bring Fords.
Mr. Pollard decided he had better hide the cars from any more prying eyes so he sunk telephone poles into the ground and put 90 lb railroad rail from post to post and hung the cars from the rail with wire rope. Then he built walls around the buildings and so when you went in the buildings there were hundreds of cars hanging from their front bumpers. Crude but it saved a bunch of cars.
In April of 1976 a fire hit one of the buildings housing his cars that litterally hung from the rafters and destroyed about 100 cars. The fire was thought to have been set by a spark from a passing locomotive.
The irony is that the cars in the building were to be auctioned a month later. The cars had been stored in that building for over 40 years. During a warm spell Mr Pollard had considered removing the cars from the building in anticipation of the up-coming auction. But cold weather set in again and he decided to wait. The cars in the building were not insured.
Some of the destroyed cars include:
???? Very Early Chevy
???? One of the earliest Dodges
1909 Maxwell
1911 Cadillac
1912 Reo
1912 Oliver
1918 Olds V8
???? Marmon V-4
???? Two Packards
Attach file:
(58.24 KB)
(119.92 KB)
(143.72 KB)
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