Packard Forum Index » General

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

Attach file:

---

  (58.24 KB)


  (119.92 KB)


  (143.72 KB)

More...

Mr. Pollard's grandson purchased an Twin Six race car that his grandfather had worked on. Here is his story regardign that car.:

Barney Pollard had worked on racers when he worked in the experimental department at Packard in the teens I became obsessed with finding some remains of the racer he worked on. My grandfather died in 1981 and sadly nine months after he died I ended buying the remains of a Packard racer built in the experimental department and raced by Ralph DePalma.

One car he had worked on was a Twin Six racer (one of two he said were built)which many "experts" said did not exist. One of the examples of this car was found in the jungle in South America and about 5 years ago was brought back to the US and restored. I have been fortunate to travel and enjoy the awards at numerous shows including Pebble Beach, Meadowbrook, Amelia Island and most recently at the Glenmoor Gathering last fall.

The neat thing is that my grandfather worked on this car and he had told me in a number of conversations that he and a friend in the Packard Experimental Department had worked on the car and had torn down the engine after one of the shakedown runs. That friend was Carl Smith. Much of the racing work was put on hold so that Packard could ramp up their efforts to build the Liberty aircraft engine to fight the Kaiser so these racecars were sadly put under wraps for the duration of the war.

He told me Carl was very interested in race cars and also worked for Ralph Depalma as one of his pitman for the car when it was at Sheepshead Bay (Packard had a racing garage there and used the track somewhat frequently for their speed tests) and also possibly for Ralph in later venues.

jalopyjournal.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-213230.html

Attach file:

---

  (100.09 KB)


  (32.44 KB)


  (198.39 KB)

Another recollection from his grandson Jim Dillon:

The cars standing on end were a sight to behold and pretty eerie at that. Although I walked in them numerous times, I always felt there was an element of danger and I would always catch hell when I got home as the grease on the cars ruined many sets of clothes.

My grandfather was fearless and he thought everyone else should be apparently. When I was 13 my grandfather suggested to my dad that I go to work in the restoration shop-he was the real patriarch of the family so his suggestion carried alot of weight. On one occasionwhen I was probably 15, some of the cars standing on end started falling and of course my grandfather nonchalantly mentioned to me to go pull them back up with a come along.

No matter your age it seemed, if you were a kid not prone to swearing, working there you somehow added many colorful phrases to your vocabulary. WTH (or worse) sometimes was as common as saying good morning or whatever. It was scary stuff working 18 or 20 feet up standing on plywood or boards across radiators pulling fallen cars with come alongs and resecuring them with wire rope.

One time when 5 or 6 cars had slipped and one had fallen through the building and the construction supply company behind us called to tell us. Well my grandfather in his understated way said "some cars have slipped-pull them back up with a come along"-easy enough.

Took all day, open heart surgery may have been easier. The only thing that helped me get the job done was the guy that I got to help me was much more afraid of heights than I was and you could never tell my grandfather you could not do it. That was not in his vernacular. Crazy times although it was a great place to grow up in and around.-Jim

A bit more from his grandson Jim Dillon when asked if the cars could be moved:

They were pretty much there for the duration. They were stood up first and then the walls and roof were installed afterwards, so to get one from the middle you would need to remove the roof and have a long reach with the crane I suppose.

It would have been possible to take a few from the one open side building in the very rear of the yard but there were enough cars on all fours without having to resort to the ones on end.

When it came time to remove them for the auctions my uncle did an unbelievable job removing them without major damage. He did it without removing the roof but took each one as it came like dominos and let them down easily, but then we knew all were coming down and there was no picking and choosing.-Jim

I think I should have given the Subject of the post a more interesting name!! Hell of a story huh??

Anyone here have a Pollard car??

Bill, Barney Pollard's construction company was in Detroit, not Chicago, at the address listed on the auction ad. I was in there a couple of times in 1978, and met Barney once. He was a legend in this area, and some of his cars are still around.

I own the the 1920 Stanley in the 3 row, last car of the photo above. BJ Pollard stamped in the right front frame rail.

Thank you for the correction on my slip of where he lived.



How cool to own one of his ex-cars!! I would think the story alone would add to the value of the car!!

Thought I would give this one a bump to the top in case anyone missed it the last time .. :)

Great story!!

A great pic of the cars!!!

Attach file:

---

  (65.10 KB)


  (86.25 KB)