ATTERBURY

Atterbury Motor Car Co. (1910-1912)
Atterbury Motor Truck Co. (1912-1935)
Buffalo, New York

This is an Atterbury radiator emblem (1926-c1932)    mjs
Size: 50mm diameter   MM: Unknown

The Auto Car Equipment Company of Buffalo, New York offered a variety of gasoline and electric trucks under the Auto Car name from 1904 to 1908, at which time the product name became the Buffalo and the company name was changed to the Atterbury Manufacturing Company to avoid confusion with the Autocar from Pennsylvania. In 1910, there was yet another change to the Atterbury Motor Car Company and its vehicles were then called Atterbury.

Atterbury started as a conventional truck. Within a year of the start of production a range of trucks was offered from 1-ton to 5-ton capacity. Atterbury produced a huge 10-passenger touring car in 1911 for one season only but very few were made. Atterbury also offered a sightseeing bus in 1912. From 1917, worm drive replaced chain drive on Atterbury trucks and Continental engines were used. The 1-1/2-ton Atterbury Highway Express speed truck appeared in 1924 with a smaller Atterbury Speedy Six introduced in 1926 in the 1 to 1-1/4-ton capacity range. A 1-1/2-ton to 2-ton  Silver Anniversary model appeared in 1929, by which time the complete Atterbury truck range extended to 7-tons. 

Production of the Atterbury was never high and sales were mainly concentrated in the area around Buffalo, New York and into Ontario, Canada. Atterbury could not compete with its larger local rivals,  Stewart and Pierce-Arrow, especially after the Depression and it was all over by 1935. The last Atterbury trucks were 2-ton to 5-ton capacity models.

Emblems

The first Atterbury trucks in 1910 did not carry an emblem on the brass radiator top but displayed the "Atterbury" name on a brass script attached to the radiator core, which can just be seen in the following photo on an Atterbury advertisement from 1910:

Atterbury trucks ad (1910)     americanicons

Atterbury Model L 1-1/2-ton truck with radiator script (1910)

The following is an example of the Atterbury radiator script. Original Atterbury radiator scripts are rare:

Atterbury radiator script design (c1910)   ms

The heavier duty Atterbury trucks had a cast iron radiator with a flanged tank top, which displayed a painted cast metal "Atterbury" radiator emblem, see 1917 example shown below. This cast metal Atterbury radiator emblem is also inscribed "Buffalo" below the "Atterbury" name. This Atterbury advertisement also shows an inverted triangle Atterbury logo or trademark.

Atterbury truck ad with cast emblem & logo (1917) eBay

Illustration showing cast rad emblem (1917)

The cast Atterbury radiator emblem had lost its "Buffalo" inscription by 1920, see surviving Atterbury truck example shown below:

Atterbury truck showing cast rad emblem (1920) trucksplanet

On some models the "Atterbury" name was also displayed on truck body side nameplates mounted  under the entrance to the driver's cab, see examples shown below:

Atterbury truck ad showing body side nameplate under driver's entrance (1919)   eBay

Atterbury 2-ton truck showing body side nameplate (1920) pinterest

The 1920 Atterbury two-ton truck shown above also displays the inverted triangle "Atterbury" logo or trademark on the chassis frame member probably attached using a decal.

The following photo shows an Atterbury Highway Express Jr. with a cast in radiator emblem. The "Atterbury" name is also shown displayed on the main chassis frame member under the driver's cab:

Atterbury Highway Express with cast rad emblem & chassis frame nameplate (1924)  pinterest

Heavy duty Atterbury models had a new cast in radiator emblem by 1926 inscribed "Atterbury Buffalo", see example shown below:

Atterbury 5-ton truck (1926)     classiccarweekly 

Atterbury heavy duty trucks also displayed the "Atterbury" name on hood side nameplates, see examples shown below:

Atterbury dump truck with hood side nameplate (1928)   ms

Atterbury truck showing hood side nameplate (1929)   ccj

The following is an Atterbury hood side nameplate. Atterbury nameplates are scarce.

This is an Atterbury hood side nameplate (c1928-1935)    mjs
Size: 355mm wide 64mm high

The Atterbury six-cylinder Speedy Six 1-1/4-ton truck appeared in 1926 and carried a round radiator emblem, see following factory photo of an Atterbury Speedy Six chassis:

This is an Atterbury Speedy Six chassis with a round radiator emblem (1926-1928)   autopaper

The round radiator emblem was used on some low duty Atterbury models up to 1930, see example shown below, and possibly to about 1932:

This is an Atterbury showing a round radiator emblem & hood side nameplate (1930)     mroz

This is the blue and white enamel Atterbury radiator emblem shown above at the top of this post and again below. This Atterbury radiator emblem is very rare.

This is an Atterbury radiator emblem (1926-c1932)   mjs
Size: 50mm diameter    MM: Unknown

The following photo shows a similar Atterbury radiator emblem, but this emblem is also inscribed "Ward LaFrance" at the bottom. 

This is an Atterbury Ward LaFrance radiator emblem (1930's) sam
Size:Unknown    MM: Unknown

This Atterbury Ward LaFrance radiator emblem is extremely rare but is a mystery, as I can find no evidence of a link between Atterbury and Ward LaFrance. It is possible that Atterbury built some fire trucks for Ward LaFrance and this was the radiator emblem but I cannot confirm this. If you have details of any link between these companies, please let me know, in order to update this post.

Some Atterbury truck models, possibly the Silver Anniversary model, carried a very different Atterbury radiator emblem on a specially shaped radiator shell from about 1929, see advertising illustrations shown below:

Atterbury Marathon Six showing radiator emblem (1929)   americanikons

This is an Atterbury truck showing a radiator emblem (1930)    ccj 

Unfortunately, the detailed design of this emblem cannot be seen from available illustrations. If you have better details, please let me know, in order to update this post.