Diamond Reo - A Merger, a Slow Decline, and Quiescence

Hello again folks, I’m back with another short bit of trucking history!

Today we’re taking a look and Diamond Reo, a truck manufacturer with an interesting history.

This is a Diamond Reo "C11664DBT" we picked up several years ago.

It was built during the Osterlund Inc/Diamond Reo era in Harrisburg, which I'll explain below.

It's in bad shape, but saved from scrap. The body is in good shape, but the frame is rough, and there's no engine or transmission. Another potential future project.

The company was formed in 1967, when the venerable manufacturers Diamond T and Reo Trucks were merged. This merger resulted in Diamond Reo, which was a division of White Motor Corporation.

Reo was founded in 1904 by Ransom E. Olds, who also founded Oldsmobile; Diamond T was founded by C. A. Tilt in 1905.

Diamond Reo wouldn’t stay under the White banner for very long, as in 1971 it was bought by Francis L. Cappaert of Birmingham, Alabama. Cappaert would then form the independent company Diamond Reo Trucks Inc.

This also wouldn’t last very long, as on December 6, 1974 Diamond Reo Trucks Inc would enter bankruptcy.

The next year, in 1975, the company and rights were bought by Loyal Osterlund and Ray Houseal, who would proceed to build trucks in their Harrisburg, PA, facility, which was originally a Diamond Reo dealer and shop.

As is probably obvious by the company being passed around like a hot potato, it just couldn’t really find a place in the truck market, and had only marginal success under any ownership.

Under the Osterlund/Houseal ownership this would continue to prove to be the case – the total unit production of 1978 was 131, a totally underwhelming number.

By 1985 however, the Harrisburg facility was expanded to handle 10 trucks per day, though actual production was closer to 2 per day.

Around 1995 the company would be operating under the moniker Diamond Vehicle Solutions LLC, and by the early 2000’s were marketing their “T-Line” series of trucks, which were partially built in house, but also used parts provided by other manufacturers, such as using cabs from Navistar (International).

This strategy would stagger on until 2010, when the last truck rolled out of the shop, though they would continue manufacturing parts until 2013.

At this point the company was listed as defunct.

This was not totally the end, however!

Diamond Vehicle Solutions is now operating as T-Line Trucks & Chassis, which in May 2015 announced plans to resume production of Class 6, 7, and 8 trucks.

These new trucks would be focused on vocational uses, and would include glider kits and made to order specialized units.

It appears they are/were operating under various monikers (aliases?) such as Diamond Motor Truck Corp, T-Line, and Whitman Custom Chassis.

As near as I can tell from my research, they have almost no online presence, except a few articles saying they’re building this or that, and those articles date from 2019 at the latest.

It appears they may have built a couple trucks, under the moniker Diamond Vehicle Solutions, and under their T-Line of units.

From my research this was an extremely low number of production, possibly only one prototype or demonstrator.

As of September of 2024, Whitman Custom Chassis, which I believe was the latest owner of the Diamond Reo name, is permanently closed.

So, Diamond Reo is at least dormant, but most likely a fully fallen flag. Though who knows – someone may revive the name for a line of alternative fueled rigs at some point.

And that does it for this admittedly convoluted history – as always, thanks for reading!