In the teens and 1920s, the Locomobile 48 was a mighty road giant, a car of top quality, built to last. There were lesser models of the Locomobile as well, offered during the mid-’20s when Billy Durant and Durant Motors had control of the company. But the 48 and nearly as big 90 were the stars of the Locomobile galaxy.

The 48 was so good, in fact, that the corporate heads decided to continue it, virtually unchanged, from the teens right up to the last of the 1929 Locomobiles.

When I was a kid in Oakland, Calif., I was really quite interested in old cars, and carefully read the Tribune auto classified ads — even at age 10 — looking for an occasional old car offered for sale. One day I saw a Locomobile in the classifieds. The odd name intrigued me: Was it half-locomotive and half-car?

It was the first time I’d heard of one, and I asked Mom if she would drive me over to see it. She didn’t, but she did allow me to go to see a yellow and black ‘37 Cord Coupe (a rare body type — only two coupes were built). I went there, sat on the curb near the two-of-a-kind Cord and drew a picture of it (which I colored in with crayon after I got back home).

As for Locomobiles, no others popped up in the classifieds, and I never knew what that mysterious marquee looked like until a few years later when I began collecting old-car advertisements.

Until you saw this picture and story, had YOU heard of a Locomobile? Old cars can be very interesting!

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The Chicago auto show has a reputation as a truck show, and it won’t give much ground on that this year. General Motors (GM), especially, is rolling out an intriguing array of trucks not seen at the Detroit show last month — or anywhere else.

Other automakers have a variety of models top show, including sleek coupes and updated sedans. Dodge is unveiling the production version of the Challenger at the show.

Here’s the hot stuff making its debut at the Chicago show, open to media representatives Feb. 6 and 7 and to the public Feb. 8 – 17.

2009 Hummer H3T: If you like the idea of coming full circle, pay attention. General Motors, which owns the Hummer brand name, used the Chevrolet Colorado compact pickup as the base for the Hummer H3 SUV. That’s the small (relatively) Hummer. Now, GM is stretching and tweaking the H3 back into a pickup, called H3T. It goes into production third quarter this year at Shreveport, La., and will be available with the Colorado/H3 in-line five-cylinder engine (242 hp, 242 lbs.-ft. of torque) and in the Hummer Alpha version. That’s the V-8 – 5.3 liters, 300 hp, 320 lbs.-ft. Thus equipped, GM says, the H3T Alpha tows up to 5,900 lbs., or 900 pounds more than a V-6 Jeep Liberty. Cargo bed’s 5 feet long, which GM says is plenty for dirt bikes and the like.

When Ypsilanti officials gave a 1950 fire truck to Bois Blanc Island more than 40 years ago, they never thought they would see it again.

But the Ford truck, which does not run, is back in Ypsilanti, ready to take its place in the city’s firefighting history.

The Ypsilanti City Council voted recently to transfer the title of the old truck to the Michigan Firehouse Museum in Ypsilanti for renovation. The museum wants to add the truck to its collection of about 50 fire trucks at 110 W. Cross St.

Museum curator Matt Lee said the plan is to renovate the 1950 Ford truck that was made in Lansing and is familiar to a lot of people in the city. There is no Ypsilanti fire truck at the museum, he said.

“The vehicle will end up in a happy home,” Lee said.

Fire Chief Jon Ichesco said the city used the truck for about 15 years and either gave it or sold it to the Bois Blanc Island Fire Department in the mid-1960s. The volunteer fire department there used it for several years and then parked it in the woods.

David Wheeler, who collects fire trucks as a hobby, said a retired Ypsilanti firefighter recognized the truck 10 years ago while hunting on the island and told him about it. So, Wheeler and his son traveled to the island and brought the truck back along with a 1952 Ford fire truck that belonged to Van Buren and Ypsilanti townships for possible parts.

Lee said the plan is to renovate the trucks and add them to the museum’s collection. He said the trucks were built by the John Bean Fire Apparatus Co. in Lansing, and finding parts for them should be easy because a lot of them were built during the 1950s.

The museum plans to work with Washtenaw Community College to restore the vehicles, Lee said. The college has an auto body program, and the museum hopes to save money on the renovation by having students do the work, Lee said.

The museum features 26 firefighting vehicles, including four fire trucks, two fire chief trucks, an 1886 hand pumper on loan from a private collector, hose carts, helmets and an assortment of bells that were once standard fixtures on the trucks. The museum also keeps another 30 trucks in storage, Lee said.

Much of Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC’s future success will depend on customer reaction to the latest upgrades of their full-size pickup trucks introduced to the press Sunday during the North American International Auto Show here.Ford showcased the 2009 model-year version of its keystone vehicle, the F-150. The truck has been the best selling full-size pickup truck for 30 years, according to the company, but its leadership cushion has been shrinking over the past few years as competitors, most notably Toyota, have been closing the gap.

The 2009 F-150 will have more rear seating room, more carrying and towing capacities, an integrated trailer brake controller, trailer sway control, new safety features and a new high-end trim level among its upgrades.

The Dodge Ram 1500 plays an equally important role for the Dodge division as part of the now privately owned Chrysler. The latest version of the Dodge Ram 1500, also a 2009 model-year, will have a crew cab option, the first for this full-size truck. Other features include more power and torque from the optional 5.7 liter Hemi V8, a new coil spring rear suspension for better ride and handling, and upgraded interiors, a response to customer complaints about the current offerings, company officials said.

Both models will begin production later this year and be available in the fall.

See the March issue of LIGHT & MEDIUM TRUCK for complete coverage of these models and other vehicles introduced at the show.

Toyota Motor Corp. is winning the battle for full-size pickup buyers in Texas, the biggest market for the trucks that are Detroit automakers’ best-selling models, Bloomberg News reported.

Promoting the redesigned 2007 Tundra, Toyota forced General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC to match incentive spending estimated at about $6,000 per truck, Bloomberg said. While Tundra’s Texas market share soared 79%, competitors’ shrank by 5%, said market-research firm R.L. Polk & Co.

The Texas competition will make it harder for Ford and Chrysler to benefit from the revamped F-Series and Dodge Ram pickups being unveiled at the Detroit auto show Jan. 13, Bloomberg said.

Nationally, 2007 sales soared 58% as Toyota redesigned the Tundra to vault it into the full-size category. Meanwhile, GM’s Chevrolet Silverado, Ford’s F-Series, Chrysler’s Ram and Nissan Motor Co.’s Titan fell, leading a 3.2% slide for the segment, Bloomberg said.

It may be more than a decade until technologies such as electric vehicles can have an effect on worldwide demand for oil, so General Motors Corp. is putting its near-term energy-saving focus on ethanol, Rick Wagoner, GM chairman and chief executive officer, told attendees Sunday at the North American International Auto Show here.GM is partnering with Coskata Inc., a Warrenville, Ill., company that has developed processes for making ethanol out of many degradable products, Wagoner said. He did not provide details, but a company spokesman said later that GM is a part owner of Coskata.

Ethanol is a “temporary solution” to the need to reduce petroleum use, but with six million vehicles in the United States that could run on E85, it “offers a quick alternative,” he said.

Wagoner said the federal government should do more to develop a unified energy strategy and to encourage ethanol use by helping to increase the number of ethanol fuel stations. “It’s time for the [United States] to address this matter. It’s eminently doable,” he said.

Wagoner said GM would continue its research into fuel cells and other alternative power systems. GM has several gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles on the market and is about to introduce a hybrid Chevrolet Tahoe full-size sport utility vehicle.

General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. said U.S. auto sales fell in December, capping the worst year in a decade, and predicted that 2008 probably won’t be any better, Bloomberg News reported.

GM’s sales of cars and light trucks dropped 4.4% from a year earlier. Ford’s total tumbled 9.2%, while Toyota’s fell 1.7%, Bloomberg said. Toyota moved up to second in annual sales, pushing Ford from the spot it had held since 1931.

Ford said it expects a “challenging” U.S. economy in 2008, and Toyota cut its annual sales-growth forecast, after Americans bought 16.1 million cars and light trucks last year, the least since 1998, Bloomberg reported. GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner said the U.S. economy may be a “risk” to auto sales this year.

For December, Asian automakers’ share of the U.S. market rose to 41.3% from 40.4% a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Sales of Ford’s F-Series large pickups, the best-selling U.S. vehicles, slid 22% last month and 13% for the year, Bloomberg said.

Ford Motor Co. selected Tata Motors Ltd. as the preferred bidder for Jaguar and Land Rover, putting India’s largest truckmaker in a position to take over two iconic British luxury auto brands, Bloomberg News reported.

Tata and the U.S. automaker will hold “further substantive discussions,” Ford Executive Vice President Lewis Booth said in a statement. Ford may fetch as much as 1 billion pounds ($1.98 billion) from a sale, said Stephen Pope of Cantor Fitzgerald in London, according to Bloomberg.

Buying Jaguar and Land Rover, which date back to Britain’s colonial era, would give Tata a presence outside Asia and provide access to new technology. Ford wants to sell the brands to focus on its money-losing North American business, Bloomberg said.