Special Delivery: 1957 Cushman Mailster
If I would have been driving a mail vehicle in the late-1950s I would have wanted something like this 1957 Cushman Mailster. This project package purveyor is listed on eBay with an unmet opening bid of $2,000 and even at that the reserve won’t be met. It’s located in El Paso, Texas.
You can see a bit (lot?) of rust in the first photo which surprises me for a vehicle from beautiful and bone-dry El Paso. Or maybe it isn’t from there originally. I see three-wheelers in a few big cities around the country and they’re usually for checking parking meters and/or writing parking tickets but I have never seen a mail vehicle in three-wheel format. We have written about these vehicles in the past and they’re pretty unique. Some of them can sell for decent money in restored condition but this one will take a lot of work and a fair amount of money to bring it back to perfection again. The US Postal Service had a contract with Cushman out of Lincoln, Nebraska for 1,500 of these vehicles and there aren’t a ton of them around anymore.
Unfortunately, there are no photos of the other side, the back, the inside, the storage area, or the engine. The photos in the listing are basically just of this one side and the front. Mailsters were made by seven companies of which Cushman was one of those companies. Here is the seller’s entire description: “Complete. Not running.” With Cushman being sold to OMC (Outboard Marine Corporation) in May of 1957 I’m not sure what engine would be in this example but this one should have a three-speed manual and would have had a top speed of around 35 mph. That’s fast enough in a tippy three-wheeler. Have any of you seen one of these before?
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Comments
Yay,,,Scotty’s back ( and plenty of oddballs for us, and to the editors, we LOVE Scotty’s oddballs). Almost bought one of these, ( it’s still sitting there), guy wanted $1,000 bucks, he claimed it ran. Newer and looked better than this, I’d have given him maybe $700. Now, if this only had a Cummins diesel,,,
The Mustie 1 you tube channel has a meter maid. Lots of footage on mechanicals. A suburb of Columbus, Ohio used Trucksters to collect garbage. The went up the driveways so you didn’t have to take cans to the curb; and you didn’t look at your neighbor’s garbage. The Trucksters then emptied thir load in a larger truck. The were entertaining in the snow.
In my travels over the last 60 plus years I recall seeing a fleet of these sitting in a fenced lot but, I can’t remember where it was. I’m guessing they were for suburban mail delivery but, I just can’t place it even after seeing them many, many times.
Rural trash collectors used these, or in subdivisions. They’d park the big trash truck, and these would scurry around and pick up the trash and take it back to the big truck.
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/40126553@N03/tags/cushman/
They were used extensively in suburban post offices. I was a letter carrier for 5 years and came in right after the 1970 strike, when they had just retired the mailsters in favor of the 4 cylinder AMC Jeep. Sad that I never got to drive a mailster.
I rebuilt a Cushman similar to this a couple of years ago. Lots of fun, but the availability and prices for parts can be pretty depressing. I understand it’s a real niche market and all and a lot of the parts suppliers do it for a hobby.
When I finally finished it, the novelty wore off quickly.
Still had fun doing it.
In the 70’s my dad used one of these to get around his property like people today use a “Gator”. I believe his was a “Westcoaster” and it was still done up in mail colors. It had a fiberglas body and a two cylinder Onan engine. “Half-Pint” was like a member of the family.
Dreamed of driving one when I was growing up in FL. Only needed a drivers learning permit to drive (at 15). They were used by the USPS in Miami, FL.
Cool, Scotty does it again! I remember when these were all over El Paso in the early 1960s delivering mail. The poster on the back is a great bit of history. Zip codes were introduced in 1963. My stepmother’s brother in law (what does that make him?) Len delivered mail in one just like this. He drove it home and parked it beside the house every day. The post office had little low boy flats you’d see picking up and delivering these to the mail carriers.
They were better than walking and being rained on, but no one at the US Post Office missed them when they left.
When I worked at the Indianapolis P.O. in the 70’s, I talked with guys who carried mail in these impractical buggies. You are correct that the carriers (and their supervisors who had to file the accident reports) were glad to see them upgraded to 4-wheel vehicles – these easily tipped going over the diagonal railroad grade crossings. The driver would instinctively put out his foot to catch it. Very cold. Not enough capacity for big routes. Slow and dangerous in traffic. No security for contents when walking a loop. But they look retro great.
A local company, Precision castparts Corp had one of these in the Maint. Dept at the Clackamas plant, it was a pickup version with a small bed on the back. I dont recall which engine it had but had a chain drive to the rear end. One day I did an inspection on it and was shocked how loose the chain was so repaired and serviced it. I left the company but for all I know they still have it.
Small block Chevy, rock crusher and Dana axle. Nuff said!
Man, those bring back memories. They were everywhere in the Norfolk, Va metropolitan area back in the sixties. As kids we used to follow the mailman around on our bikes. Those were the days!
In the late ’60’s, my Uncle Bob, who lived in central Oklahoma, bought one of these at a government surplus auction in Oklahoma City for $75!. It ran. 3 on the tree and engine under the seat. I was utterly fascinated at the age of 10. My cousin sort of dinged up the top driving under the low end of the shed far too fast. My elderly maternal grandfather eventually flipped it on it’s side (he wasn’t hurt, though). I think I rode in (on?) it as a passenger once or twice on our annual trips home.