Sun Sep 08, 2013 8:11 pm by SpeedTruckBill
The Red Baby trucks were Speed Trucks. That is the model of truck of truck that they were.
There were approximately 30,000 Speed Trucks built from 1921- early 1927. The normal paint scheme was a red chassis with black cab, hood and fenders.
However only a very few of the dealer only, express body, all red, "Red Baby" trucks were built. If you can document the number of IH dealer in the US in the 20s that should give you an approximation of how many TRUE Red Baby trucks were built.
I only know of one true documented Red Baby truck. If I recall correctly it was featured sometime back in Harvester Highlights.
There was another that was claimed to be a Red Baby, sold on ebay, from Nebraska as I recall. It had a farm grain box bed which would have been of no use to a farm equipment dealer. It also did not have the express body, full length running boards and rear fenders that a Red Baby would have had. It did have the remains of a large letter C on the door, but I could make out nothing of an IH inside of the C. In my opinion from what I could see the trucks original owner could have as easily have been the Coldwater Co-op, Coldwater Nebraska.
I could be a 100% wrong on the second truck, but from the photo evidence I was convinced it was not a true Red Baby and did not bid on it.
Bill