Tractor trailer lengths - Model Railroader Magazine
40-foot trailers were authorized by Congress for all states following the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 (the one that established the Interstate Highway System). I think the actual legislation might have been enacted in 1957. In any event, they started becoming common in about 1958 and would have been very common by 1962. Of course, there were still plenty of shorter trailers, including various lengths used in tofcee service. The real short trailers had been replaced by straight trucks with 20-24-foot van bodies.
45-foot trailers came into nationwide use in the mid-1970s following the Federal-Aid Highways Amendments of 1974. Some were already in use in the states which permitted them but I don't think they went back as far as 1962.
48-foot and 28-foot doubles were allowed nationwide following changes to the Federal Bridge Formula in 1982. That was also the year maximum trailer width was increased to the current 102 inches. Prior to that, 96 inches was the typical maximum. So be careful of trailer widths on 40-foot trailers if you want to be purely prototypical or if rivet-counters with calipers are among your frequent guests.
A link to Hank's Truck Pictures was provided in a prior response; it is an excellent visual reference for trucks and trailers of the period. You'll see that most tractors in 1962 were single-axle types as that was plenty for the typical cargo weights in those days. If you want some tandems, that's fine, but they were actually used for heavy loads. Don't forget, 1962 was in the pre-deregulation days when most tractor-trailer rigs were owned by shipping companies that didn't want to waste money on excess power when it wasn't needed.
Containers were a hodge-podge of sizes in the early 1960s, which was still quite early in the history of intermodal container shipping. The ISO didn't establish the 20-foot and 40-foot lengths until 1961 and standardization in the U.S. didn't really take hold until after 1968. In the early 1960s, Matson had 24-foot containers and Sea-Land had 35-foot containers. One of the railroads had 21-foot containers. It's probably easier to just stick with tofcee trailers as the container models on the market (that I know of) are all too modern.
Some suggested ready-to-run tractors would include CMW's International R-190 and the White WC-22. The White, although it's incorrectly labeled in some places as a '40s-era truck, was actually built from 1950 to 1959. The R-190 was introduced the same year (1954) as the Mack B offered by Athearn, another good choice. If you ignore the badging, the Athearn Ford C could also be used as the basic cab design dates back to the fall of 1956 and it had returned to the single headlight in 1961 (the Ford C used quads from 1958 to 1960). The Mack B remained in production from 1954 to 1966 when it was replaced by the R-series. I know Mack claims the B was introduced in 1949, but the American Truck Historical Society notes Mack Bs didn't start being registered (i.e., sold) until late 1953-early 1954. Sylvan Scale Models also has some excellent resin kits of trucks that would be suitable.
Incidentally, it's a slight stretch, but if Athearn offers their Ford F-850 as a single-axle tractor, it could be suitable as a brand-new 1963 model-year truck in the fall of 1962. The markings on the Athearn model would indicate the prototype was a truck produced between 1963 and 1967. Contrary to what Athearn initially claimed, it can't be a 1968 truck as it doesn't have the changes Ford made to comply with new federal safety regulations.
Most of the trucks offered by Herpa/Promotex are too modern. However, the "Peterbilt COE" looks a lot like the 1961 Kenworth K100, so I'd be inclined to call it a KW and use it in either the single-axle or tandem-axle configuration. It has the additional advantage of being less than ten bucks.
Forget the cheapies at Wal-Mart; they're all too modern.
