2014 HCVC DISPLAY DAY

Hi all.
The Green van may be a Thames, but I think it was also sold as an Anglia in the UK. A Very great friend of mine ( witness at my wedding , but now deceased) used to have one. It had 3 gears I remember and Reverse was top left on the 4 notch H gate. I drove it many times when Nick was a bit 'Titted', a great little van. 7cwt ( 7 x 112LB) capacity. Had a brain fart...the Anglia had windows in the side and 2 rows of seats I think...

Cheers
RS

I would hazard a guess, that van is a 100E Prefect ?
(Could be re badged?)
But I have been wrong many times before

Could be on the money thee Chocs............I may be wrong too though. And that silver ute??? No flutes in the bonnet so it's not a Vauxhall but I'm thinking a Bedford..........

Yes could be a Prefect...
We also had a version called the Escort..

Cheers
RS

My thoughts on the event are fantastic venue.

But the way the vehicles were set out could be made a lot better.

Hi Trevor,

Having been there on Saturday, I can honestly say that it would have been very difficult to lay the vehicles out to any plan, as it was not really known when or if some if the vehicles would arrive.

I thought the display was exceptional considering the amount of vehicles and congratulate all involved.

Luckily we did not have to worry about rain, but I feel sure with the large amount of hard roads and surfaces, many trees,mand also the covered area, it wouldn't nt present a major problem.
I experienced the 45mm of rain at the 2009 show and know where I would rather have been !

Cheers
RS

We seemed to get a lot more "passing traffic" then Sandown. I spoke to several people who were doing a winery weekend, saw the signs and dropped in for a look at something different. They expected to stay about an hour and were still wandering around 2 hours later. Most planned to come back again with others next year.

I had an interesting conversation with 2 of Roland's countrymen. They were in the Yarra Valley for a few days and decided to have a quick look. They were intrigued by the XP ute as they had never seen anything like it in the flesh or on film/tv. They were into old machinery and encouraging me to take it to the UK for the Great Dorset Steam Fair. If they had offered to sponsor it I might have signed up!

I saw them leaving as I drove out about 3pm so they had spent all day wandering around the show.

I had comments from a couple of truckies and some of the bus people that rain might cause trouble.
As a spectator, I thought that I had covered the lot: then found the trucks, buses and military outside the high fence, towards the playing field. Perhaps a crude map showing the zones could be included in the catalog? Or, just a large one on an easel at each of the two main entries? That way, it wouldn't matter if the first sight is of cars rather than trucks. People parking in the western carpark would use the main entry, and hence cars first. People parking in the overflow, at the football oval, would see trucks, buses & military first, then enter with food & stalls right, and trucks left. The range of food and beverage outlets seemed to be the right scale and style. As I arrived by route bus, I saw the prominent signs on the former Melba Hwy through the town; I guess that there were similar signs on the bypass highway: one more duty which somebody had to undertake, but a very useful (and valuable) one. I guess that someone has a spreadsheet with all of the advance entries. Is it possible to pull out the personal information, and put up a list of prebooked vehicles (I guess make, model, year would suffice)? I appreciated provision of signs by many owners, giving an outline of the vehicle's history. Some were elaborate, and go from show to show; others were simple and quick; all helped give a better understanding of the item. The bus brigade was particularly helpful in that regard. We do much the same in the wooden-boat fraternity, and such signs are common at airshows.
It would be interesting to compare patronage with some Sandown events, but the figures must be related to weather too, not just venue. I didn't see any publicity in my daily Herald Sun, but perhaps I was skimming too fast: how did the general public find out?
One heartwarming sight was the radio-controlled model truck and earthmoving display; that one had a pack of younger kids watching avidly. Were they given a chance to drive one themselves? That is a feature at many model-railway shows, and must help recruit the next generation of hobby enthusiasts.
I'll do my next set of photos in the morning.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Thanks to all who put the show on ,it was a great place to have the show. When i pulled up at the gate after driving 10 hours from Sydney all i can remember was a whole lot of HCVC members walking my way with smiles on there face ,good start, then Chocs comes round the corner well that was the start of a great weekend for me ,well worth the drive can't wait for next year.
Chappo ps thanks for photos Swishy,thanks to Jimbo for showing me the way back to Sydney and it was great chatting with Ian Lee

Rodders there was a comment /add in Fridays paper
As for layout of vehicle didn't see a problem possibly by getting there on the Saturday
Some of those parked outside where possibly used to turning up at Sandown on a Sunday

Today's batch covers the pre-WWII vehicles. I wasn't planning to photograph everything, and so skipped the Horne grey Bedford (photographed at other events) and a nice 1930s Fargo (photographed purring happily past Craigieburn on Haulin the Hume).

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

British Bedford:


Dodge:


Mystery, but the radiator and missing nameplate match the British Bedford.




Probably International:


The Ford may be early 1940s, the roadster is prewar.


Ventura's historic Reo bus. I don't know if it drove out, or was trailered.