Icecream (& other) vendor vans

Just found this little ripper at Cobar in the 20's

In the websites which I found yesterday, trailers count just as much as self-propelled. One of the quotes re icecream vans: they no longer roam the streets; they simply park at a prime location.

Icecream vans
www.smh.com.au/news/national/icecream-va...2/1198949900052.html

Mr Whippy arrived in 1962, with Commer Karriers. It sold out to independent operators. One has three Karriers; another uses a Ford Transit.

Modern vans & trailers:
www.coffeebella.com.au/gallery

American Doughnut Kitchen
www.yelp.com.au/biz_photos/american-doug...qa5F7T7Gu_b2G1mH9RiQ

This is the logo from the Bridges & Christie site, which gives some clues re the earliest vehicle. It could well be the one which I remember at South Melbourne Market 1950-58, but it was entirely silver in that era.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria

This one in Ipswich.

I know it is not self-propelled but this is certainly the most famous "mobile" food vendor in Australia.

Still going but not making a pretence at mobility any more.

What a gourmet treat - a choice between Pie and Peas and the Pie Floater!

And they still make a nice pie,had one when i was over there in November.

...we've got a lovely old transit van ice cream jigger that comes down the street in the industrial boondocks of Tullamarine once a week....a bit more modern toon than Green sleeves all the same....

Have a few memories of pub crawls from central station and every pub to the Quey through the rocks up through the cross then down to wooloomooloo to Harrys cafe de wheels..... Wonder i had any memory at all a few times
Harrys cafe de wheels a real institution..............

There is quite a lot about Harry's Cafe de Wheels online.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry's_Cafe_de_Wheels
www.harryscafedewheels.com.au
The history section has a nice photo of an early 1930s van towing a food trailer.
The gallery section has more of people than of vehicles.

Here is an evening view of one in Newcastle, built into former Sydney tram R1892 (with no wheels). Since then, this one has been ruined by enclosing the body with aluminium sheeting to prevent deterioration.
090329Su-Newcastle-Harrys1892-RSmith

I have more to chase on American Doughnut (Melbourne), and a start to make on the famous one which parks in North Tce, outside Adelaide station (SA), every night. Its main product is pie floaters.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

It pays to be multimodal: tram lovers have responded to my call for help. I have some photos which I can't repost, and will still have to hunt for links to the SA State Library ones. B71775/10 & B71775/11.

In the interim: this covers Adelaide beautifully.
<www.thepiecart.com.au>

Others recall a similar trailer parked outside Melbourne's Flinders St station: MA's pie van.
My memory is of the all-night Pieteria 'we never close', which was one of the shops in a vault under Flinders St Viaduct. It was a popular stop in the era when we ran all-night tram tours. My only photo of it has the doors chained shut.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Smitty
Gudday M8

Here B one in transit
fir memory loaded @ BHP Lysaughts Hastings n delivered to Byelands me thinks it twaz a Sydney tram
to B L8R forwarded on to Syd


Cya
[ch9787]

Thanks for the thought. That's a Victorian Railways tram (IIRC 34); it's now in Bendigo. The type ran St Kilda - Brighton and Sandringham - Black Rock (and the short-lived Beaumaris extension too?).

Here is Melbourne tram SW6.969 fitted as a bar. It is placed at Arts Centre for a season each year. One side is just entry from a ramp; AFAIK the other side has drop-down panels for service to people outside. Looking at the photos which I have on file, they may be lift-up awnings, not drop down benches.

tdu.to/148844.msg?sid=94015
tdu.to/145171.msg?sid=94015 (admire the Scania prime mover too)
tdu.to/30792.att?sid=94016 (doesn't show the mods, but admire the Mack)

A follow-up message from an SA researcher:
Railway station Balfours pie cart images.slsa.sa.gov.au/mpcimg/72000/B71775_10.htm
Franklin St pie cart images.slsa.sa.gov.au/mpcimg/72000/B71775_11.htm
If you look closely at the Franklin St picture, you will see a small steel pole (a former MTT pole (probably recycled -Adelaide City Council reused and relocated many to support street lights) cut off at about 3 m height, and with an MTT 'onion top' finial dropped into the top of it. This short pole has a power box on it that would have served the pie cart. There is also has a white rubbish bin on the pole about 1 m above the ground. Below the rubbish bin you can see the steel conduit taking power up to the power box. The truck which towed the pie cart is visible in front of it. I recall it being about a 1963 short wheelbase Dodge with a Valiant slant-six engine.

There was an era when I was in Adelaide often for day train tours, and the cart was there when we got back. I must have eaten a pie from it once, but not often.

More on Adelaide pie carts:
www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-austra...frea83-1225745858352
www.australianexplorer.com/photographs/s...tralian_pie_cart.htm

And related: Adelaide Mobile Lunch Service. The website has photos of two vans.
www.adelaidemobilelunch.com.au

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor