When did you last see a P-I-E truck?

[austinsailor]

I was setting my welder up to make a mount for a billboard light a few minutes ago and looked over at I-70. What goes by but an old P-I-E truck! Haven't seen one of those in years.

It was a western style long dual rear axle tanker with a full trailer like you see in the western mountains. Course, the whole rig was on a flatbed being hauled by a modern tractor.

If you're under about 35 you probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but that is ok.

Old highway 40 went right through our town. At the Dairy Queen there was a stop sign where everything had to stop. No interstate then. My Grandma would take us there once in a while and buy us an ice cream cone. While we'd eat it there would almost always be a P-I-E truck stop at the intersection, then take off gearing back up. I'd ask her why all those pie trucks were going down the road. She'd tell me people ate lots of pies and it took a lot if trucks to haul them all. I never quite believed her.

[Don Coatney]

I am close to double 35 but I grew up in the sheltered Mid West and do not recall ever seeing a P-I-E truck until today.

 

 

 

[austinsailor]

Their full name, I learned some years later, was Pacific Intermountain Express, so it's likely they never went far east of Missouri.

We also had Campbells 66 Express, "Humpin to Please", with a camel on the side. Ran up and down Route 66. Another defunct trucking company. I see an old trailer of theirs once in a while, but never a restored one like the pie truck today

Edited November 5, 2014 by austinsailor

[Paul Beard]

Years ago back in the 70's always saw PIE and Campbells Express when driving across country.

[Plymouthy Adams]

when I was a kid PIE was delivered to your door usually via a Jewel-T truck...often mini-pies (single serving) could be delivered to your bread box via the bread delivery truck if pre arranged..you did have a bread delivery truck in your area right...along with the milk man....my grandmothers bread box was affixed to a huge oak tree at the end of the drive that led into the barn lot...it was a orange crate looking box mounted vertically, hinged door and slanted metal roof affixed..open it up and inside was a dial that you set for the number of laves to be placed into the box...I believe Sunbeam was the company that delivered...ah the simple days...milk in our neck of the woods and at the time I was a kid was in a 1 gallon glass container with a paper lid..we sat our jug(s) on the porch banister on route day and he would carry from the truck full ones to exchange...

[Don Coatney]

Most glass milk jugs were 1/2 gallon or quart. Of course the Adams family was always a bit different.

 

[BigDaddyO]

Here's my favorite trucking company.

I laugh every time I see one.

[Don Coatney]

BigDaddyO, on 04 Nov 2014 - 6:19 PM, said:

Here's my favorite trucking company.

I laugh every time I see one.

feature1.jpg

Course he does!

[BigDaddyO]

Edited November 4, 2014 by BigDaddyO

[TodFitch]

I don’t recall seeing any Pacific Intermountain Express trucks after maybe the late 1960s. Seems like they were the big trucking company between California and Colorado and points in between back in the 30s, 40s and 50s.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Don Coatney, on 04 Nov 2014 - 6:18 PM, said:

Most glass milk jugs were 1/2 gallon or quart. Of course the Adams family was always a bit different.

 

adams.jpg

what can  I say Don...it has been an interesting life thus far.....lol   just because you cannot hear the music does not mean the band is not playing...

[Don Coatney]

Band with a capitol B and that rimes with P and that stands for Playing.

[austinsailor]

Here's my favorite trucking company.

I laugh every time I see one.

 

Sure like that tractor!

 

A lot like the one one I hauled home.

 

    

Edited November 5, 2014 by austinsailor

[austinsailor]

This is just like the one I saw today, the tractor is even the same. All on a flatbed heading east at 75 MPH.

 

 

[Todd B]

There was an old retired trucker who stopped me with my semi once and said he used to drive for P-I-E with a dodge semi just like mine.  He thought my truck was an old P-I-E but I told him mine was an old military trailer.  Weeks later he gave me a book on P-I-E trucking and it had several photos of early 50's Dodge trucks pulling a Trailmobile dri-van 22' trailer.  

[BobT-47P15]

Old trucks are neat.  As I recall Campbell 66 Express was headquartered in Springfield, MO.

 

The camel on the vehicles was "Snortin' Norton"........he was "humpin' to please".    

 

They even had a miniature semi powered by a Briggs & Stratton engine they would send to area 

towns to drive in parades.

 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2014 by BobT-47P15

[Frank Elder]

I don't remember tankers....but have seen plenty of standard size PIE trailer rigs up to the mid 70's...then they were gone.