Hi, I´m Christian from Germany,
can anyone give me links to pictures or advices about milk trucks(street) of the 70 and80´s?
Thanks for helping me!
Walther’s list two. Like-like 433-1645 and Woodland Scenics 785-5529
Hi. I was going to “smart off” and say “milk trucks of the 70s and 80s?? Forget it! They went out in the 1950s.”
Turns out that is just my ignorance, since we don’t have much in the way of home milk delivery in the parts of Texas where I have lived. I did a little research (5 minutes on www.google.com) and found there is still home milk delivery in several parts of the country. The models the previous responder mentioned from walthers look pretty good. Do you have their website:
Google might take you to some milk company sites with a little company history and maybe pictures from the era you are interested in. Can you get google from Germany? in Anglespracht?
The milk trucks I ran were those of the Tractor Trailer variety using Mack R models or Diamond Reos to pull it. Tough trucks were necessary to stay together and not break on the farm when off road reaching the milk house.
The trailer was a glass lined bottle with a hatch in top and hose compartment with small valve system in the rear of the tanks.
Milk was pulled in the morning, after it was measured, weighed down to pounds, stirred, checked for temperature, quality and color. One was licensed and inspected periodically by the state here in the USA. If it is good milk it gets pumped into the trailer. If it is bad milk, it gets to be a long day with the farmer who is about to watch his income flow into the field.
Sometimes life was very profitable when one works for 3 hours pulling milk from a very big farm for wages that are beyond one’s understanding at that early age. Other times, it is a long day visiting a million farms until you accumulated several hundred or thousands of gallons more or less.
Arrival at the dairy means more tests, labs etc and when accepted the milk is pumped out. Then the tanks are cleaned. Very clean… food and chemical grade clean. Absolutely clean. Cleaner than sterlie if such a thing is possible.
There was home delivery milk trucks as well. They put the milk bottle on the porch and took away the old one. You could almost set your clock by them.
Cooler weather, cows without stress = more milk. Hotter weather + stressed cows means less milk. Filters were used to keep flies etc out of the product IF necessary. One or two flies might have gotten out of the farm, but they definately didnt get out of the dairy.
A big city dairy might process milk trucks two by two all the day… maybe a hundred or so.