Back in the days when milk and bread came directly to you rather than to your local supermarket, William and Frank Fageol of the Twin Coach Corporation designed this cute but rugged compact van especially for house-to-house delivery duty. Used by many businesses in the 1930s, the Twin Coach Delivery Unit is still warmly remembered today thanks to the signature blue-and-cream delivery coaches (never “trucks”) of Helms Bakeries of Culver City, California, which brought fresh bread and bakery to millions of Southern California homes for 38 years.
Truckmakers Frank R. and William B. Fageol branched out into buses in 1927, establishing the Twin Coach Corporation in Kent, Ohio. (Their first bus had twin engines, hence the “Twin Coach” name.) Soon afterward, William Fageol developed a new compact low-bed delivery van, designed for house-to-house deliveries of milk, letters, and small merchandise.
Door-to-door distribution was very popular in that era, but the Fageol Brothers felt that existing vehicles were ill-suited to the task. General purpose trucks were too big and cumbersome in narrow streets, constantly climbing in and out was tiring, and they were expensive to operate. Car-based panel trucks didn’t offer enough cargo volume, and weren’t up to the abuse of constant stops and starts. “We see thousands continue to use the faithful horse,” the brothers noted in a 1930 trade journal ad.
Except for its height, William Fageol’s delivery vehicle was about the size of a subcompact sedan of the 1980s: Including bumpers, it was 172 inches long on a 96-inch wheelbase, with a turning circle of about 34 feet. Yet, it had a 54-square-foot load area and an interior that “readily lends itself to the building in of special shelves or trays” for commodities. For load capacity, it used 30×6.00 balloon tires on 18-inch rims.
Although it stood around 7½ feet high (laden height was 87.25 inches), the Twin Coach Delivery Unit was relatively wide: 66 inches overall, with a 56.56-inch track front and rear. It used all-welded unitized construction to keep the weight down and the floor low while still providing 10 inches of ground clearance. (Even in suburban areas, there were still a lot of dirt roads when Fageol designed the Delivery Unit.) Gross weight rating was about 7,000 lb (later raised to 7,350 lb), which gave a load capacity of almost 1.5 tons.
Despite the “Twin Coach” company name, the Delivery Unit had a single engine, an inline-four made by Hercules Motors of Canton, Ohio. Its displacement was originally 187.8 cid, soon increased to 198.8 cid, giving 37.5 horsepower. While the engine wasn’t very powerful even by contemporary passenger car standards, Twin Coach deliberately overspecified “all vital working parts” of the engine, Timken axles, clutch, and brakes to give long, trouble-free service in rigorous delivery duty — these vans were expected to stop and start 500 to 600 times a day on a typical route!
The engine was mounted upfront, in an insulated “doghouse” structure that also served as a dashboard. The decks covering the engine could be opened or removed completely for service access.
Another novel feature, which Fageol also patented, was the stand/drive controls. The driver’s seat was basically a bicycle saddle on a folding arm, which could be pushed forward out of the way so the driver could operate the vehicle while standing up. The idea was that it was sometimes easier for the driver to remain standing between stops that might be only a hundred yards or so apart.
The left pedal controlled both the clutch and the brakes: Pushing it partway released the clutch; pushing it further engaged the brakes. The right pedal was the accelerator.
Early Delivery Units used a three-speed Brown-Lipe manual transmission, but later versions had a four-speed transmission with an extra-low first gear, to make it easier to “walk” the vehicle from stop to stop while leaving the clutch engaged. With short overall gearing, top speed wasn’t much, maybe 30 mph, but there were no freeways when these vehicles were designed — they were intended for low speeds on city and suburban streets.
The only major functional drawback of the Delivery Unit layout was that the low floor meant having to step over the driveshaft tunnel. Its space utilization would have been even better with either front-wheel drive or a rear engine.
Other than its lack of speed and near-total lack of creature comforts (there wasn’t even a heater), the Twin Coach Delivery Unit was a very handy and useful light delivery vehicle. It wasn’t the cheapest — by 1933, the price of a standard-body model was $1,450, at a time when you could get a Ford De Luxe panel truck for less than $600 — but its operating costs were much lower than bigger trucks’. In many respects, this was a precursor of later compact vans like the Volkswagen Type 2 and the first Ford Econoline. (For a while, Twin Coach also offered a shortened version on a 76-inch wheelbase.)
One of the first users of the Twin Coach Delivery Unit was the Telling Belle-Vernon Co. of Cleveland, which had been among the first U.S. dairies to deliver milk in glass bottles. The Delivery Unit leaf spring suspension, designed by Rollie Fageol, used rubber bushings and snubbers to cushion oscillating motions, which the brothers called “highly desirable in milk delivery trucks,” and Twin Coach offered an insulated body to keep milk or other perishable goods cold for longer on warm days.
For residents of Southern California, by far the best-known user of these vans was Helms Bakeries, founded in 1931 by former banker Paul H. Helms Sr. and based in a striking “Zig Zag Moderne” building in Culver City, an incorporated city about 5 to 6 miles south of the UCLA campus in West Los Angeles.
Paul Helms was a tireless promoter (the proprietor of the Helms Museum later called him “the P.T. Barnum of bread”) who made a name for his new company early on by negotiating a deal to supply bread for the 1932 Olympics. He recognized that the distinctive appearance of the Twin Coach Delivery Unit would be as much of an asset as its handy size.
In 1931, Helms ordered the first batch of what would eventually be 148 of these compact delivery vehicles. He insisted on calling them “coaches,” not trucks — Helms said trucks hauled garbage, not bread.
In addition to their distinctive cream-and-blue livery, the Helms coaches had wooden cabinets for donuts and cakes.
Drivers — Helms called them “Helmsmen” — each carried a whistle whose distinctive “toot-toot” announced their arrival. They provided cards that customers could display in the front windows of their homes to signal that they wanted bread or bakery.
In 1936, Twin Coach merged with Detroit Industrial Vehicles Company (DIVCO), a rival commercial vehicle manufacturer that had previously been owned for a while by Continental. Production of the Twin Coach Delivery Unit, now sold under the name Divco-Twin, continued through 1941, but it was gradually supplanted by the newer “snub nose” Divco Model U, which became one of America’s most ubiquitous milk trucks.
Although the manufacturer didn’t resume regular production of this now rather elderly design after WW2, Paul Helms persuaded them to build one final batch of the older flat-face coaches for Helms Bakeries in 1947–1948.
Helms also used other delivery vehicles over the years, eventually adding an array of Chevrolet panel trucks that were capable of freeway travel, which the Twin Coach Delivery Unit really wasn’t, even after many survivors were retrofitted with newer six-cylinder engines in the 1950s. However, the smaller coaches had become such a part of the company’s image that some remained in service for decades, accumulating as much as 500,000 miles.
Paul Helms died in January 1957, but Helms Bakeries survived through 1969. Its last big promotional stunt, commemorated by the door sign on the 1936 coach pictured above, was supplying bread for the Apollo 11 lunar mission, which enabled Helms to proudly proclaim that it had supplied the first bread on the moon. However, this wasn’t enough to keep the bakery going, and Helms closed in November 1969. Ironically, the huge fleet of iconic delivery vehicles (which eventually totaled about 800) probably had a lot to do with the company’s demise: Operating all those vehicles was expensive, and many customers now found it easier to just go to the grocery store for bread and bakery.
By 1972, Helms had disposed of all its remaining vehicles. Many were scrapped — most were more than 30 years old, and pretty well used up — but some ended up on the used truck market. Some survivors have been lovingly restored, complete with cabinets full of (usually) mock baked goods.
The Helms Bakeries building is still standing, and is now designated as an historic site. Today, it’s part of an outdoor mall called the Helms Design District. In 2024, restauranteur Sang Yoon tried to revive Helms Bakery itself, inevitably in a more upscale and bougie form, but the effort was not successful, and it closed on December 14, 2025.
In retrospect, maybe it should have been a food truck.
Related Reading
Late 1930s Fageol Ice Cream Delivery Truck: The Future First Peterbilt – A 100 year Lineage (by Paul N)
Bus Stop Classics: 1946 – 1959 Flxible Twin Coach Transit Bus – Chicago’s Favorite (by Jim Brophy)
Bus Stop Classics: 1968-75 Highway Products Twin Coach TC-25/29 – The Last Bus to Carry the Storied Twin Coach Name (by Jim Brophy)
Home delivery of milk went away because supermarkets would sell milk at a loss in order to bring customers in the door. I assume bread delivery, while not as common nationwide, died the same death.
I have driven a standup control Divco truck and it is a strange experience.
My great-grandfather owned a dairy farm and milk delivery business. He would tell you that the horse drawn wagon was even better than the stand up control IC engine truck because the horse would stop by itself at every delivery point so you didn’t even have to drive.
Once a panicked mother stopped him because her toddler was missing. He helped look for the tyke and when he was done the horse and wagon were found waiting at the last stop.
The Tucson Trolley Museum has a fully restored Faegol “Twin Coach Bus” at it’s museum in Tucson. It has the intact dual engine/transmission setup, fully restored. The “Twin Coach” was designed for use in smaller communities in the Western U.S. that may have had city bridges that were not up to the task of carrying the huge and heavy large busses of the day.
Thanks for this write-up – I’d never heard of Helms Bakeries before having seen one of these trucks (or… coaches, I guess) in one of CC’s vintage photo collections. After that, I came across references to the Helms Design District historic site, and I figured how well-known this outfit was.
It must have taken a whole lot of skill to operate one of these standing up – seeing that the clutch/brake pedal had to be pushed a certain way. The patent that you linked to notes that a “standing operator can control the throttle and clutch with one foot” – but I’m having a tough time envisioning that, even if the seat can swing out of the way.
It looks like they may have not used that and added a hand throttle instead. With the engine revved up a bit with the hand throttle, I can see how the standing driver would use his left foot alone to move the coach to the next stop.
OK – now it makes sense… thanks!
I’ve been fascinated with the whole “standing driver” thing for milk trucks and I guess now bread trucks for some time.
Apparently it was a thing…although I would love to watch someone do it.
https://macsmotorcitygarage.com/americas-milk-and-bread-truck-the-divco-model-u-1938-1986/
The Fageol brothers were very innovative and creative. Their “Safety Coach” revolutionized the way buses were built, and were essentially the first coach designed as such from the ground up instead of a bus boxy on a truck chassis.
Stephanie has vivid memories of these Helms Bakery “coaches” delivering to their house when they lived in LA for a few years. And I well remember that behemoth Helms Bakery building; we went there once or twice and bought a piece of furniture there.
These are exceptionally cute.
These were built for a world of stay-at-home wives and mothers who lacked easy access to stores. By the mid 1960’s that world was over.
When I was a tot, milk delivery was common, and a bakery truck stopped in our suburban neighborhood 2 or 3 times a week. We were regular milk customers, but only on rare occasions (usually involving my pleading for a cake or some donuts) did we buy anything from the bakery guy.
Are you sure about the 1916 date on the horse drawn wagon? Those tires and wheels look like from the early 30s at earliest.
Good spot – they look like late 20s Chevy wheels.
Cleveland Historical, which is where that photo came from, placed it as “ca. 1910,” so that’s what I said. (I’m not sure where you were seeing “1916.”) Since it’s not dated, it may have been later, I don’t know.
Those are cool! Thank you!
I imagine when the driver was stopped doing deliveries the seat got popped out of the way as well. Just have to be careful not to trip over the clutch/brake pedal. That single pedal for the clutch and brake is reminiscent of the controls of the model-T. When the dynaflow and powerglide came out, that would have been the thing, too late I imagine. One might consider a version of standup controls with power steering/power brakes and a hand control for the throttle brakes (forward for go, backwards for stop). Of course, all that technology came too late for these.
I have fond memories of the Helmsman coming down the street, and we’d buy a few doughnuts from the wood and glass case. A great after-school treat.
I grew up in Los Angeles and remember Helms as well. These delivery trucks were as much a part of the L.A. commercial vehicle scene as the Crown school buses and fire apparatus. I have seen a few and they always had the original Hercules flathead 4 in them but I did hear a few were re-engined with an in-line 6, but no ideal which engine was used.
The history of the Fageol Brothers was nothing if not interesting. Their empire ran into trouble during the Great Depression and some operations were spun off. The delivery truck business went to Divco and Fageol’s Oakland based heavy truck factory was sold to a man by the name of Al Peterman who used it as the basis for Peterbilt. Twin-Coach continued on as a major manufacturer of transit buses until they merged with Flxible in the late 50’s. Some Twin-Coach buses still used twin engines into the 50’s. Fageol also manufactured a line of commercial heavy duty OHC 6 cylinder gasoline and LPG engines that were used in Twin-Coach and Flxible buses.
A bunch of the surviving Helms Coaches were re-engined in the ’50s, apparently with Ford sixes. I’m guessing probably the Clipper Six from the six-cylinder F-Series, but I’m not sure.
Lived in the San Fernando Valley from June 66-68 after leaving Maryland and before San Diego. West Coast very different from East Coast and so four things I recall still from that first year. Cal Worthington and his dog Spot, Ralph Williams, Bob’s Big Boy, and Helms. Ironically the parents of the woman across the street from me owned 17 Bob’s Big Boys in Southern California back in the day. Talk about well off.
When I came to So. Cal. in 1969 I was shown a yellow Chevy panel truck that came by with extra long sliding wood trays out the back door that sold delicious fresh donuts & pastries .
Those trucks and some of these Fageol trucks littered the L.A. landscape for decades, I guess no one really wanted to scrap them .
There used to be several well restored ones I’d see sans bread at various Auto Shows .
Good memories .
-Nate
The locally owned dairy in the small northeast Ohio town I grew up in used horse drawn wagons for in town home delivery of milk, cheese, orange juice, and similar items until the late 1970s. They were customers of my parents’ electrical contracting business and my father knew most of their employees. The delivery men had all worked there for decades. Several of them related to my father about how the horses knew the routes perfectly. The driver/deliveryman would typically take the items out of the wagon and then walk up to the customer’s house. The horse would then walk on its own to the next house where a delivery was to be made. The driver would walk to where the horse had stopped and pick that customer’s items from the rear of the wagon and the horse would proceed again. This would continue until the route was completed.