Fire Engines...

[glenn_r]

EDDIE,

Sorry if I offended you, we are chewing the fat about stuff in the dim and distant past and if my statements are inaccuarte it is certainly not intentional, in reply and not wanting to get into ‘message tennis’ -

Glen R you state the Stonefield trasmission as fitted to v6 3000 ford wasnt up to scratch well how come it managed to stand up to Chrysler 5lr engine AS FAR AS I KNEW THE HUMBERSIDE STONEFIELD WAS FITTED WITH A FORD V6 ENGINE AND TRANSMISSION…, same auto box same chassis and having worked with Stonefield I never heard of any complaints,

you also state it was to high THE HEIGHT I REFERRRED TO WAS THE HEIGHT OF THE CREW CAB GROUND TO TOP OF BEACONS, NOT THE GROUND CLEARANCE WHICH I FULLY UNDERSTAND IS NECESSARY IN A 4 X 4/ 6 X 6 VEHILCE, IN ADDITION TO APPROACH ANGLE AND DEPARTURE ANGLES ETC…well it was designed to cope with seriously deep sh-t hence it had to be higher than your normal fire engine,

the fact it was lacking in fire fighting equipment was down to the body builder ARE YOU SAYING THIS AS I STATED IT WASN’T DOWN TO THE BODYBUILDER BUT ‘OTHER POWERS’

Having driven Stonefields both on and off road I can only say they were well up to the job they were entered each year in the Police Rally competing against all the various 4wd makers and won their class each time.

Franky the reason they went to the wall was the Scottish Development Agency would’nt put any more money in even allthough as you said it had passed its 0521 and the Mod were starting to market it to other Army’s around the world they had put 5million into it and they had got a good managment and sales team but SDA said no more so the plug was pulled and thats when Gomba stepped in and it slowly went down the tube. Eddie.

Sorry mate I understand you have pride in what you did and quite rightly so but at the end of the day the Humberside example wasn’t up to the job mainly due to the design (not necessarily the bodybuilder), the transmission and it was under powered others, no doubt were on top,of the job as I eluded to with the Cambs example/s.

My rant over - normal service?

[glenn_r]

A couple of shots of the 53 plate Scania out of Hull West by the HFRS Photographer

[stravaiger]

.

[s_gates_87]

Two Shelvoke & Drewry’s from the LFB.

[s_gates_87]

[glenn_r]

blasts from the past, what stations were they at, do you know?

[bullitt]

That door crest could be London. Maybe some our number plate wizards could give you a town , city, or area.

[glenn_r]

A mix and match bunch here, all to be credited to Fire Engine Photos website - the Hull ones have been taken by the Jessop family, enjoy…

[s_gates_87]

s gates 87:

Both Vehicles are CFE bodied & London Fire Brigade, The H.P is from Popular but not sure on the Pump Escape. Both are circa 1979-80.

[glenn_r]

Nice one thanks, CFE (Cheshire Fire Engineering) were the forerunners of Saxon, 'nother bit of useless info. I think they built some of the London ERF’s too, probably with them being in the same premises…

[3300john]

Glenn R:
Nice one thanks, CFE (Cheshire Fire Engineering) were the forerunners of Saxon, 'nother bit of useless info. I think they built some of the London ERF’s too,
Hiya some ERF chassis did go away to other coach builders Glenn… we always went round them looking for little hickups when they come back.
The cheshire fire engine department was on the winsford ind est( on the left of the main drag) it might have been road one.
when the lads(workers buy out all ex jennings men) started Saxon it transfered to the old Foden works in Elworth.
A few years later Johnstons the roadsweeper company paid out the 4 directors.it was their baby untill the end.
John

[glenn_r]

Some more, again from Fire Engine Pictures website, the Hull FB Pictures must once again be credited to the Jessop family, thank you.

[glenn_r]

Going back to the part of the thread when we chatted about CARP’s, below are a couple of pictures of the Humberside example from the Fire Engine Pictures website, thanks.

[bullitt]

.

[glenn_r]

I presume that the above is two shots of the same appliance but notice that in the second pic the appliance has what looks like Dutch plates on it?? Would i be right in assuming that this was an import vehicle■■?

It was built in the UK at TVAC near Preston but the crew cab was fitted at Plastisol in either Germany or Holland, forgot now and the boom package is by Hilton Engineering in Holland so it may the equivalent of Dutch trade plates for the contract driver, certainly wasn’t built there though.

Also, it looks to be a big old lump to be used as an operational frontline, first response applaince!! Going by the size of the crew cab it looks like you could get a whole watch in just the one appliance

Surprisingly the crew cab is not all that large as it’s got a big lump of engine under it as well as the firefighting water pump which on this example is hydraulically driven. A few brigades do use them as a first response which was the original idea as put to the F&RS by the Govt but as we know, the majority of populated areas in the UK couldn’t take a vehicle like this at night when people are home and the streets are full with parked cars and vans.

And the rear steer, great for low speed confined space manouvering but not so good for EFAD driving, unless it somehow de-activates over a certain speed!

No, the rear steers is always on

Cant see the “cherry picker” cage or platform, is it hanging over the back end and hidden due to the camera angle or not fitted yet??

Part of why I feel the Humberside design looks great is that the cage is housed behind the cab in a very tight space which can be accessed by the cutaway section on the nearside above the lower locker door. The cage automatically stores itself after use so there’s very little risk of clattering it on the cab etc.

Is this appliance actually on the run yet??

To be fair to the guy who had the most to do with the design from Humberside (the late Arthur Moore - respect!) he always said that it if didn’t work as a CARP, it would always make a very good aerial truck and that is what it’s going into service as, expensive but that’s what happens when the orders come from above, abovee…lol

[bullitt]

.

[glenn_r]

It’s not too bad considering the weight etc, it turns tight as hell, knocks spots of the Scania pumping applinace turning circles. The rear is just flat with pump bay doors as with a normal fire engine. Strathclyde run Scanias with VEMA booms on them and they have the cage at the back which has a tendancy to clip cars and lamposts occasionally lol

[stravaiger]

.

[glenn_r]

Interesting article about the Lothian & Borders CARP’s as GB Fire was one of the companies that our regional group chose not to share business with…

[glenn_r]

SIR, I HAVE TO REPORT…

There is only one person responsible for what happened in these photo’s and while there were a number of contributory factors, it was still me and only me! Pictures are by Norman Downs after he peeled himself out of the cab. We were on the way to a gas leak at the time, followed by the Emergency Tender from our station.

As with similar every cluster [zb] there are things that made it worse was, in my case it was that I crashed it at the top of the street where I lived - doh! The other was that I got a bollocking cos I hit a silver birch which is an expensive tree to clatter by all accounts?

The fire engine was plagued…previously it had been severely damaged in a crash in the East Riding, it actually ran out of Beverley station but was on ‘loan’ to us at Hull North station. It was repaired for a second time after my crash, following which another fire engine rolled back into it at a station open day after a kid got into the cab and let the hand brake off, wrecked the cab for the third time.

Later on in the afternoon I was riding the Emergency Tender and we got tipped out to a cat stuck under the pier on the River Hull, when we arrived there were 2 people in reflective jackets, I assumed them both to be from the RSPCA and, for a joke I said “I’ll go get the gun”… the second person was in fact the cat owner who quite understandably burst into tears at the thought of me blasting old Sooty’s head off - what a great day…