Fire Engines Photos

Hi George thanks for sharing this very unusual appliance, I've never seen anything like it before.Paul.

Added by Paul Warnock on 23 April 2009.

Thank you George, this must be one of the most complex machines ever built, it definitely deserves the title unusual!

Added by John Stott on 23 April 2009.

Wouldn't like to meet that on a dark night !!!! Looks like something from a horror movie. The most unusual scene I have ever seen

Added by Barrie Green on 23 April 2009.

Many thanks Georges, an unseen vehicle indeed!!!

Added by Jacques PETER on 24 April 2009.

It's amazing ! what a shame these were scrapped and not preserved, great looking bit of kit !

Added by John Johnstone on 24 April 2009.

Aye John its certainly not a Bedford! lol! Imagine tooling about Patley Bridge in this contraption eh?

Added by John Stott on 24 April 2009.

The USAF bought the other one. You can see a picture of it in the book U.S. Military Wheeled Vehicles By Fred W. Crismon on page 425. The USAF one carried 1500 gal., other than that, they are identical. The were both built in 1950

Added by Jeffrey Smoker on 10 May 2009.

I have an original brochure of this rig:
Check it out on my website:
//albert-baas.nl/spangler.htm

Added by Albert on 09 June 2009.

Thank you for your interest & information.I appreciate it very much!The spangler did look beastly, but beautiful at the same time.It is a real shame they were scrapped.

Added by George Frankenfield on 23 August 2009.

George:

D'you know; there was a drawing of this magnificent beast, in one of our kids' "Children's Book of Fire-Engines", dating from the 1950's.

It was shown as a rural fire-engine.

I have always wondered what the original truck was; and whether it ever existed, outside an Artist's Concept, maybe....

So, thanks for bringing it to us: and everyone, for the additional info.

Regards, from Canada,
Pat_R-B

Added by Pat Rivers-Bowerman on 24 August 2009.

in the rear was a bank of portable ladders

Added by George Hobbs on 01 February 2012.

3 were built. Two like the above, Morgantown Pa and Aberdeen Proving Ground MD. A variation was built for Hellertown PA. All were plagued by probls.

Added by Joe Carl on 21 February 2015.

Spangler was married to one of the Hahn daughters, and ran Hahn for many years, this apparatus also had a patterned front tandem steering system and the pumps were from Barton American

I worked at Hahn and later at Barton American

Added by Gary Handwerk on 14 February 2019.

DH Spangler was president of Hahn Motors and Spangler Engineering & Sales. The Morgantown Dual was returned to Hahn within 6 months in exchange for a Hahn conventional (Corbitt chassis) engine. The second Dual was tested at the US Army Aberdeen Proving Grounds. It did not pass acceptance testing. Spangler also built a couple of COE commercial chassis, cir. 1947. They produced dual steering axle assemblies for Autocar, Mack and IH into the '50s-'60s.

Added by JIM FAIRWEATHER on 27 February 2024.

Perhaps the leading candidate for the most weird fire truck ever in the history of firefighting!

Added by Rob Johnson on 27 February 2024.

Spangler also built twin engine haulers for the military to move around B24 bombers. They - and other firms - built these with two of the same very reliable but petrol powered Ford engines because of the high cost and limited availability of much larger 200+ BHP diesel engines at the time. Apparently they were very successful and at least a couple have survived. One is currently for sale for anyone with $1,250,000 to spare! (not me.)

Added by Rob Johnson on 20 February 2025.

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