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Fire Engine Photos
Dennis 'N' Type 1916 former London Fire Brigade
The RCS Motor Club (part of London University) was set up in 1955 to maintain "Jezebel", a 1916 Dennis N type fire engine and a mascot of the Students of the Royal College of Science.
LP8389 started service with the London Fire Brigade in 1916. She served with them until 1932, when she was scrapped and bought by Crosfields, a soap manufacturers in Warrington.
In 1955 when the Royal College of Science Union were looking for transport for their President they found that LP8389 was for sale. They enquired and she was donated to them for her "educational value". The students were then set with the task of retrieving this unfamiliar fire engine from Warrington. This was to take four days and included at least one engine rebuild.
Jezebel probably covers more miles each year than any other preserved fire appliance in the U.K and needs quite frequent attention....
(I am grateful for these notes from the RCS website).
Barry.
The RCS Motor Club (part of London University) was set up in 1955 to maintain "Jezebel", a 1916 Dennis N type fire engine and a mascot of the Students of the Royal College of Science.
LP8389 started service with the London Fire Brigade in 1916. She served with them until 1932, when she was scrapped and bought by Crosfields, a soap manufacturers in Warrington.
In 1955 when the Royal College of Science Union were looking for transport for their President they found that LP8389 was for sale. They enquired and she was donated to them for her "educational value". The students were then set with the task of retrieving this unfamiliar fire engine from Warrington. This was to take four days and included at least one engine rebuild.
Jezebel probably covers more miles each year than any other preserved fire appliance in the U.K and needs quite frequent attention....
(I am grateful for these notes from the RCS website).
Barry.
According to their 1913 Annual Report, more than 50% of London's appliances were still horsedrawn, but by 1923 the last horses were pensioned off.
BY the time this Dennis was delivered, earlier experiments with self-propelled steam pumpers and electric powered ladder trucks had given way to standardizing on petrol-powered vehicles. This was quite a rapid changeover in technology, and this pump is typical of these first generation appliances. RCS does however seem to have more manpower than LFB in those days, which usually had a pump crew of four to six!
At this point in history the pump-escape had already been "invented" (Finchley's Merryweather delivered as early as 1904!), but London continued to have separate appliances. The "escape vans" had a first aid hose reel system, inherited from the CO2 powered first aid tanks fitted on the horse drawn escape carriers, but intially these were still not pressurized by a pump.
Dennis and Merryweather (on Albion chassis) were the main suppliers during the "motorization" period - and remained so for more than sixty years, with Merryweather switching to Maudslay and AEC chassis after WWII.
Added by Rob Johnson on 21 October 2012.
BY the time this Dennis was delivered, earlier experiments with self-propelled steam pumpers and electric powered ladder trucks had given way to standardizing on petrol-powered vehicles. This was quite a rapid changeover in technology, and this pump is typical of these first generation appliances. RCS does however seem to have more manpower than LFB in those days, which usually had a pump crew of four to six!
At this point in history the pump-escape had already been "invented" (Finchley's Merryweather delivered as early as 1904!), but London continued to have separate appliances. The "escape vans" had a first aid hose reel system, inherited from the CO2 powered first aid tanks fitted on the horse drawn escape carriers, but intially these were still not pressurized by a pump.
Dennis and Merryweather (on Albion chassis) were the main suppliers during the "motorization" period - and remained so for more than sixty years, with Merryweather switching to Maudslay and AEC chassis after WWII.
Added by Rob Johnson on 21 October 2012.
Dennis
Added by Andrew Wright on 10 February 2007.