Fire Engines Photos

Royce - Thats 'quite spooky' I walk in and put the computer on and theres stunning pics of the old Grimsby appliances (I look forward to any other pics especially of the TL's and the F8) at Peakes Lane - I've been on the station today to see some old friends - I was at Scunthorpe but was often detatched to Grimsby - theres major building work in progress at the station at the moment, and hardly any appliances in the yard next to workshops !

Added by Rick Loudon on 26 August 2010.

Thanks Royce, for the memorable pictures you've brought back a lot of memories. The last time I remember seeing CEE 999C was Outside the old Woolworth's on Victoria Street after it had been repaired and put back on the run in 1980 following a RTA. What happened after 1980 is not known to me, unless anybody can shed any light? F12- DEE 109 came out of Service in 1975 according the Fire Brigade Handbook.
F24- MEE 247 I last Photographed it 1973 alongside the the Workshops at Peakes Lane.

Added by Brian Redgrift on 27 August 2010.

Please don't think I'm trying to nit-pick (because I'm not), but CEE 999C was an F34, not an F33.


Added by Ian Moore on 27 August 2010.

Rick - I hope to oblige with the F8 and possibly the F17 shortly. What are the building works at Peakes Lane in aid of? Some sort of "community" project?

Added by Royce Treacher on 28 August 2010.

Thanks Royce ,

I look forward to them - a friend of mine rescued BEE 999L a few years ago from a scrapyard in Leeds and its now with another friend still serving in the brigade !

From what I understand its asbestos removal and a complete upgrade of the existing facilities but, knowing the ' modern fire and rescue service' they may be building a shelter for the homeless ???

Added by Rick Loudon on 28 August 2010.

Darlington also bought a Dennis WT in 1965, which looked a lot like this one, except it had red paintwork and the hose reels were in open rear boxes on each side behind the wheel arches. This reduced locker space a bit, but the Commer Whitson it replaced had its hose reels mounted very high above the bodtwork - so high it required a step and grab handle to get to them! So I imagine Darlington firemen were not to keen on the Grimsby configuration, and of course this long wheelbase chassis version offered quite a lot of locker space anyway - especially as Darlington did not carry portable pumps on their WTs.

Apart from being painted all red (which I approve of) the other big difference was that it was an F 106 (?) with the AEC AV470 diesel engine, also used by Merryweather at the time, combined with the infamous "backwards" gated five speed manual gearbox. This was hated by the drivers, because the F12 and the remaining Commer had normal H configured boxes and the Firemaster TL was of course an automatic. It was joined in 1969 by another almost identical Dennis, but this one had the Perkins V8 diesel engine and - I think - it was fitted with an automatic.

By the way, did this Grimsby machine have the Dennis No 2 600 GPM pump or the 900 GPM No 3? I know Lincoln had a 900 GPM pump on one of their Dennis WTs, and they used to love shooting jets over the roof of the Cathedral "just because we can".

Added by Rob Johnson on 19 August 2014.

Rob.....The Firemaster was a semi-automatic the same gearbox as the buses. It was compressed air operated.

Added by Barrie Green on 22 August 2014.

The Grimsby F34 WrT I believe had a Dennis No2 main pump and also carried a portable pump.

Added by Royce Treacher on 23 August 2014.

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