Fire Engines Photos

At the time, there was no JCDD specification for a light pump, so the A series appeared in municipal and county fire brigades as only a special - although some factory fire brigades operated them as pumps, including Ford themselves.

In general, it was not a successful design, because it was too heavy to provide a competitive payload in commercial use and relied on a Perkins Diesel engine which left it a bit underpowered.

Even so, a handful entered fire service use, as RT or BAT or hazmat units.

Added by Rob Johnson on 31 May 2021.

North Yorkshire had a number of these Emergency Tenders. They had to have Telma brake retarders fitted as the brakes wasn't to good on them as they carried a large number of BA cylinders.

Added by Paul Warnock on 01 June 2021.

Don't ever recall seeing this one but recall the reg now! Loved these things once wound up pretty quick, looked in the T reg based at York wheel arches in the cab rotting through, was even that old. As Paul states they have retarders retro fitted after fireman Brian Bell (skidlid) crashed one on route to a shout, the repairs and retro fitting of the retarder was done by Leedhams of York.
Petros, have you a bigger copy of this and if so would you be willing to email me a copy please? Would make a great pc wallpaper, cheers!

Added by John Johnstone on 04 June 2021.

Rob I thought these had Ford Diesels the bigger of which was a poor starter hence bad rep.

Added by CraigW on 04 June 2021.

CraigW - North Yorks ones had a 3.0 litre petrol engine

Added by John Johnstone on 05 June 2021.

Guys - the V6 petrol engine was a SVO option and only bought by fire services and one or two emergency ambulance fleets who wanted a more powerful engine than the anemic Perkins diesel, which was the commercial chassis standard motor. This was rather similar to the original D600 fire appliance order for Gloucestershire in 1967, at a time when fire brigades were mostly still insisting on petrol engines. These had Canadian Ford five liter petrol power units, but other brigades were buying D series with diesels soon afterwards.

As demonstrated by the many years of Rolls Royce B80/81 eight cylinder petrol engines in numerous Dennis appliances, power ruled - and fuel economy was just not a concern!

Added by Rob Johnson on 07 June 2021.

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