Fire Engines Photos

In the early fifties quite a number of brigades bought Leyland Comet chassis appliances, largely because of the firm’s strong and well deserved reputation among fire services in the prewar years. But the relatively attractive and more modern offerings from Bedford and Commer quickly dominated county brigades with limited budgets, while Dennis and Merryweather had more high quality and custom designed appliances with more powerful engines and pump performance for city and municipal brigades.

I recall an officer in Middlesbrough comparing their Comet to their three Dennis appliances - which had Rolls Royce 160 BHP engines - saying “the Leyland is faster than riding a bike, but not by much”!

Added by Rob Johnson on 22 August 2024.

Perhaps I should add that the brigade still had two other Leylands in the early sixties; a wartime TL and a prewar lighting tender, both of which are illustrated on this site, and - like quite a few others - had been a Leyland dominated fleet before switching to Dennis.

Added by Rob Johnson on 25 August 2024.

Hi interested to see your appliance, I have recently bought a Leyland comet fire appliance RRB544, any advice on where to obtain spare parts would be appreciated

Added by Jon Statham on 02 August 2026.

RRB544 is here



Added by Petros on 02 August 2026.

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