Fire Engines Photos

I used to love these appliances, i just thought they were the best!
Main thing i remember is the way they used to rot inside the cab, on the wheel arch,
I remember when the Dennis et's replaced them, nothing wrong with a Dennis, just looked like a shoe box!
Thanks Paul for bringing back memories of better fire appliances that looked different, not like a shoe box on wheels, John.

Added by John Johnstone on 03 January 2008.

The Ford 'A' series was the intermediary model between the Transit and the 'D' Series. They wern't particularly common, or sucessful, but up here in Cleveland there was one example in the Brigade a L4 bodied by G & T Attack. (EPY108V) it was based at Marine, and then to a factory near Teesside Airport. it was disposed of only fairly recently following severe chassis corrosion.(c2002/3)There was also another at one of the Petro Chemical works at Billingham, but I don't have details to hand.
I remember seeing one of the North Yorkshire Ford 'A's, at York, and I photographed it in the late 80's, do any survive in preservation?

Added by Chris Hall, Teesside. on 30 January 2008.

The RIV at the Petro-Chemical works was BEF 727Y.

Added by Ian Moore on 31 January 2008.

We had two 'A' Series ET's in Shropshire. Very similar to this one, the rear body was a little lower, and they looked a lot better than this one. I recall the six speed box was a bit strange and often took of on a shout in reverse!! The brakes were pretty poor. Nevertheless I thought they were great, and a vast improvement on our old forward control landrover ET's. Alas I pretty badly pranged the one based at Wellington. It was repaired and served on the station until it was replaced by a much larger ET

Added by Brian Downes on 04 July 2009.

I very nearly purchased one for preservation....it was on ebay an couple of years ago and it was ex-Isle of Man. I was put off by the licensing regs....it still had a IoM plate and because it didn't carry a pump or water I believed that I would have difficulty in reregistering as a fire appliance.

Added by Barrie Green on 04 July 2009.

Ahhhhh the brakes or lack of ..... i recall York's AAJ196T Ford A series running into a telegraph pole en-route to a shout in Easingwold the driver who i will not name but will say SKIDLID ....

It was repaired by Leedhams a Vauxhall dearlership in York and the whole fleet in North Yorks were fitted with a retarder so use of service brakes were kept to a minimum .

Great bit of kit i'd love to see a North Yorks one preserved !

Added by John Johnstone on 04 July 2009.

They were indeed grand little appliances, it is a pity one is not in preservation...I embedded ours into a stationary Taxi after ploughing a traffic roundabout!... no breaks and ice...I was going too quick though...
The ET's had the amazing Dale Stemlight...never did really understand how that worked but it was Brill, worked by a monster alternator; you had to wind the revs up on a hand throttle.
I think Shrewsbury's was an 'R' reg and ours was an 'S'
They were the first appliance we had that stowed RTA gear in racked woden boxes to make it more portable. Some kit was stowed on a pull out tray with legs that came out of the rear locker.
In addition to the two ET's we had an A Series Chemical Incident Unit (Mobile Bath Unit!, and an A series Control Unit. I was sad to see them go when they were replaced by a dreadful 'pod' system.


Added by Brian Downes on 05 July 2009.

Paul, I have a (purchased )picture of this allocated to Scarbrough. Could you tell me the date of this allocation please?

Added by Chris Hall on 27 December 2011.

Can anyone remember the registration number of this machine please?

Added by on 06 May 2017.

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