Fire Engines Photos

i thought they were converted from Et's? certainly the one my friend owns was

Added by Barry on 22 May 2008.

Sory to be picky, but this appliance looks like a Bedford TL / Carmichael appliance.

North Yorks used these appliances on a D reg plate and were the last of the Bedfords to be used before they bought the crappy Volvo's they currently use.

Added by John Johnstone on 23 May 2008.

Barry, you are right that one I know was definetly converted from an ET, but all were converted from a mix of Shelvoke specials that West Midlands had. Believe this was done as they were no longer needed and there was need for some pumps.

Added by Ron Shannon on 23 May 2008.

John
its definately a shelvoke - i think some of the cab pressings as used by the bedfords were used
Barry

Added by Barry on 23 May 2008.

West Midlands FS converted five Shelvoke & Drewry WX specials when they switched to the Prime Mover Pod system in the late 80s/early 90s.

Perhaps at least one of them was an ex-ET, but I can only go by what the driver said to me when I took this photo many moons ago!!! And he said they were converted FOTs. But then again, in my experience, firefighters are rarely accurate about their vehicles! (Apologies to all those of you out there who are!)

Added by Yelp Bullhorn on 25 May 2008.

this is a shelvoke a drewry it was a combined ET/CU/BAT it was based at A1 central then moved to A2 aston before being turned into a PRL hope this helps

Added by Tg on 24 October 2008.

johns right about the volvo, its crap!!! slow, doesn't handle, dated, terrible ride, cramped, noisy, not overly reliable but they make good tippers

Added by Big Al on 31 October 2008.

Q68VOE is mine and has been for about 15 years:
too fast foul handling ill braked-great fun.Q70is also still around and was originally a foam-tender.The others were combined BA/ET/Control.All rebuilds were much un-loved first line appliances before training school got them and they loved them

Added by Bill on 07 January 2011.

These were Ex ET/BAU/CU that were rebodied. I served at Fallings Park when we recieved a 'Q' reg as they were known. They were never succesful and spent more time in workshops than on the run. Each one had its own issue, ours was breaks or lack of them!

We ended up with a new SS within the space of 18 months, and you are right they were sent to training school, as for them these were the closest thing to what was currently on the run as they had ever seen.

Added by Phil C on 20 May 2011.

see the originals Shelvokes here



Added by Petros on 14 August 2020.

Shelvoke's fire appliance business was a hurried departure from their traditional bin wagon business, and an effort to poke Dennis in the eye because Dennis was very successfully eating into their core bin wagon sales.

As a result, their fire appliances were rushed into production, under-engineered and built down to a price, while offering no features which were not already available from Dennis. Initially, this worked, and their price cutting got lots of orders, not least two large batches of units for London. But sales lagged as soon as their quality problems became evident and their cut price fire appliance business was never profitable. Within thirteen years the depleted remains of the troubled firm were bought out by - wait for it - Dennis...By coincidence, both firms employed Ogle design to design their new cab at the same time, which is why the Shelvoke cab was so similar to the contemporary Dennis.

Added by Rob Johnson on 15 August 2020.

Three of the five are shown as SORN in November 2023 - Q66, Q68 & Q69. Bill do you still own yours? Do you know who has the other two?


Added by Simon Rowley on 25 November 2023.

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