Cool idea for those of you that have Corgi fire trucks and Double Door/End Door Box Cars

Great old pictures!!  Thanks for posting...

Alan

Dave,

That's the best of both worlds.

Fire apparatus and automobile box cars with end doors.

I love the beauty and versatility of fire fighting equipment.

Though, I never was a Fire Fighter, I did work close with them at scenes of fires and other disasters, to be able to respect and appreciate your dangerous profession.

Happy New Year,

Ralph 

Dave,great idea...in your research did you come across any ALF photos from Yonkers n.y..we were 100% ALF...if you do please contact me off list i would be interested.At one time I owned a 1950 ALF 700 pumper Reg.L-4237 orig.delivered to Hewlett L.I....all the best Joe

Thanks everyone... here is another interesting rail car. This car was supposedly designed specifically for American LaFrance to deliver ladder trucks. According to the description it's an X30, running around 70' 6".

I think TTX corp. does this now?

Clem

Beautiful box car!!

Ralph

Dave

Thanks for starting this fantastic thread!  The photo of the PRR X30 shows a very important car.  The leading manufacturers of aerial ladder trucks in the 1920s and 30s were American LaFrance in Elmira and Seagrave in Columbus Ohio.  Both locations were served by the PRR.  In the era of wooden ladders 85 foot aerials were the longest standard size and they were two section ladders.  That made the total length of the rig over 60 feet and a real problem for shipment.  Either the tractor and trailer had to be separated or a very special car was needed.  It seems that for many ladder trucks PRR 59861 was that special car.

Many of us have overlaping interests in trains and fire apparatus.  I am a member of the Last Resort Fire Department, an operating museum in Seattle.  Several of our members are O gaugers.  Bob Guildig, who was my tillerman for over 20 years, was also one of the great people at Eastside Trains until he fully retired and moved back to Phoenix a year ago.

Here is a photo of Bob in Phoenix in the 1960s with one of their new Seagrave engines just after it has been unloaded from a box car.  Note that the front bumper has been removed for shipment.

Seattle's last wooden aerial was a 1929 Mack.  It is in the museum and Bob and I have driven it together many times.  Bob's grandson shot this video back in 2010 and it gives an idea of what handling an 85 foot aerial ladder is like.

They certainly do , It's called a "uni-level".

(who's gonna make one first? )

---PCJ

I once owned an ALF that was built for Yonkers, but rejected. it was a 1937.

A 400 series??????? 

Very cool photos and the Seattle video is fascinating! I was glad to see it made that last turn, given how close to the corner that car was located.

I have a few firetrucks by Corgi and others, but I have never used them as loads. Interesting idea! Thanks for the post!

Roger,

That is an excellent signature, I could use it on a couple probies.

Gene Anstine

Well we'll just have to get your 37 ALF together with our 29 Mack

and our 37 Seagrave and see who has the fastest aerial in 3 rail.  

I love our LTI but it sure is slow to set up by comparison.

you may have me beat in speed, but I got you on age! Here is my other ALF, a 24.

Here is my pride and joy - 1953 L85 Mack - my department just received her back after doing 30 years of service in Sorrento, ME. The Sorrento department used latex paint to cover up our old gold leaf lettering on the doors. Made it real easy to redo the lettering. Still had all our original equipment that it left with.

Great photos!  Thanks!  I just bought a firehouse at York back in Oct for my layout.  It houses a 1950s open cab Seagrave pumper lettered for Kensington,MD.   I also have a 1950s Seagrave tiller ladder truck and a 1950s pumper with a covered hose bed both lettered for Detroit Fire Dept.   Interesting about the rail cars used to transport the fire apparatus too.  I had no idea there was ever a boxcar that long back then.

Nice photos...but nothing compares to the MACK CF PUMPER and MACK CF AERIALSCOPE!!!!  :-)

Interesting car. With normal auto double door openings and no end doors it would seem a tough load/unload task for such a long truck. Would be interesting to see images of the process.

I got you on age! Here is my other ALF, a 24.

Au contraire!

I'll see your 24 LaFrance....

And raise you a 1920 Seagrave. 

Here is my pride and joy - 1953 L85 Mack

I've had a chance to drive an L-85 and it was a very nice rig.  It had a smooth ride, handled well, shifted easily and the 707 had plenty of power.  The L-21s are really something with the longer hood and Hall-Scott power.  I've had a chance to see two, one from L.A. City and the Phoenix L-21 that Alan Brunacini now owns.  What sweet engines.  Mack went down hill after the L model. 

This is a Bob Guildig photo of the Phoenix L-21 at a drill in 1971.

 

---

Nice photos...but nothing compares to the MACK CF PUMPER and MACK CF AERIALSCOPE!!!!  :-)

 

Maybe if you have been stuck back east all of your life and only have ALFs, Maxims and Hahns for comparison.

First graders out here wouldn't be seen on a Mack CF.  We have better school buses and logging trucks than that.

 In all seriousness, Mack CFs are ok but Mack body work in the 60s and 70s wasn't as good as that of west coast builders like Crown or Heiser.  And I'd take either a Hall-Scott or an 8V-71 and a fuller 5 speed over a Mack power train of that time.

On a model railroading note, we have two 50 foot O scale automobile box cars with opening end doors available.  Pecos River did them and Lionel has made a bunch.  Can anyone report if the Corgi ALF aerials will fit in a 50 foot box car?

We have a 67 Mack CF I'm tring to find a picture of  but the reason for this post is there is a picture of the Morristown Nj train staion with 2 new 1940 (I think) Globe trucks being unloaded from the flat car. I can find that picture either I'll post it as soon as I find it.

I found this picture of our CF parade truck now I have to locate the picture of the 2 fire trucks being unloaded at the Morristown train station

I concur. Interesting application. I have three fire trucks destined to be on the layout, 2 Corgi ALF pumpers and one newer snorkel truck. ALF pumpers of the late 40s have a special place in my heart. I was imprinted with them by George J. Zaffo's "Big Book of Real Fire Engines". A book which I read so much it simply fell apart. Several years ago I found these Zaffo books at Internet used books stores. I have Les Lewis' amazing resin fire house kit that will house the engines. 

Another Zaffo book, "The Big Book of Real Locomotives" was my favorite, and it wore out too, but I haven't been able to replace it. It had huge pull out pictures of locomotives (again from the late 1940s when I was little). They too got imprinted and I wondered why I had such an "innate" need to have my own Pennsy T-1 Demonstrator and GG1. Both were in that book and both are on my layout.

I found this picture of our CF parade truck

Sean

That isn't a CF.  It is a C model Mack.  It was designed in the 1950s by bus maker C.D. Beck who owned the rights to the Ahrens-Fox name.  Mack bought C.D. Beck and with it the cab forward fire apparatus design.  Along with the B model it gave Mack a conventional and a cab forward fire apparatus chassis from the late 50s into the late 60s.  Just like the L-21 there were B-21s and C-21s too, at least out on the west coast.  A 707 Thermodine wouldn't do 1500 GPM.

ALF pumpers of the late 40s have a special place in my heart. I was imprinted with them by George J. Zaffo's "Big Book of Real Fire Engines".

I loved the Zaffo books too.  One year my brother's company calendar reproduced the Zaffo freight train month by month from the Hudson to the caboose.  That was a lot of fun! 

Ted,

  Good point I guess the truck to replace the C Model  was a 79 Mack CF (ugly Green).

Did Ahrens-Fox make a truck that looked Like a C  model or did C.D. Beck just own the name?

Sean,

A-F developed the cab just before Beck took over A-F. East Rutherford purchased the first model built. Mack acquired the 'C' cab and chassis design when it purchased Beck.