O Scale Motor Vehicle Chronicle Aug 8

Ah, yes....fire engines, in other brands than Ford (no kidding, can you believe that?)

are/were available in approximately O scale.  I have the above Mack, Buffalo, and

also a Stutz. (obviously the governments in my small towns were willing to think outside the box)  That is the one category in which pre-WWII variety can be found.  Still, I don't remember a prewar Chevrolet, Dodge, or IH, all of which prototypes  I have seen...but maybe I have overlooked it.  Some small towns once seemed to keep

and use fire engines for decades....I don't think that condition holds as much nowadays.  (maybe that is the reason I am lucky and can find the prewar ones,

some are or were recently, still in service)

I have aCorgi 1:50 Peter Pirsch pumper which is nice, and then this Corgi 1960 Mack C rescue truck which I have converted to 'Streets, with an upgraded flywheel motor.  I plan to get more.  It worked out particularly nice: good looking, solid model, excellent runner.  Firetrucks look so good and the Corgi models are easy to convert so you can run them. 

Lee it needs a siren! <GRIN>

I have a 1:43 fire chief car in Carrera. When I get a layout with train and Carrera slot car track operational it'll look pretty cool. 

If you're modeling in the postwar era, you can always use military vehicle painted red. Plenty of WW2 vehicles were given to fire departments in the 50s and many of those served for a very long time. I remember a GMC GCCW 2 1/2 ton truck being used by the local fire department into the 1970s when I was a kid (and yes, I knew the difference way back then). Civil Defense was given plenty of military vehicles as well, and many of them were red painted and kept in fire houses. I remember an M-37 3/4 ton truck in the same local fire department at the same timeframe as their WW2 truck.

I also know of a 1944 Willys Jeep which was used for flightline work by the state of WA at the Olympia airport as late as 2000.

 Fire trucks are great bright and a must for any layout.

They are also something that has been a lot more common for production in the different scales then say trucks! 

Here is some of my collection.

Hoping to move the washer dryer out of the layout room soon then can redo the layout without dust and an air cleaner. Right now the dryer makes to much dust.

The one near the bottom toy one has a water tank and red push pump button.

Good fun on the layout fill it with cold water and park it by the aisle and when guest come mainly the kids give them a squirt when they are not looking good fun! 

The fire trucks with trailers are really neat.

As is the striker airport truck.

Before Hornby cancelled the Corgi fire truck product line, Corgi was creating some of the best fire apparatus in this scale. Two of my favorites were the Pirsch models and the AmericanLaFrance 500 series engines.

Another company that went out as fast as it came in was TWH Collectibles.  They replicated a number of Pierce, Seagrave and OshKosh fire apparatus with unbelievable detail, like Pierce TAK-4 suspension, battery cables in the engine compartment, fire-fighting tools mounted to the apparatus, etc.

Another firm that produced apparatus in 'S' scale was Code 3. After nearly 10+ years they also went out...

Supposedly, before Hornby shuttered the Corgi line, Corgi had tooling ready to go for a 50's vintage ALF mid-mount ladder and a Pirsch tiller. 

This was one of the last series of Pirsch models Corgi produced.

For many years the City of Rochester built their own Fire Engines, Usually open cabs on Mack chassis. They had excess capacity and also built equipment for other Fire Departments.

Rochester was also unique in the fact that the apparatus had cast metal company designation plates on the doors of the fire truck, that were usually transferred to new apparatus over time.