Rare in the UK this RH drive ALF was seen at the Lincolnshire Steam and Vintage Rally in August 2012. No history on the appliance was shown in the rally programme.
Forgot to include the age related registration mark which is SV 6281. Such registrations are issued by the DVLC to vehicles where the owner has documentation proving the age of the vehicle. Therefore they do not indicate the original area of registration, SV were letters allocated to Kinrosshire in Scotland but due to the low number of vehicle registrations in the area the all the 4 number sequences were not issued in the 1920's. DS (Peeblesshire) was also used for the same purpose by the DVLC.
The vehicle may not have been imported into the UK when new. The SV registration has been allocated by the DVLC over recent years, for one of 2 reasons. Firstly that the original registration was sold, or, as stated in my earlier comment the owner imported the appliance and requested an "age related" registration plate to be issued by the DVLC.
Thanks. It seems unlikely this was imported when new, as I have never heard of any ALF exports to the UK.
By the way, in 1924 most US fire trucks were still being built with right hand drive, so the position of the steering wheel really tells us nothing about its original destination.
This generation of ALF apparatus had a chain driven rear axle, no front brakes, and a midships rotary gear pump. In the "triple combination" configuration they could also be fitted with the optional "chemical" tank and hose reel, which was essentially a giant (145 liter) soda-acid extinguisher with a 30 meter 25 mm hose reel, usually under the rear hose bed.
Such registrations are issued by the DVLC to vehicles where the owner has documentation proving the age of the vehicle.
Therefore they do not indicate the original area of registration, SV were letters allocated to Kinrosshire in Scotland but due to the low number of vehicle registrations in the area the all the 4 number sequences were not issued in the 1920's. DS (Peeblesshire) was also used for the same purpose by the DVLC.
Added by Steve Prosser on 26 September 2013.