Fire Engines Photos

Picture No:1617 shows my Cleveland 'R' Type which passed through the Maltby Auctions and continues to live a happy life with a full shed of Dennis's. Unfortunately many of the Cleveland machines appearing at Maltby are in varying states of 'completeness' having been robbed for spares before being sent there. At the time I bought my 'R' type it had only 3 wheels at the back, but this did not prevent a certain person (who shall remain nameless!) jumping in and driving it away after Trish had bought it in my absence.

Added by Barry on 01 March 2009.

Hi Chris is this the one doc bought? or the the one that Bostic Glue had . Ian Mac

Added by Ian Mcpherson on 01 March 2009.

Presumably 'the Doc' is Mr Hutchinson? I know he has SPY762R, but I wasn't aware he'd gotten XVN559T as well.I've never seen it since the day I took this picture. The Magazine of the Historic Commercial Society for June/July 2000 has two Cleveland Dennis machines in the 'for sale' section. One of these was THN948S Salburns W/E, and the other was XVN558T the former Factory one.
I've seen and photographed THN several times, but I havn't seen either of the two XVN's.


Added by Chris Hall Teesside UK. on 01 March 2009.

Just did a quick licensing enquiry check on the DVLA website. Both XVN 559T & XVN 558T show up there, which although it shows that they may not have been officially scrapped, it does not give any garuantees as to there current existence. At least it provides a glimmer of hope.

Added by John Draysey on 01 March 2009.

Unfortunately Dennis spares situation from time to time did oblige brigades to cannibalize their reserve units to keep some of their older front line units running.

This was the case even back in 1966, when Gloucestershire started buying Ford D series, mainly because they could not keep their Dennis appliances running.

Having studied the company when I was asked to take over the job of MD after it was bought by Hestair, I concluded that its main problem at the time was a lack of attention to parts service, and the new owners seemed to have no interest in addressing it. So I joined Volvo and the rest is history...

Added by Rob Johnson on 07 December 2017.

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