Fire Engines Photos

Looks like it has a Merryweather 45 foot steel ladder. Horrible bit of kit as the handling poles couldn't be placed on the ground for stability and had to be held by No's 3 & 4 in the crew while the No 1 & 2 wound the winches to extend. I trained in West Yorkshire with one in 1977 and it was so heavy!!!!

Added by Steve Attwood on 13 September 2009.

The gutbuster is ex Cheshire/Mersyside and was on a Dennis(F38?)WrE at Heswall.

Added by Neal Glover on 16 October 2010.

see also




Added by Petros on 19 September 2022.

Fortunately modern 15 metre ladders like those used by the BSPP in Paris have evolved and weigh around 75kg. Still quite heavy, but about half of the weight of the old Merryweather. Even so, BSPP have an eight person crew on the units which carry them, as do most German fire services who use a 12 meter version. The drill is either a six, seven or eight man operation as a result, rather than only four.

I have not discovered how much the 13.5 metre Lacon weighs, but I expect that it too is most likely a lot lighter than the much older design Merryweather. Alloy ladders showed up in the UK in the 1950s, but had already been in use in several other countries for several years starting in the 1930s.

Added by Rob Johnson on 19 September 2022.

Added by Petros on 19 July 2026.

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