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Fire Engine Photos
picture 22424 of this rig: Rear view, lockers(compartments) open, AND Wheeled Escape Ladder off....great shot!
Added by Pat Rivers-Bowerman on 01 March 2010.
Added by Pat Rivers-Bowerman on 01 March 2010.
One of 124 built between 1950 and 1957, competing mainly at the time with the much more popular Dennis F7 and F12 offerings.
This was built on a shortened low profile chassis, which was originally designed for double deck buses, and afforded an unusually low center of gravity - which is always an advantage on a fire appliance which ends up getting chucked around corners and roundabouts.
But this chassis came with a diesel engine! Although great for powering the 1, 000 gpm pump, this did not afford the same kind of acceleration and speed as the eight cylinder Rolls Royce petrol engine which was used by Dennis. And drivers had to adopt a much different approach to the high torque but much lower horsepower engine...
In the early 1950s - and for another decade - most fire brigades were rather reluctant to buy diesels. They were more expensive, slow to warm up, noisy, slower on the road, and neither drivers nor mechanics were familiar with them.
The dam cracked with this model, and it was very successful and much liked by those who did buy them, most notably London - and Merryweather did quite well with their replacement series of diesel appliances too, which were introduced in 1957.
But it really only started to collapse completely after Merryweather introduced their hydraulic turntable ladder in 1959. It was the only British made modern ladder - and initially it was only available on an AEC diesel chassis! So Mr, Hobson, what do you choose?
The rest, as they say, is history...
Added by Rob Johnson on 19 March 2018.
This was built on a shortened low profile chassis, which was originally designed for double deck buses, and afforded an unusually low center of gravity - which is always an advantage on a fire appliance which ends up getting chucked around corners and roundabouts.
But this chassis came with a diesel engine! Although great for powering the 1, 000 gpm pump, this did not afford the same kind of acceleration and speed as the eight cylinder Rolls Royce petrol engine which was used by Dennis. And drivers had to adopt a much different approach to the high torque but much lower horsepower engine...
In the early 1950s - and for another decade - most fire brigades were rather reluctant to buy diesels. They were more expensive, slow to warm up, noisy, slower on the road, and neither drivers nor mechanics were familiar with them.
The dam cracked with this model, and it was very successful and much liked by those who did buy them, most notably London - and Merryweather did quite well with their replacement series of diesel appliances too, which were introduced in 1957.
But it really only started to collapse completely after Merryweather introduced their hydraulic turntable ladder in 1959. It was the only British made modern ladder - and initially it was only available on an AEC diesel chassis! So Mr, Hobson, what do you choose?
The rest, as they say, is history...
Added by Rob Johnson on 19 March 2018.
AEC
Regards, from Canada,
Pat_R-B
Added by Pat Rivers-Bowerman on 20 September 2009.