Fire Engines Photos

what a weird colour for an ERF

Added by Oliver Todd on 05 June 2018.

The cab was Coventry Yellow as well when new to Horsham, as West Sussex used Coventry Yellow as a high visibility colour between 1969 & 1971. (and till 1974 for 2nd line vehicles such as the 3 Ford BACVs and 2 Maintenance vans). The cabs of all 3 West Sussex ERF HPs were re- painted red in the later 1970s, but the booms sensibly left yellow - weird in that the 3 West Sussex ERF HPs were the only ones in a Yellow/Red combination, but very effective and eye catching. This was the only one of the 3 to escape being written of in an RTC, replaced by Dennis F127/SS263 F25 OCR in 1989.

Added by Jon Godden on 05 June 2018.

I remember vividly seeing one of these yellow booms extended up the side of The Grand Hotel in Brighton following the 1984 IRA bomb that nearly murdered the UK government of the time. I wondered why they were yellow, and 34 years later I get the answer!

Added by Yelp Bullhorn on 06 June 2018.

thanks, lovely pic by the way

Added by on 06 June 2018.

67% write-off rate say something about how drivers were trained back then! Or was this typical - sounds pretty horrific if it was.

Did the yellow paint actually help the third one to survive, or contribute to the other two getting wrecked, I wonder?

By the way, were they all single cab? Most ERF Snorkels had crew cabs, although only a very few brigades actually ever crewed them with more than two or three, and the front seats included a standard bench passenger seat as the engine was mounted behind the front seat to help keep the cab and thus the entire vehicle as low as possible...

Added by Rob Johnson on 06 June 2018.

Just realised my above comment is slightly wrong - Worthings FPO 135H was still full Yellow when written of in fatal 1977 RTC on the A24 .. LBP 773J (Chichester, Bognor & Worthing) was written off whilst being towed in Cheshire after going to ERF for some brake repairs so was not being driven by a Fire Brigade employee at the time..(the booms hit a motorway bridge). Worthings MPX 842J and RT MBP 550J attended the Grand Hotel bombing. Rob, all 3 West Sussex ERFs were single cab.

Added by Jon Godden on 07 June 2018.

You can cut the percentage to 33%, LBP 773J was written off following collision with a bridge on M1 near Milton Keynes, whilst on suspended tow, after mechanical failure on return from Simon, Dudley, so not down to brigade driver.

Added by M.west on 08 June 2018.

Thank you for the clarification.

But I must add that even one out of three is pretty alarming.

Added by Rob Johnson on 15 June 2018.

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