Fire Engines Photos

see picture 18733 for a great picture of these unusual Gloucs Fords - some had Pyrene bodywork. The green Dodge is at picture 20017.

Added by Peter Williams on 22 March 2010.

These Gloucestershire D600s were the first D series SVO fire appliances sold in the UK. They had high-powered six cylinder 300 CID (5.0 litre) petrol engines, specially sourced by SVO from Ford of Canada. The original order was for ten water tenders and one foam tender.

The D series was introduced in 1966 and was designed by the same American engineering team who developed the C series. This was a fabulously popular fire engine chassis in the US in the 1960s, but the D series never gained widespread popularity in Britain. I think this was mainly because Bedford had an edge with their decade of supplying post-war fire appliance chassis and the fact that they had a five-year lead with their very well-designed TK range.

These first units were built without any effort on the part of the bodybuilders to integrate the factory tilt cab with the crew cab and rear bodywork, which did not look very attractive but did offer a very roomy rear cab. Many of the later versions with various crew cabs and bodywork looked a lot more together, and some were quite elegant.

The white bumpers (and front grille panels) were painted white ex factory, so the bodybuilder had to decide to repaint them or leave them white. Some later versions offered an optional chrome bumper, but not when these first trucks were being supplied.

Added by Rob Johnson on 08 July 2013.

The Ford D Series was quite widespread Lancs and GMC had a lot also Staffs, Surrey and Shropshire. Cumberland Westmorland and at least one Scottish brigade also ran some. This body was the Lo cost body by I think Pyrene. Apparently the crews did not like them and later batches had an integrated cab, or so I have read.

Added by Neal Glover on 09 July 2013.

Quite a few UK brigades did indeed eventually buy D series pumps, snorkels and special-purpose units. However, the D series never became as popular as the C series was in North America. At one time, just about every fire department here had Fords in it, from Boston to Dallas to Miami to Chicago to Los Angeles and San Francisco - and almost everywhere in between!

I think there were two reasons for this. First, many volunteer fire companies did not specify crew cabs at the time. For others, canopy cabs with rear-facing crew seats were still the norm in America, and the C series tilt cab worked well with this configuration. UK regulations mandated a fully-enclosed cab, and it took a while for bodybuilders to come up with a tilt or split-tilt crew cab for the D series, although some canopy cab D series pumpers were built in New Zealand.

The second reason was that the C series offered a wide selection of optional engines, while the D series was initially a bit limited until the Perkins V8 was offered.

The only four door C series I ever saw was in Washington, DC. This looked a lot like the Gloucestershire D series in the photo - with a standard truck cab and a simple and very ugly box behind it for the rest of the crew.

Added by Rob Johnson on 10 July 2013.

Meirionydd, Anglesey, Gwynedd in Wales were some and Grampian was Scottish brigade. Northumberland had plenty. the Locost body was by HCB Angus.

Added by Gary Simpson on 10 July 2013.

The Glos. Fords were bodied by HCB, the only Pyrene bodied appliance was the Pump Escape built for Gloucester City.

Added by Avonmouth on 10 July 2013.

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