Fire Engines Photos

This was actually a Ford Motor Company factory fire service appliance. Brentwood is the registered head office, but the research center is at Dunton. I worked at both locations in the 1960s, and it was the practice to signwrite all company vehicles in this way.

This Carmichael bodywork includes a quite nicely executed split tilt cab, coupled with a four seat full width crew compartment which offers "standing" headroom. A lot nicer than the first HCB-Angus Ford D series water tenders delivered eleven years earlier!

Added by Rob Johnson on 17 April 2014.

Sorry but one wouldnt have to be very tall to stand up in these , I have in these and hcb and no way was there standing room

Added by Alan on 21 April 2014.

Alan - I am 6'3" and did a pub run standing up in the rear crew compartment as one of eleven "crew" members in the prototype D600 HCB Angus without any permanent brain damage - or at least I don't think so!

Added by Rob Johnson on 22 April 2014.

The dodge HCB Angus were cramped as I remember them very well in Tayside.

Added by Grant Melville on 23 April 2014.

The old UK JCDD specification for pumpers and water tenders in those days called for 6'0" rear crew compartment headroom. This requirement was to insure that back seat riders could stand up if needed, in order to don BA, which in those days was carried on the front bulkhead instead of in the seat backrests. I don't think the Home Office ever actually measured cab headroom, but it does explain why UK truck-based appliances had extra headroom in the crew area.

In other countries, where BA was carried in side lockers, there was no need for a taller cab. So most commercial truck based fire appliances had a crew cab with the same roof height as the original two door lorry cab. Good examples are early MB and Magirus appsratus, many of which are illustrated on this site.

Now, of course, with the BA sets in the seat backrests, there is no longer any need for high-roof crew cabs, and safety regulations mean that riders all have to remain seated and wear their seatbelts too!

Added by Rob Johnson on 08 May 2014.

I have spoken to a few retired friends and we al remeber th ehcb dodges and we all remember trying to don sets in the rear when they were stored in a square recess in the rear bulkhead , we sat facing rearwards then , there was a wooden spar to stop them falling out ! and everyone remembers the lack of headroom with all unable to stand up even without a helmet on , stooped was the common word used , perhaps taysides were lower than the norm, , if you study the photo and take a line back from the cab floor it is obviously not six feet unless you were standing in the footwell/step area , as I say I have ridden in a similar vehicle and its around five feet or just above.

Added by Alan on 09 May 2014.

The first eleven D series were delivered in 1967 to Gloucestershire, and examples are illustrated on this site. HCB-Angus built a separate crew cab behind the standard factory tilt cab, which was part of the rear bodywork. This did indeed have a lot of headroom, but no effort was made to try to integrate the crew cab into the driver's cab, and the appearnce of these units was distinctly truck-like - similar to the DC Ford C series pumpers also illustrated on this site.

Probably the best looking D series were some of the ones supplied to Lancashire several years later. But I can't vouch for their crew cab headroom, because by then I was working for Volvo.....

Added by Rob Johnson on 13 June 2014.

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