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Fire Engine Photos
Clevedon Somerset 1970s
A picture spotted on the wall of a newly refurbished hairdressers in Clevedon. It is of Clevedon fire station, obviously taken in the 1970s. The two Bedfords are obviously Somerset appliances, I assume Clevedons pair, a Bedford TJ RYC469F (apparently minus a ladder)and Bedford TK YYD 643H. The Ford is a Gloucestershire WTL , but no idea what it was doing at Clevedon or where is was allocated.. if any one can shed any more light on the subject I would be grateful. Incidentally the hairdressers in question has a fine collection of local vintage photos on the wall - Thank you to Adam the owner for allowing me to take this picture of the picture in exchange for "keeping the change" Since this picture was taken the metal drill tower has moved to the rear left hand side of the lovely vintage station.
A picture spotted on the wall of a newly refurbished hairdressers in Clevedon. It is of Clevedon fire station, obviously taken in the 1970s. The two Bedfords are obviously Somerset appliances, I assume Clevedons pair, a Bedford TJ RYC469F (apparently minus a ladder)and Bedford TK YYD 643H. The Ford is a Gloucestershire WTL , but no idea what it was doing at Clevedon or where is was allocated.. if any one can shed any more light on the subject I would be grateful. Incidentally the hairdressers in question has a fine collection of local vintage photos on the wall - Thank you to Adam the owner for allowing me to take this picture of the picture in exchange for "keeping the change" Since this picture was taken the metal drill tower has moved to the rear left hand side of the lovely vintage station.
Thanks Simon, I knew someone like you would have all the details. I should have guessed it had something to do with the 1974 re organisation which had quite an effect on the Bristol area. Also interesting that at least 2 of the vehicles were saved at some point after leaving active service. Many thanks, Jon.
Added by on 20 April 2017.
Added by on 20 April 2017.
The Ford pictured here is one of the first eleven D series we sold in 1976. These had the standard factory tilt cab and a separate full width crew cab integrated with the rear bodywork, which was built by HCB-Angus. Communication was achieved by removing the cab rear window and fitting a rubber seal around the opening to hopefully keep the rain out!
Later, HCB, Carmichael and Merryweather built units with either fully-tilting crew cabs or integrated split tilt cabs. These looked a lot better!
Funnily enough, we now seem to be trending back to using a standard truck cab with a separate crew cab, especially in Germany -although several truck manufacturers now also offer their own factory crew cabs for fire appliances. These are still popular on many Raba, Renault, DAF, Volvo, MAN, Scania and IVECO units.
Added by Rob Johnson on 21 April 2017.
Later, HCB, Carmichael and Merryweather built units with either fully-tilting crew cabs or integrated split tilt cabs. These looked a lot better!
Funnily enough, we now seem to be trending back to using a standard truck cab with a separate crew cab, especially in Germany -although several truck manufacturers now also offer their own factory crew cabs for fire appliances. These are still popular on many Raba, Renault, DAF, Volvo, MAN, Scania and IVECO units.
Added by Rob Johnson on 21 April 2017.
Hi the ford d600 pdf 932G was brought by my farther and restored and unfortunately sold in late 90s.I'm am now trying to find the location of this engine to hopefully buy it back in to the family
Added by Trev guide on 12 December 2018.
Added by Trev guide on 12 December 2018.
Good luck with this Trev!
These had a specially imported Canadian Ford 300 CID six cylinder petrol engine, as that was what Gloucestershire wanted back in those days - instead of a diesel.
If you do track this one down - or any of the other ten we supplied - I do hope the engine is in good shape, because I expect parts for it may be very difficult to lay hands on. Very few were ever imported, because almost as soon as this engine was introduced brigades started switching to our diesels and of course the very popular Perkins V8 too.
Added by Rob Johnson on 13 December 2018.
These had a specially imported Canadian Ford 300 CID six cylinder petrol engine, as that was what Gloucestershire wanted back in those days - instead of a diesel.
If you do track this one down - or any of the other ten we supplied - I do hope the engine is in good shape, because I expect parts for it may be very difficult to lay hands on. Very few were ever imported, because almost as soon as this engine was introduced brigades started switching to our diesels and of course the very popular Perkins V8 too.
Added by Rob Johnson on 13 December 2018.
Bedford
PDF 923G was replaced by a new Dodge in 1977 and became a 'C' Division spare so it would have been in the line-up during a change-over with the WrT that was probably off to workshops for a routine service.
Both the Bedfords were still at Clevedon in 1979 but had been replaced by hand-downs (Dodge and ERF) by mid 1980. The Ford was sold in 1981 and was in preservation but the DVLA shows it as untaxed since 1991 so probably it is no more.
RYC 469F is untaxed since July 1995 whilst there's no trace of YYD 843H.
Added by Simon Rowley on 08 April 2017.