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Fire Engine Photos
AEC Regent/Merryweather HJD203 DP West Ham
official Merryweather delivery publicity shot taken on Blackheath. Note the midships mounted pump, jackknife crew cab door, and small sliding door for driver.
From spring 1951 CFO Demarne, on the advice of his transport officer, started to lobby the Council to buy diesel-engined appliances, though they cost £1000 more than petrol engine appliances. This was initially rejected on financial grounds but eventually he won. He opted for Merryweathers as supplier as no other fire engine maker was doing diesels at this time, and he had to seek a variation to Council Standing Orders to avoid a tender process.
Image courtesy of Newham archives and local studies library.
official Merryweather delivery publicity shot taken on Blackheath. Note the midships mounted pump, jackknife crew cab door, and small sliding door for driver.
From spring 1951 CFO Demarne, on the advice of his transport officer, started to lobby the Council to buy diesel-engined appliances, though they cost £1000 more than petrol engine appliances. This was initially rejected on financial grounds but eventually he won. He opted for Merryweathers as supplier as no other fire engine maker was doing diesels at this time, and he had to seek a variation to Council Standing Orders to avoid a tender process.
Image courtesy of Newham archives and local studies library.
Yes. There are photos of this unit from the left side on the London Fire Brigade website historic fire appliances pages
AEC built double deck buses for Lisbon Portugal with the same type of sliding driver’s doors - on the left side too of course!
Ed can you include a link to the page please
Added by Rob Johnson on 15 June 2021.
AEC built double deck buses for Lisbon Portugal with the same type of sliding driver’s doors - on the left side too of course!
Ed can you include a link to the page please
Added by Rob Johnson on 15 June 2021.
I can't find the web pages you refer to. Don't understand why the brigade would specify or the manufacturers build such an inconvenient design for a a fire engine. But I suppose stranger things have happened at sea!
Added by Roger Mardon on 18 June 2021.
Added by Roger Mardon on 18 June 2021.
Roger: It has happened before, and since! Examples I can think of include the two door Leyland Firemasters, the similar Chubb effort, and the series of AEC Merryweather appliances with the small single sliding doors on each side.
I always wondered why the prototype Green Goddess had four doors, but all of the production series had two, and why two door appliances from so many fire engine builders were so popular. These turned up even on Commer, Karrier and Dennis F8 chassis -which were all originally designed for a cab with front doors.
The UK and - for some reason - Finland were as far as I can tell the only countries where fire appliances with two door crew cabs were popular, and the only reason I can think of was that this may have been cheaper.
This West Ham appliance (later transferred to LFB) may have had these weird front and rear cab doors because it was originally housed in a very narrow appliance bay, but I cannot think of anything else! BTW the LFB website used to have a historic section, but this seems to have disappeared. I seem to remember seeing this unit on this site too, in a photo along with a Leyland Comet pump, but I think that was a long time ago.
Added by Rob Johnson on 19 June 2021.
I always wondered why the prototype Green Goddess had four doors, but all of the production series had two, and why two door appliances from so many fire engine builders were so popular. These turned up even on Commer, Karrier and Dennis F8 chassis -which were all originally designed for a cab with front doors.
The UK and - for some reason - Finland were as far as I can tell the only countries where fire appliances with two door crew cabs were popular, and the only reason I can think of was that this may have been cheaper.
This West Ham appliance (later transferred to LFB) may have had these weird front and rear cab doors because it was originally housed in a very narrow appliance bay, but I cannot think of anything else! BTW the LFB website used to have a historic section, but this seems to have disappeared. I seem to remember seeing this unit on this site too, in a photo along with a Leyland Comet pump, but I think that was a long time ago.
Added by Rob Johnson on 19 June 2021.
Rob. I was not thinking so much of folding/jackknife doors in common use on British appliances but more of the minuscule sliding door for driver, or oic on the other side, as seen on the West Ham appliance.
Added by Roger Mardon on 21 June 2021.
Added by Roger Mardon on 21 June 2021.
Roger. Understood! But I do often wonder why there were so many two door crew cab appliances in the "good" (?) old days in the UK. It seems to me that - of all vehicles - one would think that as many riders as possible should get their own door on any vehicle designed for emergency response, so they were not in each other's way getting in and out.
In addition to jackknife doors, Merryweather, HCB Angus and a few others also had rather small sliding doors with one on each side for the whole crew in the 1950s and early 1960s - a configuration which was ultimately rejected by some brigades, including London.
Added by Rob Johnson on 23 June 2021.
In addition to jackknife doors, Merryweather, HCB Angus and a few others also had rather small sliding doors with one on each side for the whole crew in the 1950s and early 1960s - a configuration which was ultimately rejected by some brigades, including London.
Added by Rob Johnson on 23 June 2021.
AEC
Just as well that the OIC in those bygone days was never expected to don a BA set before trying to exit the cab, or they may have needed to turn out the ET to extricate him through that tiny doorway!
Added by Rob Johnson on 11 April 2021.