Fire Engines Photos

Comment removed at request of Commentor

Andy - I totally agree, but I personally really dislike this grille treatment, which I always felt was unfinished and looked very utilitarian - much like a farm gate! Commer were able to deliver a neat chrome T grille as early as 1950 on their Q chassis, which was used on a lot of fire appliances back then, including a pair of water tenders in my hometown fire brigade in Darlington. A handful of custom fire truck manufacturers still flourish in the USA, as you know, but its a much bigger market. Even here numerous brands have died off. I can think of Boardman, Hahn, Pirsch, Maxim, Crimson, American La France, Ward La France, Hendrikson, Crown Coach - and even mighty Pierce is now a division of Oskosh, while Mack still builds loads of trucks but no longer manufactures fire apparatus.

Custom manufacturers have pretty much died out in Europe, but the new Rosenbauer hybrid might just be a rebirth, if it proves to be reliable and the price is not prohibitive.

You may not know that just after the Hestair purchase of Dennis I was interviewed for the job of Managing Director - after working for years with Ford and Volvo.

Although offered the job, I did not pursue it because the Hestair crowd wanted to cash in on the Dennis reputation by increasing prices and cutting costs, while I wanted to expand the business in partnership with Rosenbauer and get a real foothold in the European market - which was many times bigger than the UK.

We all know what happened!

Added by Rob Johnson on 27 October 2021.

Dennis R61, Chassis No:F3328/996, 3 of 4, WPO 43102

Added by M.west on 28 October 2021.

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