Fire Engines Photos

Pity can't make out the station name, as this was at Bexley, and that's way too many letters! And as it's a Pump, can't be West Wickham!

Ed: Sittingbourne.

Added by Christopher Stone on 18 May 2023.

I wonder if there were many of these Comets in Kent. Does anyone know if they preceded their Dodge Kew acquisitions or were they contemporary?

Added by Rob Johnson on 18 May 2023.

Rob Johnson Kent had eleven Comet's, they all went into London as they were in the old A Div, NW Kent. They were in service along side Kent's Commer's. A few of these also found they way into London too.

Added by Christopher Stone on 19 May 2023.

Thanks. Not very many fire brigades continued to prefer normal control appliances like these after forward control chassis were introduced by so many truck manufacturers in the late 40s and early 50s.

Added by Rob Johnson on 20 May 2023.

According to my records, and I'm sure that Chris Stone will be able to confirm, of the 11 Leyland Comets supplied to Kent, eight were built by Kenex and the other three by Windovers. Only one other Comet came from Kenex and that was for Southampton (JTR 864) a pump / hose layer. I have 49 Comets listed for 20 different brigades with nine body builders.

Added by Simon Rowley on 21 November 2023.

Simon Do you happen to know any more about when these were built and whether they were pumps, water tenders or any dual purpose appliances? I only ever saw one Comet, which was at the Middlesbrough station. According to the third office at the time, “ it was faster than riding a bike, but not by much”. Back then the other three Middlesbrough pumps were all Dennis appliances with the Rolls Royce eight cylinder engine, which were famously fast, so I imagine the Leyland suffered a bit by comparison with them!

Added by Rob Johnson on 21 November 2023.

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