Fire Engines Photos

Cheshire had a batch of these as A type WrTs but there seem to be virtually no photos. They seem to have started with dismounted light TrPs replaced by featherweights.

Ed: here is a Cheshire Thornycroft

www.fireflash-delta64.co.uk/heswallarch.html

Added by Neal Glover on 05 January 2024.

Interesting, because British fire brigades were never all that keen on 4X4 appliances, and the Thornycrofts were a very expensive alternative to the contemporary Bedford R series, which a few county brigades including Cambridgeshire bought. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland 4X4s were - and still are - very popular with fire services, but seem to have never caught on in Scandinavia, France, or Central or Southern Europe - except of course for brush and forest fire tenders. I have never quite figured out why, except that medium 4X4 truck chassis have been a traditional offering for many years by the leading German manufacturers Mercedes, MAN, Magirus and others to cope with winter weather (rather than off road conditions ), while in other countries they were largely either unavailable or required a very expensive conversion.

The military based Beford R was a bit of an exception, and was the basis for hundreds of second generation Green Goddesss AFS pumpers, but these had a lower payload than their RWD precdecessors and could carry only 300 IG in their water tanks compared to 400 on the RWD version. Very few were bought by public fire brigades, although a few adopted ex AFS units after the AFS was discontinued.

Added by Rob Johnson on 06 January 2024.

The three axle 6x4 configuration is a good and relatively more widely used compromise worldwide for payload and mobility than 4 x 4.
British fire brigades often seem under equipped in that regard. Especially in the conurbations under the flight paths of the major airports and the resulting potential for aircraft type incidents.


Added by Geoff on 08 January 2024.

Tandem axle fire trucks are also a bit rare in most of Europe too, except for some aerial and tanker applications, where the gross weights exceed what can be carried on only two axles. In France, there are even a lot of four axle tankers, and of course airport crash trucks worldwide are often tandem or quad axle too.

In the US tandem axle rigs are a bit more common, but axle loadings tend to be less generous here, and a lot of rescues and aerials are pretty beefy, not to mention rural tanker trucks.



Added by Rob Johnson on 08 January 2024.

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