Fire Engines Photos

Was the F26 a diesel? Interesting that after switching from Rolls petrol engined Dennis appliances in the fifties to AEC Merrywether diesels in the sixties, then almost immediately afterwards the brigade bought another Dennis. As this one was designated an F26 I think it must have been petrol powered?

Ed: being F26 it was petrol. The reason they switched back from diesel is that Merryweather failed to respond to the tender WHFB put out. They must have had too many orders.

Added by Rob Johnson on 17 February 2025.

In 1961 Merryweather was very concentrated on selling its new hydraulic turntable ladder, introduced in 1959, and there was indeed a boatload of orders for this innovative ladder, at a time when scores of prewar and wartime issued ladders were due to be replaced. The only hydraulic competitors were Magirus and Metz, but these were also quite new, much less well known, imported and required the buyer to decide on a suitable chassis - while Merryweather at that time were all on AEC chassis. It seems quite likely that the firm was not very interested in building lower priced pump appliances around that time, if they already had a backlog of orders for turntable ladders.

In retrospect, the success of the ladder in its early years, combined with limited capacity at the factory, may have been the death knell for the firm, as it meant losing its pumper business to competition, including Dennis, who already introduced diesel powered pumps a few years earlier with the F101s sold to London, and then went on in 1964 to offer more F series with AEC diesel engines.

Added by Rob Johnson on 18 February 2025.

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