Fire Engines Photos

It is a hydraulic ladder, first introduced in 1959. The registration is 1965, which means it rather unlikely to be a remount.

Ed: I think Merryweather converted some earlier (wartime) ladders from mechanical to hydraulic operation. Why else would it have screw jacks given they were being phased out, and do not appear on the 1960s built ladders. For more on this see picture 16440

Added by Rob Johnson on 27 February 2025.

It is also possible that the brigade actually specified the type of jacks?

Added by Rob Johnson on 28 February 2025.

This chassis was introduced by AEC in 1957, only two years before the Merryweather hydraulic ladder, so there would presumably have been only up to eight years for it to have carried a mechanical ladder before mounting the hydraulic version.

Added by Rob Johnson on 28 February 2025.

The ladder set looks like the later Merryweather Type B variant, which was introduced around 1963-1964-ish?. If so, with a build date of 1965, the ladder is likely to be the original, and as Rob suggested earlier, not a remount.


Added by Keith Richardson on 02 March 2025.

Keith: Very interesting. I never knew Merryweather introduced a second variant of their hydraulic ladder so soon after the original design was introduced.

Added by Rob Johnson on 05 March 2025.

Croydon County Borough purchased two all new hydraulic B Type ladders, CBY 1 in '63 and this one in '65, both specified with manual outrigger jacks. Absorbed into the LFB 1st April '65. With one exception, all MW Hydraulics purchased by LFB had inboard screw jacks powered by hydraulic motors. These were sometimes troublesome, but could be manually overidden. The outriggers offered better stability, whereas the machines with inboard jacks were later found to have stability issues requiring the fitting of ballast weights. Pre war and wartime A Type ladders are easily identified by round tubular trussing...Post war A Types also had round trussing but of slightly different design. B Types had square tube trussing. Quite a few A Types have undergone re-chassis and/or remount on hydraulic mechanism. So the ladder Tommy Trinder climbed in 1943 may still be around. Who knows?

Added by Alan T on 06 March 2025.

Very comprehensive explanation Alan! Just goes to show that innovation is only to be gratefully acknowledged if it actually works!

Added by Rob Johnson on 06 March 2025.

Can't be help wondering how many - if any - of the five LFB stations in Croydon (population 390,000) have a turntable ladder now?

Added by Rob Johnson on 07 March 2025.

Rob...There were twenty nine turntable ladders on the run in LFB when I joined in '66, plus a handful of spares. This was consistently whittled down over the years until, on one or two occasions I recall, so few were available that the Mobilising Officer circulated a teleprinter message that TLs would be ordered upon request only. I think few would disagree that a TL is of most use on the initial attendance and next to useless if you've got to wait 20 minutes, or more, for it. However, lessons may have been learned (the hard way). I think (or hope) it's a bit better now. I don't know the current situation in Croydon.

Added by Alan T on 13 March 2025.

Alan: I understand LFB has a total of only thirteen 30 meter ladders and three 60 meter ones, although it seems some of these are not manned by dedicated firefighters but staffed “when needed” by other crew members from pumps.The UK stands out among fire services in almost all other advanced countries as having far fewer aerial vehicles relative to pumps in service. I think this may be a historical relic of the close to 100 years during which wheeled 15 metre ladders were almost universal in cities and towns, which made 30 metre ladders less essential. But the wheeled escape ladder is no more, and the 13.5 is not a popular replacement, despite being promoted as “lightweight”, which it isn’t! Big wheeled ladders were once universal in places including Germany, France, Denmark and a few others. But their disappearance was coincidental with a big increase in the numbers of turntable ladders, including units from as small as 18 metres all the way up to 45 metre giants.

Ed: London also had very strong building codes after the Great Fire of London in 1666 (wood was used far less), and many buildings were designed with the wheeled escape in mind.

Added by Rob Johnson on 14 March 2025.

Hello are these recent numbers? :
Here to compare with BSPP Paris @ 2025
- TTL30 with Basket 35
- TTL30 no Basquet 22
- TL Half automatic




Added by JACQUES PETER on 15 March 2025.

Sorry something went wrong: to continue
TTL24m Half automatic 2
Skylift 32m 6
Skylift 42m 1


Added by JACQUES PETER on 15 March 2025.

Yes, as I mentioned, UK fire services have far fewer aerials than in most other countries. Typically cities with 300,000 population have only one, while some brigades covering a million people often have only two. Not only does BSPP have 65 for a population comparable to London but Berlin has 34 for 3.5 million - while of course FDNY with 8.3 million has over 170! These are probably rather similar across other cities in these countries, as well as in many other countries I have looked at. It is commonplace for aerials to be called out only after the first alarm “in case they are needed”. It is also quite often the case that the aerial is not permanently staffed by dedicated firefighters, but driven to an incident by a crew member from a pump, assuming he or she is available!

Added by Rob Johnson on 15 March 2025.

To illustrate my point, I recently saw a YouTube video with LFB attending a roof fire in a three storey apartment building. With four pumps on scene, their only solution was to hit the roof using a low volume hand line from the lawn behind the building for an extended time, after clearly failing to contain the blaze from inside. Seeing a similar roof fire video in Berlin, two turntable ladders were quickly raised to the roof, one to remove tiles and get access to the burning rafters, and the other to supply a hand line once it was opened up. Job done!

At the London incident, either there was no TL available, or one was not requested, or perhaps it arrived too late to get near enough to the structure to be usefully deployed.

Added by Rob Johnson on 16 March 2025.

A recent incident in Droitwich with a fully involved roof fire in a hotel on four floors which was undergoing renovation was attended - after a rather apparent delay (again!) - by a single aerial appliance. For a very long time, hand lines operated from the street were the only visible means of attempting to control the blaze, which rapidly extended to involve most of this very large structure. Roof fires can best be tackled inside from below, and can be dealt with from above if they can be opened up by personnel on the roof. But shooting hand lines up at a high roof from the street is - as demonstrated in Droitwich and many other places - largely a waste of time and water.

Added by Rob Johnson on 10 September 2025.

An update on this incident shows that eventually two aerials were deployed, but not in time to avert a total loss!

Added by Rob Johnson on 11 September 2025.

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