Fire Engines Photos

What a beautiful site, a full Bedford line up, from an era when the best fire engines were used by North Yorkshire.

I remember many an happy hour at York, the Ford a series et, the 2 Bedford pumps and good old paj, the ERF/ Metz tl, you go now, you got that horrid looking Merc alp, 2Volvo toasters on wheels rp's, and the only good thing seen on station now is the Landrover!

Why oh why did Bedford stop building Fire engines/trucks? Bedford/HCB-Angus, were, and will always be the best appliances.

Added by John Johnstone on 10 March 2008.

TheFireman, you're in trouble buddy!! Now you got the Englishmen slinging muck at each other about toasters on wheels, you started all this nonscience don't forget! Damn, you remind me of the crazy book I'm reading at the moment, "Catch 22" by Joseph Heller, US Army Airforce operating out of goodness knows where in occupied Europe in WW2!! I reckon you could have been there too, ,

Added by Pavel - Western Australia on 10 March 2008.

Sorry if i've offend anyone, but the volvo flh/fl6 is just ugly, infact, my toaster is better looking and has lasted longer than most of the volvo's around here! Bring Back Bedford!


Added by John Johnstone on 10 March 2008.

Johno, we love your humour, and the TK Bedfords in New Zealand were the best and smartest ever produced in the entire World!!

Added by Pavel - Western Australia on 10 March 2008.

the bedfords were ok just let down by the janspeed twin carb conversions
much better with the Rolls b60/1 engines though

Added by Jason on 10 March 2008.

Most of North Yorkshire's fleet were diesel, however some petrol engine TKs 's joined the service from the old West Riding fire brigade with local boundary changes in 1974. They were twin carb and a nightmare to get going from cold, but ok when warmed up.

Added by Paul Warnock on 11 March 2008.

I remember the 2 old e reg white ones York had, infact i manged to keep up with one on my bicycle as a child until we got to fulford and it shot off!

What was the problem with the janspeed ones the, i heard janspeed worked on the engines, but never realised what they did.

Added by John Johnstone on 11 March 2008.

Its always nice to take a nostalgic look back at fire engines from the past.I have driven both types of 1970's Bedfords, and later Volvos, Dodges, a coventry yellow painted ford, and the white Dennis fire engines that N Yorks 'inherited' from tad fire stn.I drove all of these to incidents from York fire Stn and In order of preference 1, Volvo, they were brill machines compared to the anything else we ever had, in fact they were to us a revelation!! 2, Dodge, I am sure that the Dodge we had was fitted with a cummins or perkins V8 engine and it could really move and with good brakes Ihad lots of good runs in that vehicle as you can imagine. 3, Dennis with RR engine and twin strombergs carbs (shades of spitfire merlin engine!)it used to go like the wind great road holding but the brakes couldnt stop them, and also the bodywork was low to the ground which caused problems when at grass fires ect.finally and sad to say the bedfords. I am sure in there day they were super vehicles but they were never developed and were very old fifties/sixties running gear /chassis technology.Thats probably why they closed down!
But looking through rose tinted glasses they look brill!! regards jim
well maybe not finally I remember turning out in the Ford as part of the crew, ( I remember the drivers name but wont mention it), we turn into Bootham from exhibition sq en route to a shout there was a sudden lurching lots of grating noises expletives and the driver telling us that the offside front wheel had fallen of due to a complete collapse of the front wheel bearing! What the consequences of this would have been travelling at speed I darent even think about!

Added by Jim Whitehead on 24 June 2012.

Despite early success in some export markets, Bedford export sales were very low by 1989, and this, along with the collapse of the British commercial vehicle market in 1989/90 was just too much for Bedford to be able to survive.

From a strong UK market share position in the 1950s and 1960s, boosted by decent export numbers, Bedford increasingly lost out to newer designs from Ford and Dodge as well as much stronger competition from Volvo and others with newer products in both their European export markets and in Britain.

If the economics of truck production mean a firm like Bedford has to build in large numbers, it has to continue to grow or at least sustain its sales volumes. This requires a consistent stream of innovations and improvements to stay competitive - and this is what Bedford failed to do...

Added by Rob Johnson on 21 April 2018.

Slight error Bedford TKG was C926VHN Reg.No. not C962VHN.

Added by Adrian J Carmichael on 06 August 2024.

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