Fire Engines Photos

Marcel, was the ladder re-chassied from something else. A TL ladder made of wood in 1940 seems unusual. 'Geesink' is a company that I have heard of but know nothing about. Can anyone fill in any details?

Best wishes,

Added by Barry on 22 April 2008.

Hi Barry, I have no information that the ladder was re-chassied. So I think this is the original wooden ladder.
Geesink was a Dutch builder, I believe that the Dutch market was their main "target". In the late 60's they stopped building fire engines.

Added by Marcel on 23 April 2008.

Brilliant bunch of old timers this time from you Marcel, a
pleasure to see them all in such good condition, thanks.


Added by Pete Matten on 23 April 2008.

Barry et all,

Geesink built this TL new for Assen, it was maybe one of the last wooden ones? Anyway it's working height is 16.8 metres and it was the 1st TL in the province of Drenthe. Geesink stopped with building fire trucks in 1968.
They built several vehicles for overseas mostly Belgium and Turkey. The USA and UK also had some TL's

Frank

Added by Fire995 on 24 April 2008.

Marcel:
Ladder - 16.8 metres, about 55 feet, for we non-metric
thinkers.
Obviously designed to negotiate and work in the narrow,
twisted streets of very old medieval towns - with its
narrow width and short wheel-base.
What an utter contrast to the big, long, tractor-drawn
Aerial Ladders of the USA, that require the rear wheels
to be also steered.
Very interesting group of Fire Apparatus; and so good
to see them in good shape.
Regards,


Added by Pat_R-B on 25 April 2008.

The steel ladder first appeared in 1931, introduced by Magirus.

It was much lighter than its timber predecessors, but this may not have been much of a problem on a short ladder like this. 55 foot wooden escape ladders were, after all, quite commonplace in England at the time.

In 1940 it was beginning to get hard to lay hands on steel in some places, and this may have been another reason...

Added by Rob Johnson on 30 May 2018.

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