A Kit-Bashed Fire Station

[absnut]

Thanks for all the kudos, gents, greatly appreciated.

Roger, yes, I started with the front AND an unbuilt DPM Hayes Hardware.  It seemed the easiest way to go.

[One of One-Sixty]

absnut Did you use Jimmi's suggestion about shimming the walls?  I have 1 of these kits already and gonna get 2 more to kit bash it to a wider version.

[absnut]

Yes, I added a 1/4 inch "foundation" under the side and rear walls to align the second floor windows.

[brokemoto]

OK, Phil, I showed you mine...now you've got to show me yours! 

The hook and ladder is in the lead.  See? I told you that my prototype would have been mostly wood.  These are old photographs, I could probably take some better ones.

The bottom photograph renders a better view of the chemical/hose waggon.  In many cases, the chemical waggon also carried hose.  Usually, the hose was folded, as it often is to-day, but there were reels, even in the horsey days.  I had a reel in my parts box, so my hose waggon carries a reel.  There were even hand-drawn hose reels, back then.

The pumper is probably more suited to a large, urban setting than this small town, but I do not strive for exacting accuracy on my nineteenth century pike.  I strive more to give the impression that when you look at it, you know that you are looking at a nineteenth century pike.  Nothing says nineteenth century fire equipment like a steam pumper.  (When I posted my V&T mogul's spotting a boxcar on the current steam topic, I added the bottom photograph and asked if the thing in the middle counted as steam).

The tanker, is not Department equipment, as you can see that its drivers are not in uniform.  The road that the Department is on goes by the coal yard, and the waggon there is loaded with sacks to make deliveries.  I guess that it will need to follow the equipment and drop off a sack or two at the site of the fire.  This is in keeping with the idea that some of those who sponsored Fire Departments contributed in kind rather than cash. 

Funny thing, I have never been able to learn, either by research or asking, if there was any such thing as something like a tender for the steam  pumper.  It would need fuel.  Water would be less of a problem, although if the site of the fire were far from a pond, creek or plug, you would think that it would need a water tank to keep the steam engine going until they could run the hoses and also to prime the pump once they got the hoses connected.  If the pumper had to go for some time, you would think that it would need additional fuel, as well.




The livery stable is across the street from the firehouse; you can see it behind the 2-8-0.

These are all old photographs.  I could probably take some better ones.

[absnut]

Neat, Phil!  I forgot you had modeled horse drawn equipment.  You've got a swelluva department, there.    I've got a photo somewhere of a NYC H&L that obviously started life as a horse drawn piece and was re-equipped with a gas powered tractor.  Always thought that might be worth a try.  Thanks for the photos. 

[brokemoto]

Two funny things:

1.  Some of the last constructed horse drawn hook and ladders actually DID have an aft steering wheel.

2.  Some of the earliest gasolene powered pumper engines actually STILL had a steam pumper.  The truck engine got it to the fire site, but it took steam to pump the water.  They are interesting looking contraptions.  I wonder if it was because the earliest gasolene internal combustion engines were not the most reliable, while steam was a proven technology.  if the gasolene engine quit en route, you could always hook up some horses and get it to the fire site.  If it quit while it was driving the pumper, you were in trouble.

[absnut]

I don't know if it occurred before gas powered trucks appeared or during the time but, an engineer/inventor named Christie developed a front wheel drive gasoline motored tractor that could be fitted to old horse pulled fire equipment.  The city of New York was his best customer I heard.  There is one in a museum here in Maine and I saw one at the Edaville RR  in Massachusetts.  I could go crazy scratching fire engines if I had enough wheels and suitable ladders.    The first photo is a Christie conversion as the second one may be.  The third appears to have originally been a horse drawn tiller with a new tractor.  The fourth is just plain interesting.  My next project will be an Ahrens-Fox pumper (like the HO model by Jordan.  We could probably have an interesting discussion about this topic!




Originally horse drawn?

[brokemoto]

It appears that as part of the conversion to gasolene engine drawn, they added tyres to the back wheels, although I can not tell from the photographs if they are solid rubber or have tubes.

The fourth one appears to be a combination hook and ladder/chemical truck that was built as a gasolene powered piece of equipment.

You can barely see the chemical tank on my combination chemical/hose waggon, but it is in front of the reel and behind the seat.  I have seen many photographs of combination chemical/hose waggons that had the tank in that spot.  On some prototypes, the chemical tank was right under the seat, where it is in the fourth photograph.

I do not recall seeing any combination hook and ladder/chemical waggons, although it is not impossible to imagine such a thing.

I understand that it took until the late 1940s to standardise much of the fire equipment in the US.

[Ike the BN Freak]

Very nice station Dick.

Daniel, not all stations have the exhaust hose.  I know my station back home doesn't have it, but we're a volunteer unit.

[absnut]

Phil, while I could not get close enough to touch it at the museum, my impression was the Christie had hard rubber tires.  I am familiar with "quads" and "quints" but, I have never heard of one of the older "quad" combinations being "chemical" so I cannot address that topic.  I can't see why it couldn't have been.  Kinda like in model railroading: if you can imagine it, it probably happened sometime in the 1:1 world.  The below photo is an Ahrens Fox product and, in my opinion, quite model-able in N sometime and not too unlike a horse drawn service ladder in concept.  Of interest to me is that while it is a straight chassis, it has a tiller, suggesting it was a "city" truck, like two of the previous photos.  My guess it's front wheel drive like the Christie conversions.  Fire apparatus is an interesting topic.