E63/L39, Rescue and other stuff...

69 METS said:
Hey Capt. ... That was back when you washed the apparatus wheels because there actually WAS horse s**t on them ...

  "69Mets", I think Johnny D (Johnd248) was around for those days too. When I came into the picture a few years later, most of those horse rigs were placed in reserve.

  And Grump, you weren't the only one that had a problem getting guys to pull out rigs. I also took rig shots during those 80s days. Twice I had problems and it sure WASN'T the FDNY. Seemed the slower depts had the most problems pulling out those rigs. In fact, most of the times the guys pulled out the rigs and we'd B/S for awhile.
 
E16 @ 223 E.25 St (Now a church) and L7 on the north side of East 28th street just east of 3rd Ave. now also a church. E272 on 38th Ave. between Main and Prince streets in Queens, now an EMS station. The "Big House" in Jamaica Queens, on the west side of 162 street between Jamaica and 89 Aves. This was the former quarters of E275, E298, E299, L127 and the 50 Bn.
 
I've made a hobby out of photographing fire apparatus over the past few years. There have been only two places where I've had a little bit of an issue. The first was in California. I stopped by a house that ran two engines, a truck and two or three buses. They would only pull out the first engine. Second was upstate NY. I had a couple of departments say to me, "You can see pictures of the rigs on our website." My response to that is, "I'm taking pictures for myself, and I'm standing here with the camera in my hand. I don't want to look at pictures someone else took." They pulled them out anyway, but not a good way to start off.
 
I started out taking BFD shots until 79 when I moved to Chicago. Back in those days BFD was all tillers, I decided I was not going to aggrevate two guys to move the rig. Plus in those days there was a lot of action so you could always get them at a job. That was my philosophy, do not "aggrevate" trying to photo a rig in a difficult situation. After I moved to Chicago I visited Boston in in 80, I caught several large jobs which helped my collection. Only thing, BFD was in "lime yellow" at that time. After my son was born we went back to Boston, Grumpy Jr ended up being photographed on the front bimper of the Tower Unit. It was the company's idea. Start them out young I guess! Seemed to have worked, didn't it :)
 
Hey Capt. ... That was back when you washed the apparatus wheels because there actually WAS horse s**t on them ...
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  "69Mets", I think Johnny D (Johnd248) was around for those days too. When I came into the picture a few years later, most of those horse rigs were placed in reserve.[/quote]

LOL ... By the time I got on the job, the only horse drawn apparatus left were assigned to the department museum and the only Civil Defense pumper left was in the armory where I took the agility test ...
 
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