How were high ladders different from regular ones?

[E82T31B27]

I?d really like to know more about high ladders and what purposes those trucks served.

 

[manhattan]

I don't have much to add to the discussion other than that I believe the first High Ladder was assigned to 24 Truck in the early 1960s. Not sure about that, but I have a photo of the rig taken on an Easter Sunday sometime around then.  Just don't ask me to dig through old photos to find it!

 

[nfd2004]

"manhattan" is correct. One was Ladder 24.

I think there were TWO of them and the other went to Ladder 1 (?). They were 130 foot rear mount Magius ladders.

I believe one was later used as one of the TCU Ladder companies during the FDNY War Years.

 

[raybrag]

The high ladders were called that because their stick was 144 feet long.  FDNY bought two of them in 1962  . . . the very first FDNY rear mounts.

They were built on a Mack C chassis, with a Magirus 144 foot ladder. The trucks were designed very much like a European-style turntable ladder, and they had very few compartments and no ground ladders.  They were not well liked, at least in part because the ladder was narrow and difficult to work on.  In 1969 the Magirus ladders were removed and replaced with 100 foot Grove aerials, and the two rigs had seats added to the rear for firefighters to ride there.  They were assigned as Tactical Control Units (TCUs) during the war years.

Original high ladder:




Lenny Salamone photo

Later, after the ladder was replaced and the seats added:

 

[soda-acid]

The other High Ladder was assigned to Ladder 13 in Yorkville.

 

[E82T31B27]

The high ladders were called that because their stick was 144 feet long.  FDNY bought two of them in 1962  . . . the very first FDNY rear mounts.

They were built on a Mack C chassis, with a Magirus 144 foot ladder. The trucks were designed very much like a European-style turntable ladder, and they had very few compartments and no ground ladders.  They were not well liked, at least in part because the ladder was narrow and difficult to work on.  In 1969 the Magirus ladders were removed and replaced with 100 foot Grove aerials, and the two rigs had seats added to the rear for firefighters to ride there.  They were assigned as Tactical Control Units (TCUs) during the war years.

Original high ladder:




Lenny Salamone photo

Later, after the ladder was replaced and the seats added:

Thanks!

 

[firebuffkevin]

Thans Raybrag

 

[wfd444]

146 ft NOT 144 ft in 1961

 

[HCO]

Clarification re the three ?high ladder? photos:. Of the three photos posted, only the middle one shows the actual high ladder. The top photo, even though lettered High Ladder and the bottom photo at TCU 712 (E82/L31 quarters) show them in 1969, or later, after the 144 foot (originally carried as 146 foot) Magirus seven-section aerials,  originally delivered in 1961, were removed and replaced with Grove four-section 100 foot aerials in 1969. The middle photo shows registration # 456, originally High Ladder Unit 2, until assigned as the regular apparatus of L119 on 8/14/1965, prior to the 100 foot Grove aerial being retrofitted in place of the Magirus aerial.

Credit:  "WHEELS OF THE BRAVEST" by Jack Calderone and Jack Lerch, and  "SERVICES NOT REQUIRED", by Jack Calderone.

 

[grumpy grizzly]

Found a pix of a high ladder unit working at a fire @ Jewish Theological Center on April 17, 1966. It is fully extended to the 10th floor.

 

[grumpy grizzly]

This is Chicago's answer to the high-rise ladder. It is a 1974 Hendrickson/Pierce with a six-section 136' aerial. A 2 man rescue cab ran up the aerial. It had a 3 man cab so you were still riding outside until the mid-80's It was not popular with the members!

 

[mack]

Seats for members added after conversion.

   

 

[raybrag]

It always galls me to have put out bad information, and I thank wfd444 and HCO for getting me straight.  I wanted to be certain that they were correct, so I reached back to my trusty source, Jack Lerch's "New York City 50 Year Update - 1961" in the January-February 2012 edition of Fire Apparatus Journal. Sure enough, Jack reported that what came to be known as "High Ladders" were received in early 1961, and were expected to enter service in early March.  They were built on Mack C-85 chassis, and had seven-section Magirus ladders with a total length of 146 feet. They had what Jack called "a few" ground ladders mounted on the base section of the aerial (must have been fun getting them down), had registration numbers 455 and 456, and were assigned to Ladders 13 and 24.

 

[guitarman314]

  The Super Pumper and Tender being assigned to the 3 bay Hooper St. firehouse was why L119 was assigned a High Ladder rearmount. The 2 Super Pumper rigs occupied 2 bays and L119 had to be placed in the remaining bay behind E211's pumper.  L119's 1960 Mack C/Maxim 85ft. tiller was reassigned to L40 because their 1962 Seagrave tiller's tractor had been crushed in a wall collapse. E91's 1963 International was also crushed and they received a new diesel powered 1965 Mack C pumper.

 

[firebuffkevin]

Didn't one of these make its way to L 164 in Little Neck Queens? I am travelling and don't have access to my library  8)

 

[guitarman314]

Didn't one of these make its way to L 164 in Little Neck Queens? I am travelling and don't have access to my library  8)

Yes, L164 had #456 that was formerly TCU-712 and before that was originally L24, E324, High Ladder 2, and L119.

 

[firebuffkevin]

Didn't one of these make its way to L 164 in Little Neck Queens? I am travelling and don't have access to my library  8)

Yes, L164 had #456 that was formerly TCU-712 and before that was originally L24, E324, High Ladder 2, and L119.

Thanks GMan

 

[68jk09]

Seats for members added after conversion.

   

The seats had a back curtain in place behind the seats & a front drop down curtain for riot protection (rolled up in the picture) ..... the material was the same Hypalon used as a cover over the War Years Hose Beds.

 

[68jk09]

PHOTO OF 119 FULLY EXTENDED HIGH LADDER..... http://stevespak.com/standisharms.html

 

[STAjo]

PHOTO OF 119 FULLY EXTENDED HIGH LADDER.....    http://stevespak.com/standisharms.html

WOW ! 

Thanks Chief, Steve Spak & FF Francis Murphy