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Hurricane Donna Engine Company
- Thread starter mack
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2007
- Messages
- 5,392
Yes JOR, it might be 244.JOR176 said:The rig ahead of 245 might well have been the 1951 Ward ? how can you see the rig in front of 245 ?mack said:Thanks Gman. So maybe the engine further up Surf Avenue was Engine 318?
Johnd248,
I assume you rode the '51 Ward when it was on its last legs to say it was slow.
I remember when E79 got one of the first ones in service. It replaced a 20 year old Seagrave that looked ancient compared to the Ahrens Fox and Mack rigs running in my neighborhood. Yeah it was loud, lucky, I remember that. But slow it wasn't when new.
It was not a popular acquisition at the time. The '46 Wards had proven inferior to the '47 Mack's and American La France models. Those Wards were really built for the military war effort and the FDNY got 'em on the cheap when the war ended. (Some companies, like E62, were still running with 20+ year old 700 model ALF'S during the war.) The 46 WLF's were all pretty much out of front line service within a decade. (But some, with the first booster tanks on the job, remained useful on Staten Island for the brush fires. )
When the '51 ' s came on board they were thought to be lightweights. And they were. Part of the body work was actually made of wood, or so my ol' man told me. Ward engines and pumps were still suspect, but the rig could fly and had a narrow turning radius. Even so, the men preferred the more durable Mack's, AF's' and ALF's of the time.
They were proven wrong. The 50's Wards, including the CD rigs of following years, became workhorses during the War Years of the 1960's. Engine 79's lasted 17 years on the front line, until 1969, when 79 was doing heavy fire duty interchanging with E50.
And it had the highest pitched Sireno ever purchased by the FDNY. Made every dog in the neighborhood go nuts for almost 2 decades.
A classic.
I assume you rode the '51 Ward when it was on its last legs to say it was slow.
I remember when E79 got one of the first ones in service. It replaced a 20 year old Seagrave that looked ancient compared to the Ahrens Fox and Mack rigs running in my neighborhood. Yeah it was loud, lucky, I remember that. But slow it wasn't when new.
It was not a popular acquisition at the time. The '46 Wards had proven inferior to the '47 Mack's and American La France models. Those Wards were really built for the military war effort and the FDNY got 'em on the cheap when the war ended. (Some companies, like E62, were still running with 20+ year old 700 model ALF'S during the war.) The 46 WLF's were all pretty much out of front line service within a decade. (But some, with the first booster tanks on the job, remained useful on Staten Island for the brush fires. )
When the '51 ' s came on board they were thought to be lightweights. And they were. Part of the body work was actually made of wood, or so my ol' man told me. Ward engines and pumps were still suspect, but the rig could fly and had a narrow turning radius. Even so, the men preferred the more durable Mack's, AF's' and ALF's of the time.
They were proven wrong. The 50's Wards, including the CD rigs of following years, became workhorses during the War Years of the 1960's. Engine 79's lasted 17 years on the front line, until 1969, when 79 was doing heavy fire duty interchanging with E50.
And it had the highest pitched Sireno ever purchased by the FDNY. Made every dog in the neighborhood go nuts for almost 2 decades.
A classic.