^^^^^^. Thanks Capttomo....great picture above from your post .... looks like 'a 57 or '58 Plymouth Sedan....in the background is a Wooden Aerial with no Tiller Windshield....years ago in the late '60s / early '70s when Wooden Aerial spares were still around the Busy Units were not supposed to have any as a spare....back then when I was in 108 one cold 7 degree day tour around 0930 hrs after a 1st Due Fifth Alarm the night before ( in 9 attached 3 sty mixed occupancy 3 sty Frames starting in the Cellar of an Army & Navy Surplus Store on Grand St in Williamsburg ) our Rig was OOS with the Aerial frozen / heavily ice encrusted in the raised position so the shops brought a spare....CPT J.W. was adamant about not accepting it so they told us to take it to 142 & swap it for their Metal Aerial (which was the practice back then) so the CPT tells Charlie B. & myself to take it there....Charlie is driving & I am Tillering & it is cold ( 7 degrees) with no Tiller Windshield ) Charlie asks me for directions before we leave...him & I are whizzing down Bushwick Ave Lights & Sirens ( as was the practice going practically anywhere back then ) .... he miss'es the turnoff from Rockaway Blvd onto Liberty Ave ..... we have no HTs back then & I am hitting the buzzer button in the Tiller to signal him to stop ....it doesn't work ....we are now going past Aqueduct Racetrack & in slower traffic we are along side a PD RMP . I yell down to them yelling "tell the guy driving to stop" which they do & I tell Charlie we missed the street .....we get to 142 & the Officer says that they can't accept it as that with the Wooden Aerial overhang pulling out of QTRS the front wheels would mount the sidewalk across the St & there was just a lawsuit against the City by that homeowner for a cracked sidewalk which the City replaced ...me & Charlie are looking at each other ?....Charlie try's calling our FH but the CPT & remaining FFs are still at the scene of the Fifth working with the Shops trying to get the Aerial defrosted ( & to repair the blown hydraulic line damaged using the forbidden De - icing valve ...only supposed to be used by the Shops but tried by us earlier) ...getting nowhere Charlie calls DV*11 & explains the issue....the 11 DC calls DV*13 who says "take it to 151 & swap" so we drive over there ...the Officer there does not like it but has no excuse but tells us he wants his guys to wash the spare first....they proceed to wash it outside the FH on QB even though it is 7 Degree's outside... the service road is now icing up but Charlie & I are getting warm in their kitchen....finally they strip their '60 ALF Metal Aerial & we are getting ready to leave with it & the FFs say "we take good care of this Rig so don't let anything happen to it".. we take off back to Williamsburg getting back around 1730 hrs...a really unproductive non Firefighting day tour.....the last words from 151 about taking care of the Rig doesn't happen....later that night at a 1st Due job in a Supermarket arriving alone the front windows let go right after the Aerial is being setup melting the lights & burning the paint on one side of the Rig ! .......the strange thing about the spare Rig swap policy back then was that often when I was at work back then we would have a slower LADs Regular Metal Aerial as a spare however often the 1st & or 2nd Due LADs to my own home could have a POS Wooden spare
What a story Chief.
I could feel a chill just reading it.
Anybody who has tillered the back of a ladder truck, EVEN WITH A WINDSHIELD - but without an enclosed cab, will tell you everything is freezing cold no matter how you try to warm up.
Sterring that rear of the truck wearing ice covered gloves can certainly present a problem.
Once again looking back into the history books, I remember the FDNY being one of the first places in the tri-state area to try enclosed tiller cabs.
It worked and everybody else followed.
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