German fire dept VW van?

1974 Crew cab transporter with only 14,000 miles originally used by the fire chief to get to the fire scenes

The above German labels reminded me of the "pidgen German" comedy labels I found in a bug a couple years ago: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/09/poway-transmissions-annual-car-show.html

Above is an original oil change tag I was told

Fire department trucks retired and waiting for a 2nd life

Escondido's restored firetruck

1913 Christie Front Drive steam pumper/ fire engine

The restoration is remarkable, but the concept used in this construction is astonishing and innovative. Brilliant really, Walter Christie was a gifted engineer, and made the first front wheel drive car, http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/03/first-front-wheel-drive-car-1904.html and raced it in 1905 in the Vanderbilt Cup.

But getting back to the steam pumper... Christie didn't get in over his head and make the existing tech obsolete, he made it better. You may have realized that Microsoft is the world's top software company because it makes it's Windows better, not obsolete, and this made Bill Gates the world's richest man... improvements, not obsolescence.

Like I was saying, Walter looked at what needed to be improved, and took the opportunity to make horse drawn fire steam pumpers self propelled once they were equipped with his front wheel drive units instead of horses. Horses were already 10 years into the age of the car, and the writing was on the wall.

Fire department equipment is really expensive, and Walter focused on the biggest fire departments on the East Coast to contract with to improve the existing equipment to speed up the delivery of equipment to fires. Notice in the below photo that the front and back have little in common

To easily compare this to the horse drawn model, just click on this link and see it from my gallery http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/03/san-diego-firehouse-museum_11.html last month of the steam pumper in the San Diego Fire House Museum: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWJDki80oncyUBzWqe2oL6tfJ4LaOpFexATXQefoOn4jF51jd2JmpsWrIUd5pZgKv4e8L_ZFihTmdm9w7u_Y2XzDPUFSnymEvDNI_-smB_t5-mEoGC21OhGeiK7J7pLvh1_RgjpF-ikDjK/s1600/DSC_0055.JPG

This is just a short gallery, for a better one, and a full write up on the Christie company and it's founder: http://justacargal-s.blogspot.com/2011/03/1913-christie-fire-engine.html

The San Diego Firehouse Museum

They pull the trucks out for events that rent the location for a party, and put them back in with tow trucks... but notice this old engine has WOOD rims, and enormous tires. But those wood rims are still solid. Any guess at how old they must be? 80 years old is my guess

For the comparison between this horse drawn model and the front wheel drive model that replaced the horses: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/03/1913-christie-front-drive-steam-pumper.html and

Notice on the wall is a catch hoop.

Above and below are the same building, but the times are before and after telephone poles. Maybe before and after city electric was run?

Odd looking fire engines, the one to the left in the above image is the 1913 Christie Front Drive Steam Pumper, for a couple of galleries of what they look like when restored, and in color: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/03/1913-christie-front-drive-steam-pumper.html

and http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/03/1913-christie-front-drive-steam-pumper.html

I've posted about the passing of the horse drawn fire apparatus before, it's a significant milestone in the change of civilization to motorized vehicles and there are only two photos I've ever seen that herald this change of era's. This one, and the other I posted a couple years ago

A fire bucket, for the bucket brigade... I think the below painting is cool, very civil war era

A bit of Americana history here, these plaques were the soprt of thing that would be mounted on homes and businesses in big cities in the East, like Boston, Philidelphia, etc etc. They signified the fire insurance company that had been paid to reimburse the fire department if they had to extinguish a blaze. If the building on fire didn't have a plaque, maybe the fire department wasn't going to get piad fopr the work, I don't know, just speculation. Anyway, these two plaques are from dozens that have been collected and are displayed at the firehouse museum, they were labeled 1850, Cincinnatti

Among the many collections on display at the museum are patches, pins, hats, helmets, parade attire from the 1800's, black and white photos of the late 1800's and early 1900's, badges, fire plugs, fire hose nozzels, and news clippings... plus the McCurdy models in the next post