1955 FWD Hook and Ladders

[L 147]

Does any one have any pictures of the 1955 FWD rigs with and without the riot cabs that they can post?

 

[mack]

L 169:

 

[raybrag]

A couple of Ladder 136 without the riot roof:


http://nyfd.com/queens_ladders/ladder_136/ladder_136_FWD.jpg

http://nyfd.com/queens_ladders/ladder_136/ladder_136_1955.jpg

I'd post them directly, but I think they're copyrighted.  They're from nyfd.com

 

[memory master]

These 1955 FWD rigs were bought by NYC after Chicago FD rejected them.

 

[68jk09]

The fact that FDNY bought a bunch of wooden '55 FWD's that Chicago did not want is how we went to wood after having several metal aerials already.....the larger of the 2 LAD*136 pictures posted above was used in the 287/136/BN*46 recent Centennial book & a copy is also in a glass case outside the FH....the frames on the left are long gone originally replaced by a parking lot for the tire & auto glass place fronting on Queens Blvd...in the mid 2000's construction began for the existing 96 units that extend from the side of the FH & wrap around the corner down to QB....when they were excavating the lot it was interesting when they got down to the old fieldstone foundations of the original bldgs buried below the lot. 

 

[L 147]

L 169:

H & L 169 tiller

 

[3511]

My Uncle Charles was the chauffeur of L37 in da' Bronx when this new FWD Chicago reject was assigned to them. They thought they were getting a new American La France metal aerial ladder like the one at his brother's house at L38. But then this "thing" showed up on Briggs Ave.
Initially it did not even have an hydraulic assist to raise the aerial. My uncle, as the chauffeur, still had to crank the SOB up by himself, just like their old 1930s model.

He was a big, strong WWII Navy vet, typical Irishman truckie of that era. He died of a heart attack in his late '50s. The family always wondered whether this contraption contributed to his demise.