antique apparatus firegeezer on 06 Feb 2008 05:25 pm
Can You I.D. The “Mystery” Fire Engine?
ATTENTION: ANTIQUE PUMPER AFFICIANADOS AND FIRE BUFFS…..
The Nashua (New Hampshire) Telegraph is looking for some help in identifying a pumper circa. 1920. They’re wanting to learn the make of the fire engine and possibly where the fire was.
They have some clues, including the photographer’s name stamped on the back, in this article HERE. If you can add something to the knowledge, then let them know.
Firegeezer squints and wonders: Is that a front-mounted pump on there? I don’t see one elsewhere.
on 06 Feb 2008 at 5:51 pm 1.Mike Yurgec said …
This could be a serial #907, model N-2, a 1000 GPM Ahrens-Fox pumper. One was delivered to Nashua, NH on May 23, 1918.
on 24 Feb 2008 at 9:31 pm 2.Ed Hass said …
The previous poster was half right. It is indeed an Ahrens-Fox fire engine, made in Cincinnati, Ohio. And bought at the same time as #907.
I have spent over 40 years researching the history of every Ahrens-Fox fire engine ever built. I have written and published numerous books and articles on this tyoe of fire engine, and I own a 1953 Ahrens-Fox fre engine of my own.
Here are the details of the one in your photo.
Registered Number 851 – Model M-11 – Nashua, NH 1918
Model M-11 booster and hose car. Six-cylinder Ahrens-Fox T-head Motor #859, 5-1/2″ bore x 7″ stroke, 72.6 horsepower. Front-mount “booster” rotary gear pump, 250 gallons per minute. 60-gallon “booster” water tank.
January 16, 1918: Fire & Water Engineering magazine, p. 53-Nashua, N.H.-It is reported that council will spend $24,000 for motor fire apparatus. [Ahrens-Fox Reg. Nos. 851 and 907]
June 12, 1918: Shipped to Nashua, NH.
June 19, 1918: Fire & Water Engineering magazine, p. 475-During the past few weeks, the Ahrens-Fox Fire Engine Company, of Cincinnati, Ohio, has made deliveries of fire apparatus to Nashua, N.H., two engines [Reg. Nos. 851 and 907]; Cincinnati, Ohio, 3 engines [Reg. Nos. 674, 675, and 677]; Anamosa, Iowa [Reg. No. 655]; and Dutch East Indies [Reg. No. 684], one engine each.
July 10, 1918: Fire & Water Engineering magazine, p. 32-An Ahrens-Fox motor fire pump was given a highly satisfactory test at Nashua, N.H., recently. The apparatus is equipped with two pumps, one of which pumped 350 gpm and the other on the supreme test pumped 1135 gpm. Besides the local officials there were present Chief John B. Gordon of the Haverhill fire department, members of the Haverhill board of aldermen, fire officials of Manchester, and others. The demonstration of this make of pumper made a favorable impression upon the spectators. [The 350 gpm refers to Reg. No. 851; the 1135 gpm was Reg. No. 907].
July 17, 1918: Fire & Water Engineering magazine, p. 50- The Ahrens-Fox Fire Engine Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, has recently delivered one of their motor pumping engines [Model N-2 #907] to the city of Nashua, N.H., and also delivered to the same city one of their booster pumping engines [Model M-11 #851], and both pieces of apparatus have been tested and placed in service. The motor pumping engine can flood the top of the highest building in Nashua with ease. The official test of this motor pumping engine was witnessed by a number of fire department and other officials from out of town, including Chief John B. Gordon and the Board of Aldermen of Haverhill, Mass.; Chief John R. Doyle of Wellesley, Mass.; and Chief Charles F. French of Manchester, N.H. The engine delivered 1155 gallons per minute through four lines of hose, 150 feet each, with one and one-eighth inch nozzles. The draft was eleven feet from the canal of the Nashua Manufacturing Company. It was stated that had the engine been attached to a hydrant at street level, 1400 gallons per minute could have been delivered.
Feb. 23, 1940: Ahrens-Fox supplied new Delco elctric generator/starter parts to Nashua for Model M-11 #851.
1944: Replaced. Had been serving as Hose 3. Junked.
Ed Hass
Elk Grove, California
on 11 Mar 2008 at 10:38 am 3.Paul Garant said …
Can you put me in touch with Ed Hass. I am trying to put together information relative to the transition of the Nashua Fire Department from Horse drawn to motor driven fire apparatus.
I know he has info on the 13 or so Ahrens Foxes purchased by Nashua.
on 22 Jun 2008 at 5:31 pm 4.Ed Hass said …
To Paul Garant:
email me at ehass@yahoo.com and I’ll send you information about Nashua’s Ahrens-Fox apparatus.
To everyone else: this is NOT an invitation to send me 20,000 spam emails, or to put me on your mailing list for every advertising flier in the known universe!!!!
Ed Hass