BACK ON FEBRUARY 6 WE RAN THIS POSTING ASKING IF anbody could identify this pumper:

The source of the story was a newspaper in Nashua, New Hampshire that had a columnist who was asking his readers if anybody knew about the picture.

Well, one of our readers, Ed Hass came through.  A leading expert on the Ahrens-Fox nameplate, he sent us a detailed history of this antique.  We’ve moved his comment up to here so that everybody will see it.  Ed writes:

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

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