This from Steve Redick:
Here is a real treat for you apparatus fans. This is a classic brochure from Ahrens Fox. I believe it is from the late 30s. If you look closely it has a photo from a Chicago grain elevator conflagration along the Calumet river with lots of Foxes pumping. I believe it was May 1939, the Rosenbaum Elevators. I scanned these in and merged the 3 page spread into 1 image and sharpened it up some … turned out great. It also features an FDNY Fox as well, even though it is not lettered. This is way cool stuff!!!!
Steve
#1 by DMc77 on February 24, 2015 - 12:18 PM
My grandfather drove an Ahrens-Fox for the CFD in the 1930s and 40s. When my dad would visit him at the firehouse he called him “ball driver” due the CFD regulation of keeping the chrome sphere so clean and polished.
#2 by David on February 24, 2015 - 10:14 AM
Crabby, good point with the cab forward rigs, the Mack “C” rigs were almost identical to the Foxes, the only thing Mack changed on the rigs was probably the engine and the wheels as the Foxes had pretty much the same style as shown in this brochure but the Macks used the classic Mack-style spoke wheels (or Daytons).
BTW: Also when I’m thinking about it I’d say that Chicago may have had also the largest fleet of Ford C rigs as they were the largest department using this type and operated pretty much anything imaginable on that chassis from pumpers to mobile lube trucks.
#3 by Crabby Milton on February 24, 2015 - 8:28 AM
Good question. Those piston pumpers are pretty hard to miss. They had some sharp looking centrifugal type(like most) apparatus as well. Some younger people may not know that the last design that AHRENS FOX had was the cab forward that MACK aquired the rights to when AHRENS FOX ceased to exist. That cab lasted well into the mid 1960’s with MACK. You could debate the existance of AHRENS FOX in true form now since HME aquired the name.
#4 by David on February 24, 2015 - 7:45 AM
Is that true that CFD had the most Foxes in the nation??