This from Eric Haak:
In honor of its retirement, here is the Freightliner pumping at a Still & Box on October 16, 2008. The fire was at 11415 S Hermosa. I caught it pumping at two other incidents over the past 13 years but those images were not nearly as nice as this one.
Chicago FD Engine 92 pumping at a Still & Box on October 16, 2008. Eric Haak photo
#1 by Chuck on February 12, 2019 - 10:25 PM
The rigs were not “donated” to East Chicago. Some salesman thought they had such an “in” with the CFD that the purchase of a great many more rigs was on the horizon and they started building them before a contract was ever in place.
#2 by Erik H on February 12, 2019 - 10:09 AM
There were 6 2001 American LaFrance Eagle/3D 1500/500 engines built at the same time. Only 1 went to Chicago as Engine 23. Two remained in the CFD color scene and went to East Chicago IN as Engines 1 & 4. The last 3 got repainted and went to Baltimore County as Engines 2, 4, & 6. That info is from Indianafiretrucks website. On the ECFD page.
#3 by Marty Coyne on February 11, 2019 - 7:18 PM
This was an emergency purchase and also the commissioner at the time wanted to experiment with a commercial chassis for CFD.
TL 5 and E 23 were also emergency purchases. ALF on their own decided to build I believe 4 more engines like 23 and maybe 1 more like 92. CFD had never placed an order for them and CFD did not purchase them. They were sold to a couple of different places, I believe East Chicago and maybe Baltimore.
#4 by Michael m on February 11, 2019 - 6:41 PM
I believe along with the old Tower 5 and Engine 23 these were emergency purchases. I believe there were originally 5 or 6 ALF engines in the order but the CFD donated the others to East Chicago which I believe was also in dire straights as well.
#5 by CrabbyMilton on February 11, 2019 - 2:57 PM
Was this a one time or perhaps an emergency purchase?
I either forgot or just didn’t know if CFD bought any apparatus built on FREIGHTLINER chassis
#6 by michael m on February 11, 2019 - 1:50 PM
There will never be another engine like it in the CFD again!
#7 by John Antkowski on February 11, 2019 - 1:42 PM
Eric, nice picture of Engine 92. Code 3 back in the day did a nice job of reproducing the rig in 1/64 scale. Thanks John
#8 by MABAS 21 on February 11, 2019 - 11:58 AM
Ah, the Unicorn! Thanks for sharing Eric!