This from Mike Summa for #TBT:
For TBT- An Ahrens Fox of a unknown age doing what it does best. Does the green light mean it represents a Chicago Fire Truck? I do not know. Please respond. Photo taken in Blue Island at a fire truck/auto show in the early 1990’s.Mike Summa
Mike Summa photo
#1 by Joe Smith on June 18, 2020 - 4:40 PM
This does not appear to be a former Chicago rig. It is missing the bench seat over the hose bed that CFD engines were equipped with during this era. It also has a Roto Ray warning light, not used on CFD apparatus.
#2 by MABAS 21 on June 18, 2020 - 10:15 AM
Many departments in the Chicagoland area adopted the use of green and red lights on both apparatus and stations because it was a “cool” tradition of the “big city” to follow. Does anyone know what happened to this beautiful rig?
#3 by Phil Stenholm on June 18, 2020 - 1:02 AM
Mike: Two pumpers purchased by Evanston from Seagrave in 1927 and three rigs (two pumpers and an aerial-ladder truck) purchased by Evanston from Seagrave in 1937 had a red light on the driver’s side and a green light on the passenger side, and Evanston also had a 1956 International utility pick-up truck that was used by the mechanic 1956-1974 that had a similar red/green lighting configuration, although the red & green lights on the IH PK TK were “recycled” (they were removed from one of the 1927 Seagrave engines that was junked at the same time the International PK TK was placed into service).
So the use of a green light was not unique to Chicago (at least it wasn’t back in the day).
The red and green lights on the Evanston rigs mentioned above were affixed/hung on the outside of the cab just in front of the driver’s side and passenger-side doors at the bottom of the windshield (as opposed to at the top of the windshield by the roof), and they did not flash or blink, they just lit steady when they were turned on.
#4 by Dennis on June 17, 2020 - 10:15 PM
This was the 1921 Ahrens-Fox that was once owned by the 5-11 Club