Diamond T City Service Ladder 1941

Diamond T City Service Ladder 1941 by Autocult

A long Life of Firefighting   
It is not a phenomenon of our time that public authorities have to safe money. This credo was and is not only valid in this country, but was also practiced in the USA in the 1930s, as the following example shows: In March 1941, the chassis of the fire-fighting vehicle of the ‘Hamden Fire Department’ was damaged in such a way that the truck could no longer be used. The fire engine based on a Diamond T truck and was already 15 years old at that time, but it was not replaced by a new one. The decision was made to repair it! Since fire departments are under the control of the city government in the USA, the sum of exactly 1,234.85 US dollars was provided out of the city’s budget – just as much as the purchase of an intact chassis required. The fire fighters themselves lend a hand, dismantled the bodywork and fitted it to the new chassis. This may not have been an easy task, since the damaged substructure dated back to 1926 and the newly purchased chassis was from 1941.   Finally in 1958 the ‘Hamden Fire Department’ got a new fire truck. From that moment on the venerable fire truck had completed its “active” service after more than 30 years and served as a spare parts source until it was sold in 1963. However the truck did not pass into private hands, but to the ‘New Milford Fire Department’.   Which company once produced the special bodywork of the firetruck in 1926 was lost over the decades. It is also quite possible that the fire engine body was built in the Diamond T plant itself. The truck company, founded in Chicago in 1905, offered its customers the opportunity to realize individual bodywork, especially for fire departments, for its chassis.