British Steam Fire Engines by Ronald Henderson

Author:Ronald Henderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
Published: 2016-02-21T16:00:00+00:00

For English brigades the Victoria was constructed on a straight frame and fitted with the traditional hose and implement body for accommodating firemen and equipment, the first being sold to Southam in April 1903. Known as the Light Single Cylinder District Council engine, later superseded by the County Council model, this engine was designed particularly for the smaller rural fire brigades and featured the machinery placed vertically in front of the boiler with a large transverse flywheel in between. The pump was double-acting and ranged in size from 125 to 300 gallons per minute. The Borough of Tynemouth bought the first portable example, mounted on a light two-wheeled iron carriage similar to that of the Valiant steamer, complete with detachable dog cart. By 1908, twenty-four British and twelve overseas customers were operating this pattern of engine. Just five of this small class of engine have survived, four in the United Kingdom and one in Rio de Janeiro.

Also in 1893, Shand, Mason started to offer the option of apparatus for the use of oil fuel in place of coal for their steam fire engines. With this equipment the time occupied in raising steam was appreciably shortened, no stoking was required and there would be an absence of sparks and flying cinders when the engine was working. More importantly, no preparation of the furnace was needed on returning to station. The oil was stored in a copper tank holding several hours’ supply, situated in the fore part of the hose box under the coachman’s seat from where it was fed by gravity to the burner. Of course, Merryweathers offered similar equipment as an option on new engines or for converting existing equipment.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.