Holland Buffing Trip 2013

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Hi Guys,

 

Sorry this is a couple of months out of date, but during the summer months I try and get out buffing and photographing as much as possible.

 

Anyway, in April this year a few buddies and I flew over to the Netherlands to spend four days travelling around shooting apparatus. Two of the days were pre-arranged by The Fire Brigade Society - a UK-based buffing club which I belong to, the other days were a mixture of knocking on doors and as a result of a making emails prior to travel.

 

We flew out from the UK on the Thursday evening and after the most hair-raising landing of my life (gale force winds were battering Amsterdam at the time), we landed at Schiphol Airport. Fortunately we had found a hotel near the airport which just happened to have a fire station next to it - that's a coincidence hey!

 

The Fire Brigade in the Netherlands is run at municipal level but controlled at a regional level, so although they have a national livery for all fire vehicles, each brigade has completely different chassis and bodybuilders.

 

Hoofddorp was a huge station and I had previously emailed them to arrange a visit, the guys here were fantastic and very helpful (as with every single station we visited).

 

First up, a Mercedes Atego pump (engine) - they are known as 'tankautospuits' in Holland.

 

 

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Next was a slightly older Mercedes 1124F pump with Rosenbauer bodywork, this date from the late 1990s.

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They had a Rescue Vehicle which is quite a busy truck, the roads in Holland are very easy to drive on, and can often be quite straight for long distances.

This is a Mercedes Atego and is fitted with a Hiab crane to the rear of the vehicle. It has a two man crew.

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Aerial capabilities was provided by this fine-looking Scania P400 with Vema 333TFL booms, the 333 I am sure denotes 33.3 metres in height.

 

In Holland they roll the aerial units to most, if not all fire calls - unlike the UK where they are on request only.

 

 

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Also at Hoofddorp was this Volvo FE Prime Mover (tractor) with a Hazmat Unit container (pod), this unit covers quite a wide area and has spare SCBA sets, recharging facilities plus portable showers and decontamination gear.

 

 

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Last up, a brand new Logistics Unit which had only been delivered the week before our visit - it was based on a VW chassis.

 

 

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Such was the hospitality shown by these guys - they asked us if we had been to photograph the fire trucks at Schiphol Airport. We told them of our efforts to get in but due to security we had ultimately failed. The guys then made a couple of phone calls to the airport station and then offered to take us up there! We set off in convoy with the Rescue Vehicle taking the lead, our car in the middle and the aerial truck behind!

In all my years of buffing this was one of the most surreal - but kindest things I had come across!

 

This was on the approach to the airport fire station - although we had short rain shower it didn't dampen our spirits one bit!

 

 

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Aerial Platform following us - quite a convoy!

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Once our new friends from Hoofddorp left us at the airport we discovered that the guys on duty could not let us airside (in front of the station) as we didn't have security passes. This was a bit of a disappoint but these things happen. We did manage to get a couple of shots though, one of the main Crash Trucks was this huge Emergency One Titan.

 

 

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Around the back of the fire station in the workshops was this reserve Kronenburg Crash Truck which was due for disposal.

 

 

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Sorry for the indoors photo, but this was a smart looking bit of kit - a Hagglunds off-road-vehicle. It is used for when an aircraft comes down in the many fields around Schiphol Airport - they actually had a Turkish Airlines 737 come down in 2009 into a ploughed field which made access very difficult.

 

 

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Last up at Schiphol Airport was this Mercedes Atego Incident Support Unit, this was used for spillages of aircraft fuel and other environmental duties.

So, we got three vehicles out for photographs and seeing as we never expected to get into the airport we were really pleased.

 

 

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When I had been planning the trip I had asked the advice of a few Dutch buffs on what stations and areas were good to visit. One guy who was a keen buff said I was welcome to come to his station which was a volunteer station in Maarssen, a small town near Utrecht.

 

We headed over to meet our guy not knowing what to expect, so when we arrived to see a fire station the size of a warehouse which was full of vehicles, we were staggered.

 

Arnold, who was a volunteer Fire fighter, was waiting for us, and of course being a buff he knew exactly what we wanted. "I have found a nice carpark in the sun and I will move all of our trucks" he announced.

 

First up was this Mercedes Atego pump with Gemco bodywork.

 

 

 

 

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Next up was a personal highlight for me - a British built Dennis Sabre pump with JDC bodywork. The Dutch went through a period of purchasing Dennis chassis in the mid-1990s, but of course Dennis stopped making fire engines in 2006 so they are becoming less-and-less common.

 

 

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This was a 2011 Mercedes Atego Turntable Ladder with a 30 metre Magirus ladder set.

 

 

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This is a High Volume Pumping Unit, it is basically a demountable pump that can be either fed by hose or partially submerged in water. It can pump around 8000 litres per minute at 2.5 bar, the unit also carries 2 km of 6 inch hose.

 

 

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Mercedes Sprinter Water Rescue Unit / Diving Unit. As you will know Holland has many, many canals so the Diving Units are very busy.

 

 

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Arnold was like a magician - bringing out vehicle after vehicle from this huge station!

 

This was their Rescue Boat with VW Transporter van - they launch the boat into the canal directly behind the fire station.

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Last but not least, two reserve vehicles - a Rescue Tender which is not used these days as apparently most of the equipment is already carried on the pump (engine co)

 

It is a Mercedes 914 - I do not know the bodywork on this sorry.

 

 

[Guest]

This is their spare pump, it is due for replacement next year but they are not sure if or when this will happen. Its a Mercedes 917 with Rosenbauer bodywork that dates from around 1993.