New York State

[Guest]

[quote name='The Commish' timestamp='1214528967' post='224633']

Canandiagua, NY

1942 Ford/ ALFco

500/150

Ron Bogardus photo

[/quote]



I don't know where Ron obtained this photo, or when the picture was taken, but the truck in this picture is our truck, and it was taken in front of the old Raymore-Flanigan's Furniture store on the corner of Main Street and Niagara Street in downtown Canandaigua.



In this picture it shows the white "liberty" license plates on the truck. In 1986 in honor of the 100th anniversary of the statue of liberty, New York state changed their license plates to depict the statue of Liberty on them. These plates were available from July 1, 1986 until May 1, 2001.



Donovan "Ike" Smith owned this truck from December, 1981 until his death in April, 2001. On November 30, 2001 my father and I became the owners of this truck, we tore it down to the frame rails and started over. The truck has been fully restored and it was won a Senior Grand National Award through the Antique Automobile Club of America, as well as a First Dearborn Award through the Early Ford V8 Club of America.



This picture was taken between the late 1980's and the late 1990's. Sometime between the time this photo was taken and the time we got the truck, the Mutual Hook & Ladder company was removed from the doors, and a Federal Beacon Ray light was added to the roof.



Trust me when I say this, but when we got the truck in our possession, the truck was borderline junk, but it's come a long way.... The pictures do not do it justice as to how bad this truck really was.



Some history of the truck??



The CIty of Canandaigua ordered this truck on December 10, 1941. The city chose to ignore state municpal laws to where they ordered the truck and did not put the truck out for bid as required by law. The truck was delivered on March 19, 1942 at a cost of $3,750. What wasn't known until a short time ago was that American LaFrance would only build 7 trucks after this one. Of those 7 trucks, this was the last closed cab delivered to a local fire department in the United States (1 would go to Canada, 1 would go to a steel plant, the rest would be open cabs).



This truck was would be retired in May, 1971 when it was replaced by a 1971 Ford / Young pumper. At the time that it was replaced, this was the longest piece of motorized fire apparatus in the history of the Canandaigua Fire Department. This record is a record that still stands today. The last fire that this truck fought was on March 29, 1971. This fire was the deadliest fire in the history of Canandaigua. After that the truck remained as a parade truck until December 1981 when the city sold it to Ike Smith.



Ironically, a man by the name of Eric Outhouse would take this truck to its' last fire. On July 4, 2007 Eric would play a role in the public unveiling of the '42 Ford. Ten months later, Eric would die on May 25, 2008 and four days later, Eric would take his final ride to the cemetery aboard the truck that he took to its' last fire.



This truck is the only fire truck in upstate New York to win the national awards that it has won, and one of only 6 in the country to do the same. From September 2011 until four weeks ago the truck was on loan to the AACA Museum i Hershey, Pennsylvania.



During the holidays, it shared space with the taxi (Ernie's Taxi) that was used in the 1946 James Capra movie "It's a Wonderfull Life."



Attached to this post is a picture that I retrieved off of this very website, while the other photo was obtain from the Messenger Post Newspapers where it shows the truck taking Eric Outhouse to his grave.