[quote name='usonian' post='155617' date='Oct 13 2007, 18:45 ']Some disparate statements/questions...
Oh, to have had the Ward LaFrance sales franchise in Texas in the 1960's & 1970's. Must have made some people very well off!
Can someone explain the popularity of the Booster concept in Texas during the 1970's? I know Dallas and Lubbock ran booster rigs, but I am unclear as to their purpose/criteria for response.
Lastly, I've always noticed that on certain older Dallas rigs, the "mouth" of the B&M S8 sirens is shorter than some others. Does anyone know if this was a B&M feature, or if Dallas chopped them down for some reason?[/quote]
Just to add to the answers you've received so far, here in Dallas the boosters were mainly sent on grass/brush fires with 2 men staffing it off the engine or truck at the station. They also made box alarms and were sometimes very helpful with their extra supply of water to put out a fire that often spared the second up engine from having to lay their 5 inch hose. A few of suburb cities- Plano, Grand Prairie to name a couple actually used their booster trucks on standard engine calls. The engine only ran on box alarms. the engine had a 1 man crew and the boosters had a 3-4 man crew, usually 3 back then in the small cities. All the cities have since gone to using engines for all their calls and the boosters are used mainly for brush/grass fires. In the summer up here it gets very hot/dry and there are a lot of fields, woods that burn readily. Plus passing trains throw sparks onto dry grass a lot and those are a big problem as well. Robert.
Oh, to have had the Ward LaFrance sales franchise in Texas in the 1960's & 1970's. Must have made some people very well off!
Can someone explain the popularity of the Booster concept in Texas during the 1970's? I know Dallas and Lubbock ran booster rigs, but I am unclear as to their purpose/criteria for response.
Lastly, I've always noticed that on certain older Dallas rigs, the "mouth" of the B&M S8 sirens is shorter than some others. Does anyone know if this was a B&M feature, or if Dallas chopped them down for some reason?[/quote]
Just to add to the answers you've received so far, here in Dallas the boosters were mainly sent on grass/brush fires with 2 men staffing it off the engine or truck at the station. They also made box alarms and were sometimes very helpful with their extra supply of water to put out a fire that often spared the second up engine from having to lay their 5 inch hose. A few of suburb cities- Plano, Grand Prairie to name a couple actually used their booster trucks on standard engine calls. The engine only ran on box alarms. the engine had a 1 man crew and the boosters had a 3-4 man crew, usually 3 back then in the small cities. All the cities have since gone to using engines for all their calls and the boosters are used mainly for brush/grass fires. In the summer up here it gets very hot/dry and there are a lot of fields, woods that burn readily. Plus passing trains throw sparks onto dry grass a lot and those are a big problem as well. Robert.
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