Virginia apparatus - miscellaneous

[mnsand]

From Mt. Jackson I made my way to Salem, Virginia to hook up with Dr. John McNamara. John has recently purchased two fire engines from a Pennsylvania fire department. In a very unique arrangement, John has "loaned" the two fire trucks to the Upper Craig Creek VFD in Craig County, Virginia. Upper Craig Creek VFD is located in Catawba, Virginia. The VFD uses the engines as front line fire protection, but they belong to John. When John has a need to utilize one of the trucks (muster, etc. - John is a member of the Old Dominion Historical Fire Society), he goes to pick one up. Both parties benefit - John has a place to safely store his two trucks and he told me he enjoys having the opportunity to help a very needy FD. Upper Craig Creek has very little in terms of money. They have greatly benefitted by meeting John, who is now a life time member of the FD.



Now getting to Upper Craig Creek is half the fun, and I was glad John was driving me from Salem. It is located approximately 25 miles from Salem deep into the Roanoke Valley. We had to go over some mountains (near the Appalacian Trial) and down a long country road to get to the station.



What John did not know was that I was getting a bit "nervous" because of the weather. The sun, clouds, and rain were doing all kind of crazy things while we were at Upper Craig Creek VFD. While we were there, the sun would come out in short bursts, while at the same time hearing thunder very near us. As my visit to Upper Craig Creek continued, the weather became worse and worse.



I hope John did not get annoyed with me, but as soon as we got to the station, I told him lets get the "Twins" quickly because I really wanted to get some decent shots of them with some sunshine, and I saw that fading away quickly.



The "Twins" are two 1981 American LaFrance Century pumpers built one after the other. They originally were built for Weldon, PA. In 1996, Weldon sold both ALF's to the Weavertown, PA fire department, where they ran as Engine 28 and Engine 281. Weavertown may sound familiar - they have had some unique apparatus over the years, including a blue open cab Maxim F. In 1996, when Weavertown purchased the ALF's, they had some rehab work done on them including the extension of the cab to four doors. They also added some unique items, which I will show you. In the mid and later part of 2007, John purchased the ALF's from Weavertown and brought them to Salem and Upper Craig Creek.



I need to stop real quick here and thank from this board Andrew from North Carolina and Jack Sullivan from Virginia. Your information and posts on other threads allowed to know that these two engines were now at Upper Craig Creek and who owned them. Based on your information, I was able to hook up with John.







Upper Craig Creek VFD

Catawba, VA

Craig County

Engine 50

1981 ALF Century/1996 Gordons

1250/750/40

s/n CE-7098



Delivered to Upper Craig Creek in December, 2007





Mike Sanders

Ashburn, VA

note: Engine 50 has no front in-take