The City of East Point recently purchased two demo pumpers for Engines 2 and 4. Engine 4 was wrecked shortly after going in service and I haven't photographed it yet.
At "zero-dark-thirty" on the morning of September 15th, I began a 12 day, 3500 mile road trip that would take me to my hometown in western NY, then to the PA State parade in eastern PA, then returning to Atlanta. The one thing that you can never plan in advance for these trips is the weather, but overall, it wasn't too bad. My early departure provided the opportunity to arrive at my first stop at mid morning, however, it was overcast. No biggie, the photos I take are good enough for me!
My next stop was Bluefield, VA. They have a great fleet of chrome yellow apparatus with blue stripes. The station was manned by some grumpy old SOB who never heard of anyone moving trucks outside just so somebody could photograph them! I moved on.
Just up the road, I spotted this rig, several blocks from their station. I asumed they were eating lunch at the time, so I went to the station, but no one was there. Within minutes, it began to rain and then rain harder.
10-06-2011, 10:19 PM (This post was last modified: 10-06-2011, 10:19 PM by GA_Dave.)
The plan had been to shoot several FD's in southern WV, spend the night in Summersville, and continue north the next day. The rain continued to come down. The system that was supposed to have passed through the night before, was stalled out over West Virginia, so I cancelled the hotel and headed for Pittsburgh, getting accomodations on the way.
The rain let up as I approached Weston, WV, one of the planned stops.
Five minutes after I left town, it was pouring. I called it a day and headed to the hotel near Pittsburgh. The next morning was partly cloudy, but no rain.
One of the biggest difficulties in shooting apparatus in Pennsylvania is locating someone who can drive the apparatus. I was unsuccessful that day at East Carnegie, Moon Township, Vanport, Beaver, Edinboro, Mill Village, and Belle Valley, but not for a lack of effort.
My last stop for the day was Ripley, NY. (Believe it or not!)