Mattydale originated the cross-lay hose bed in 1947, on a 1939 Buffalo Pathfinder 500 gpm that is preserved in the American Museum of Firefighting in Hudson,NY. It appears the crosslay were not utilized on their apparatus of the 50s and 60s.
GA Dave, Sanford used the Duplex cab for their customs in the late 60s-early 70s.
A nice article was in the Jan.1981 Firehouse Mag on the "Mattydale cross-lay".
Quote:Mattydale originated the cross-lay hose bed in 1947, on a 1939 Buffalo Pathfinder 500 gpm that is preserved in the American Museum of Firefighting in Hudson,NY. It appears the crosslay were not utilized on their apparatus of the 50s and 60s.
GA Dave, Sanford used the Duplex cab for their customs in the late 60s-early 70s.
A nice article was in the Jan.1981 Firehouse Mag on the "Mattydale cross-lay".
Thanks. That is what was confusing to me. I have seen the Buffalo at FASNY and was impressed, so seeing a more modern truck lacking them was quite confusing.
Looks like both GA Dave and I forgot about the "Mattydale" discussion we had a couple years ago on another site. While the Mattydale crosslay concept became popular in central NYS and then elsewhere after 1947, it was not the 1st fire apparatus to be equipped with crosslay trays. A Seagrave quad was delivered in 1936 to Grandview Heights,OH. with crosslay trays, but even though it was exhibited heavily by Seagrave and another similar quad then delivered to Wadsworth,OH, their crosslay did not apparently catch on for over 25 years (early 1960's).The earliest Seagrave 70th Anniv. delivery with crosslays that I could find was a 1962 delivery to North Greece,NY.
Meanwhile, Sanford in the 1950's was delivering engines with cross-lays all over NYS, although it seems, not to Mattydale; their 1954? Ford F, 1960 Ford C, and the Duplex do not have the trays. Perhaps this was a consequence of a subsequent chief not embracing the concept, or typical vfd politics. Also, most FFs rode the tailboard back then, it would have been considered unnatural to go to the side of the rig to pull an attack line when the hosebed is in front of your face. The next Mattydale rig to have crosslays was a 1977 ALF telesqurt engine.
Any other informed thoughts out there? I would credit Seagrave with the original concept for a quad rig, but Mattydale (and Sanford) certainly popularized it.
GA Dave; Sanford first offered their new custom with the Duplex R-300 Chassis and a TCM cab in 1965, diesel engines offered in 1969. Wading River,L.I.N.Y., WAS THE 1ST DELIVERY IN 1965.
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