This & That from Here & There

[Guest]

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.