Fire appliances

One reason for the NZ 1936 Ford fire truck being so interesting is that it matched the truck of my boyhood: a 1936 Ford V8 van, which must have started life as a furniture van. Apart from the height (for bulky but not dense contents), there were walkways from the cab to the rear.
It was owned by my scout troop, and was driven by the group leader. It took us to outings and camps. My first ride was Toolangi in ~1959. The truck stalled coming back up Croydon Hill (Maroondah Hwy before widening). On one excursion to Essendon Airport, it was hit from behind by a car which I believe was an early 1950s single- or twin-spin Customline. The truck took us to innumerable camps, with all the gear piled in the back, and all the scouts sitting on a couple of benches or on the gear. No oh&s, just boys growing up with a sense of adventure. Into my middle teens, I was the regular passenger when we took loads of fundraising newspapers to Smorgon in Brooklyn. With that load, the main brakes (hydraulic?) weren't wonderful. I was on automatic cue to work the long lever handbrake, one of my earliest 'driving' experiences. Eventually the motor blew up on the way to a camp. A replacement was borrowed from an old Customline (thanks to Ford's standardisation of engines), but only to get the truck to the tip. It was replaced with a mid-size Austin panel van, which could barely handle the camping gear.

Healesville (Vic.): 1936 Ford V8 truck, owned by 5th Camberwell Central scout troop. (Roderick Smith)

Roderick