Seeing Red - Part 1 - Chev and GMC

Back when General Motors built a steel tilt cab (1960 to 1981) they marketed Chevrolet and GMC versions that were virtually identical, with only one slight revisions in trim over the years. Sometimes called the L series it had a 72 inch BBC measurement. Never as popular as its direct competitor the Ford C series, or even the later International, it did see many sales to fire departments until closed crew cabs became the norm.

I spotted one survivor of the series today:

Now in the hands of a collector and possible restorer, this Chev ended its working career with a hog farmer in Canning, NS, but is likely a veteran of some Annapolis Valley fire department. The steel cab appears to have survived well. It is the only one I have seen recently, but back in the 1980s and 1990s I saw plenty:

Most of the trucks I saw of this type were straight trucks, but Seagrave built this tractor perhaps in 1965 to tow a 1952 Seagrave tiller steer trailer. Note the "tilt cab" on the trailer - it tilts sideways to access the aerial ladder. Hanover Fire Department, Newark, Ohio ran this rig.

Hantsport, NS had this GMC / Thibault on their roster in 1983.

Annapolis Royal, NS ran a GMC / Pierreville pumper/tanker in 1985.

Chester Basin VFD had a GMC / King-Segrave version in 1987.

 Chatham, NB had a pair of these tilt cabs in 1985, one a GMC/ Thibault running as engine 1,

and the other a GMC / Pierreville as engine 5.

Not all red trucks were fire trucks. Esso Petroleum Canada operated this 1970 GMC refueler at the Halifax airport for many years.

Kelly's Towing from Grand Pré, NS operated a Chev in 1986. The elaborate pinstriping hints at a fire department history for this truck. The theme was repeated on the tow body, which appears to have been the survivor of a previous truck.

Of course not all fire apparatus is red.

 Les Eboulements, QC still had this lime Chev / Pierreville in service in 1996. [see their current pumper tanker in my September 8, 2018 post].

Nowadays when every other truck is painted factory white, a white truck doesn't stand out, but at one time there were several departments that ran white apparatus.

 In 1997 Dickinson, NY VFD had this handsome GMC on their roster. Note that it is a high mount cab (maybe to accommodate a diesel engine?), with canopy extension. The centre console pumper tanker is by Thibault (yes they exported to the US and overseas too) and dates from 1970.

 That arrangement necessitated a longer than normal wheelbase.

I posted more photos of these Chev GMC tilt cabs back in 2010 see: http://truckfax.blogspot.com/2010/03/chev-gmc-tilt-cab.html


To be continued.........

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Pemfab - correction and expansion

In my piece about bus bodies below I referred in one of the photo captions to a fire engine in the background as a Pemfab/Thibault. This was an error - since corrected. It was in fact a Pemfab/Pierreville.
I won't get into the machinations of ownership issues between various elements of the Thibault family in the 1980s. [see Canadian Fire Truck Archive for a good explanation: http://www.firetruckarchive.ca/ ]
But here is the explanation for my mistake.
Halifax Fire Department bought a number (I think four) Pierreville 1250 gpm pumpers in 1982. They were fitted with the Pemberton Fabricators, Pemfab 93 cabs - a really stylish model that was also highly distinctive. Each of the four peninsula stations was assigned one of these pumpers (#1, #3, #4, and #7 engine companies.)
One of the pumpers (#1 engine company) was in a collision (at the corner of Spring Garden and Queen , I think) in about 1985. By that time Pierreville Fire Trucks had gone out of business, and the remains were sent to Pemfab in New Jersey for rebuilding. The Pemfab 93 cab had been discontinued, so the engine was fitted with the Pemfab 95 cab - a really ugly looking piece of work. When it came back to Halifax of course there was no Pierreville marking on it, but had the P for Pemfab on its vent grilles and the Pemfab sing on each sie of the cab.
At about the same time Halifax ordered a 30 meter aerial from Thibault. It came with the Pemfab 95 cab (also ugly) but carrying a bit more finish work.
So at one time HFD had two vehicles with Pemfab 95 cabs - one a rebuilt Pierreville and one a Thibault. Confused?
Well the pictures should be clear enough.
1. The Pierrevile logo was front and centre, and there was extensive pinstriping and gold leaf.

2. On delivery to Halifax, the first Pierreville also had the Pemfab logo on the door post. It disappeared soon after. 3. Following repairs at Pemfab it lost the Pierreville name, and had Pemfab in two locations on each side, one on the grille and one under the crew window.

4. The Pemfab 93 cab was a winner.

5. As front line engines on the peninsula they would be at every fire. (Halliday's Kempt Road, just down the street from station 7.)

6. Their low profile and well positioned lights made then look good.

7. The Pemfab 95 cab was not an improvement. It's interestiung that the top mount wipers were later moved to bottom mount.

8. The rebuilt unit was assigned to various stations in its later years as new apparatus was delivered.

9. The Pemfabs 93s remained in front line for a good many years, and were repainted at least once, losing all the gold leaf and pinstriping in the process, but gaining the reflective stripe.

10. There was a certain amount of sheet metal distortion over the years, but these rigs were worked hard. 11. The rebuilt unit made it through amalgamation and joined the HRM Fire & Emergency where it finally had its acquisition number applied, but at first lost its station assignment number.

12. This one had been somewhere else to receive a white over red paint scheme before it came back into HRM Fire & Emergency. It now sports its assignment number. I believe this is the unit that has gone to the NS Fire Fighting School.

13. At the Halifax Club fire in 1987 the rebuilt Pierreville works ahead of the Thibault aerial.

14. The brand new Thibault 30m aerial at its first fire, shares the Pemfab 95 cab, but has some nice gold leaf and pinstriping and big Thibault sign to spruce it up.

These were not the only Pierreville, Thibaults or even Pemfabs in the Halifax Fire Department, but they were only ones with Pemfab 93 and Pemfab 95 cabs. It was difficult to keep track of the three Pemfab 93s because they kept changing station assignment numbers on the doors. It was not until amalgamation that the new HMR F&E began to display acquisition numbers. By then (1996) new apparatus was on the way and they were supplanted in front line service and sold off.

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