Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Vigilant's Receive New Seagrave In Time For Celebration

On July 7, 1950 the Vigilant Hose Company members received a big surprise when the Seagrave company of Columbus Ohio delivered their new 1950 Seagrave pumper. The engine had been ordered for some time but was not expected to arrive in time for the big Cumberland Valley Hose Company firehouse dedication and jubilee. Because of some last minute efforts of the Seagrave company the engine was delivered Friday evening in time for the big parade on Saturday. The new quad was scheduled to arrive later in the year. The company wasted no time giving the engine a baptism by fire when it caught it's first job on Saturday July 15Th.

6 comments:

Seagrave said...

Good morning Brad,
The picture is of the engine but you refer to the quad in the write up. Which is correct ?
Thanks for all the great history , I remain a daily visitor to the site.

Brad Myers said...

Both is correct, the post refers to the engine except for the one sentence that mentions a new quad was ordered but had not arrived yet.

Thanks for still looking, the numbers are pretty low these days making it very easy for me to skip post.

Sparky said...

I left a comment yesterday but it didn't show up. It was this is not the Engine that ran out of Station 2 in Walnut Bottom, so what ever happen to this one?

Brad Myers said...

No this is not the Station 2 engine but one purchased new for rural service. It didn't last as long as others, engine went bad and was traded back to Seagrave the 1963.

I don't know why your comment didn't show up, I only delete spam and unless you type in asian your post wasn't it.

Tom Murray said...

Brad,
I was going to ask the same question as Sparky. Do you know where the Sta. 2 engine came from?
I dont leave many posts but I do look at your site through the week.
TM

Brad Myers said...

The station 2 Seagrave was purchase used from Hummelstown. I never traced the engine before Hummelstown but it appears they purchased it after it was repoed from another company. Carey Murray and Rick Hosfeld have that info since Rick purchased it from Andy. I will need to get with them and give them what I have and get what they found out.

The easy way to tell the two rigs apart is from the front bumper. Note the modern square look to this one, the 1948 had the older style bumper that was rounded like what was used on most apparatus until the mid to late 40's.

Eventually I will do the detailed history of the 48' (station 2) rig along with photos I have of it in Hummelstown and being stripped and repainted at the Viggies after they purchased it.

On a side note I noticed in today's Patriot that John Brannon died. For the older people he was always the station chief at the #2 house in Walnut Bottom. Without looking it up I think he was the only one to have that position. His radio designation was Chief 252 (possibly 152, it is hard to remember sometimes).

I hope this clears things up for you guys. And thanks for asking and looking, it is no fun when the numbers are down and you feel like you are doing it for no one.

Brad