A Man and His Crown (Fire Engine)

First off I must apologize for the quality of the pictures in this post. I took some of the pictures with my old 2.1 mega pixel camera. Some of the pictures are scans of prints.

Introduction: This is my dad (Bob) in the early 1960's (taken from an 8mm film frame). He is wearing his "fire buff" turnout gear.Here he is inside the bomb bay of the B-17 Sentimental Journey (late 90's).
And of course having lunch with the Infamous Bill Clinton at Poncho's (2007).

In early 2002 Bob finally was able to purchase a fire engine (for a very good price). He found a 1960 Crown fire engine serial # F-1173 that had been in service with the Yakima county F.P.D. It then went into service with the Easton Vol FD Kittitas county. Then the Kachess Ridge FD Kittitas county. The rig had been purchased by a private individual in late 2000, and sat under a tree for over a year. This picture was taken when the rig was in service.
When he got the rig it had the following equipment:

1000 gpm pump

750 gallon booster tank

Dual booster reels with power rewind

817cid Waukesha gas engine 300BHP

5 speed manual transmission

Air brakes

Six 2 1/2" discharge gates

One 2 1/2" suction intake

Three 4 1/2" suction intakes

Two 4 1/2" hard suction hoses

10 foot folding ladder
12 foot roof ladder
24 foot extension ladder

Here's the proud owner taken by me on one of our visits to Seattle.
I have driven the rig and must tell you it takes some getting used to. I don't have much experience with a manual transmission and the task was made more difficult because it requires "double clutching" to drive it.

Over the last several years Bob has been working diligently to restore it to "in service" condition. Some of the items he has added are as follows:
One 1 1/2" fog nozzle
One 2 1/2" nozzle ( smooth bore )
One 2 1/2" fog nozzle
Three Hydrant wrench's
Small rescue ax
Humat Hydrant valve ( 4 1/2" steamer / 3 1/2" supply ) with mtg bracket
1250 gpm deluge set w/ var tips
Blake four way valve
Two axes
Two helmets
Two turnout coats
Four booster nozzles
10 foot pike pole
Scott “SCBA” breathing apparatus with mask
First aid kit
Various lengths of various size hoses
And much much more.