Thursday 27 August 2020

Prizewinning fire engine (United Kingdom, 1974)

This is so charming and probably very British! This prizewinning steam powered fire engine was built by a company called Merryweather & Sons. It was the third steam fire engine built by the company after 1861’s Deluge and 1862’s Torrent. The “rushing water” nomenclature stopped at this moment: this engine is known as the Sutherland.

The Sutherland was entered into a competition for steam fire engines held at Crystal Palace in 1863. It later entered service at the Devonport navy dockyards where it kept doing its thing until 1905.

The Merryweather company continued the production of fire engines, becoming the largest provider of fire engines in the world for a time and moving successfully into manufacture of motorised engines. The second link below is great for the early history of the company and some fantastic photos of old firefighters and their gear!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merryweather_%26_Sons

https://heritagemachines.com/commercials/merryweather-fire-engines/

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