Hello there

I still have E17, no worries!  Can't believe it's been well over two years without an update, so sorry!

Just have been very busy, and one of my children was diagnosed with brain cancer a little less than a year ago, and working through his treatment has been all-consuming for our family.  That is all being documented on a different blog: http://remarkablecourage.blogspot.com

Current concerns: Air pressure warning keeps coming on even though air pressure is OK. I kranged a compartment door.  Honestly, I've been driving fire apparatus of all sizes up to and including a 102' aerial platform quint back in the late '90s, and I've never seriously kranged any of them.  But then I get my own, and rack up two?  Frustrating.

Replaced the front tires last year.  Got more equipment, mostly but not exclusively old hose.

Mostly she sits under her cover.  Starts and runs, and can be driven, I try to get her out and moving around at least every other month or so.

Until Mark's cancer is resolved, not much is going to move forward, but we're still here.  Thanks for reading.

The return of Engine 17

Last year late in the Summer I discovered the front tires were deteriorating, and the breakdown was rapid. Without funds handy to replace the 11R22.5's she had to sit. The cracks got so large that I feared a blowout, so I blocked up her front and deflated the tires.

Seeing a fire engine on blocks is a sad, sad sight. I feel so much guilt every time I look at her!

Then, sometime over the winter, one of my rather young children apparently turned the battery on to play with the pretty lights, and didn't turn it off. By the time I discovered this, the batteries had to have been drained completely dead for weeks. Not sure the batteries will be recoverable or not, that is a little outside of my area of expertise.

However, a friendly benefactor has come forward to assist me with purchasing replacement tires and possibly batteries if needed, and I have a good "in" with a local firefighter who works on large trucks who is willing to bring a service rig up to the house to replace 17's tires on the spot.

Hopefully she'll be back on the road soon so that the tales may continue.

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A couple of years ago I registered at alfowners.com so I could get help from the members there. At some point I requested a change to my username, which was granted, but my login never worked again. The password recovery script just locked up with a database error for the longest time. Now it appears to go through, but email ever arrives. No email address was provided for the admin. New registrations were disabled. I have been locked out of alfowners.com for well over a year. I've dropped some notes on Facebook to try to find out who runs the place to get that fixed. If any of you, my faithful and patient readers, happen to know who that is, please let me know.

Ending the Hiatus, and a Tale of Fun

Man it has been soooooo long since I posted, I am so sorry.  I resolved that I needed to write something and get back in the groove, and then noticed that it is two days short of a year since the last post.  I have failed to keep you all entertained and informed, I hope you can forgive.

After obtaining the collection detailed in the previous post, it has been a little more fun to be out and about in an old fire engine that is no longer naked.  The big master stream device, the hard suction, the ladders, and various hoses packed where they go, all makes a better picture.

Speaking of pictures, I have a new camera phone and will try to remember to get some new pics with the equipment installed.

And of course, the Tale of Fun:

My daughter asked if I could take her to the Homecoming dance in E17, and the answer was a resounding Of course.  How about eight people?  Well, not enough seatbelts for that, so we compromised.

E17 arrived at the local burger drive-in a mile or so from the dance, and picked up the party.  Thanks to having the new stuff from the Equipment Grab, there were now four sets of old turnouts available, and the guys in the group each donned a yellow lid to go over their tuxes.  Brilliant.  Everyone piled into the hosebed, and we proceeded slowly and carefully towards the high school.

The kids were waving and hollering hello at everyone they saw, and of course everyone waved back.  Who doesn't wave at kids riding on a fire engine?

But the best part was the arrival.  You see, everyone who is someone at Homecoming wants to impress their dates with stretch limos and stretch Lincolns and stretch Hummers, making a scene as small groups arrive in their fancy rides.

So, there's a long line of a few hundred teenagers waiting in line at the door to get in as expensive cars continue to arrive, and suddenly...

Engine 17 is on scene.

Yes, as we pulled through the parking lot, lights and siren came on and we drove right up to the front door, delivering the eight most-noticed dance attendees of the night.

After that, all those spendy rides were just a long line of cars for the commoners.  You can't beat a fire engine entrance.

For the win.  Have fun at the dance, kids.

Wearing a Fire Engine Disguise

I took my daughter to the high school playoff football game, so she could hang out with her friends. I dropped her off in our little car. The lot was beyond full when we arrived, and the entrance was barricaded. I pulled up alongside the barricades, completely outside of any moving traffic, to let her out. She was rummaging for something for a minute, and a school security person walked over and rapped on my window, telling me to move along.

Now maybe there was a legitimate reason I couldn't be there, but I haven't thought of it yet. I was still in the driver's seat, she was getting out, the car was running, lights on, not remotely appearing that I might be thinking of parking there. But OK, no problem, she grabbed her stuff and I left.

Near the end of the game, she called to tell us she was almost ready to be picked up. I heard her friends chattering, and offered to bring 17 down to pick her up and take some of her friends home. She was all aboard for that plan.

I had completely forgotten about the barricades and security people by the time I arrived, but just as I approached and saw them, trying to figure out where to park, they saw me and just automatically grabbed the barricades, moving them out of the way and waving me through.

Well, OK then!

So I picked up my kid and several of her friends right at the ticket gate. It made quite a scene, not unlike when I picked my boys up after school one day.

Picking your kid up in a fire engine and also taking some of her friends home raises her stock, as well as your own in her eyes and those of her friends, especially the guys. For real? Your dad owns a fire truck? Big fun was had by all, especially since the home team won big.

I promise I wasn't trying to play the traffic folks, really, but that was just too funny to not share.

Parade Report

When we left off, I was trying to install the Whelen Commander strobe light and found things not exactly in a plug-and-play configuration.

The very next day the job was completed, with help from my very-helpful six year old. Seriously, this is no joke. He was a huge help, holding hardware in the right place for me on the roof while I fiddled with bolts and ratchets down in the cab. Plus, his random stories about unrelated topics diverted my attention from irritating but uninteresting problems that cropped up here and there.

Here he is on the cab roof, making sure we know where the new base is installed. You can see the dirty ring in front of the new base that shows where the previous light was installed, forward of the original beacon placement when 17 was new.


A couple of days later, 17 was patiently hanging out at my fire department's Station 1, out of the way, waiting for parade day. May I take you for a trip down Memory Lane, regarding the First Krang? On the day of the Krang, 17 was parked on this side of the building like this, but pulled all the way up by the yellow bollard guarding the corner of the building. Yes, that's the one I clipped. Embarrassing. Not at all a coincidence that she was parked so far back this time, either.


Finally, parade day! 17's role in this parade, besides being a, well.... a fire engine in a parade.... was to be the entry accompanying the New Blue Parrot drama troupe as they promoted their upcoming show Thoroughly Modern Millie. If you bother to ask if I play a Chinese laborer in this show, whose lines are pretty much all in genuine Chinese, I may or may not comment.

Unsurprisingly, there were other apparatus in the show. I was impressed with the work done to this old pumper by the Shriners, as can be evidenced by the weathered photograph on display showing how it looked when they started on it. It isn't at all faithful as a true restoration, but I can respect the amount of effort.



Another lime-yellow pumper was in the show, one I had not known about from this area. The driver, however, was merely a hired hand with no special interest, and the rig itself was borrowed or rented from its owner to ferry a political candidate.


I tried to make small talk and ask about their rig, sort of expecting some of the same in return, but they were totally disinterested. To them, the pumper may as well have been a rented Corvette of no special significance. Thankfully, though we started out parked side-by-side, we were far apart in the procession.

Here we are perhaps twenty minutes before the start, still setting up banners and other attachments for the run.


About to get underway. I don't remember what I was irritated about, but it probably had something to do with telling people to sit down for the umpteenth time. Whatever, it didn't last. Irritation doesn't last long when you get to drive your own fire engine in a parade.


And thanks for suffering this long post to see a picture of 17 in the parade, Millie cast members strolling along in front. It was a great day.


The one thing sorely missed? That missing Federal Q2B.... just gotta get my hands on one.

It's an art project, but 17 played a bit part

This is only barely related to 17, but it seems like forever since I've posted, and I have no updates on work or the project at the moment. Hopefully this will tide you over until more news comes along.

My daughter is a fantastic artist, improving by leaps and bounds every time she takes something new on.

So, do you remember this picture from the February post "Living the Dream"?

Well, the daughter took this picture to school and managed to create the following fantastic bit of work:
Having kids is so cool. So, so cool. They're amazing.

Maybe if you manage to catch a ride in 17, she'll sketch you too.

Other apparatus at the house

One of the other district units was up at Station 6 for a practice drill a few days ago, and the event highlighted the strange, warped perspective my young boys have adopted from living in a fire station.

Tender 4 (Tanker 4 for those not on the left coast) arrived, driving past the large living room windows, in clear view of where the 3-year-old and 6-year-old were playing Wii Fit. The big, shiny red truck passed right through their field of vision, just six feet outside the windows, and they didn't even bat an eye. Kept right on playing.

About twenty minutes later, a locksmith showed up for an appointment in his nondescript white van.

Both boys dropped what they were doing and came outside to see what the white van was all about.

Huh?

Two little boys oblivious to a fire truck in their own driveway, but who get wound up when a plain white van pulls in?

Squad 6 in quarters, Tender 4 visiting,
and the exciting locksmith van.

That's just bizarre. I guess they've acclimated.

On a slightly unrelated note, I apologize, but this slipped my mind when I discussed the other fire truck at my house.

There is another vehicle owned by the fire district that lives at Station 6 where we live, but it only gets used seasonally, and even then gets virtually no public exposure whatsoever. It does have a warning light on it, and has unit ID markings. A strike against it is its nontraditional green color. One of the things I like about it is its throwback open cab configuration, but it has a hard time getting up to any kind of respectable speed, and is a seriously rough ride. Sadly, it has virtually no storage space, and is really only good for one specific function.

What do we call it?

Lawn Mower 6.

The rabbits and moles on the big lawn may or may not
appreciate being warned out the way, when
Lawn Mower 6 responds Code 2 to staff the Squad.

Living the dream

This morning I drove all four of my boys to school in Engine 17. It's been about a month since we turned a wheel, so it was high time to get 17 out and run her around a bit.

I had promised the boys I would eventually do it, and earlier this week we finally picked today as the big day. It was quite anticipated. Unsurprisingly, our arrival amongst the family sedans and minivans dropping off other students created a minor stir. Young children with mouths literally open, and double-takes from most everyone else. The two little boys in front were grinning widely as they got out, and the two oldest emerged from the jumpseats with style, and retrieved their backpacks from the compartments they had stored them in. Two parents approached us to ask about E17 (is this yours??) and look her over. Fire Engine Envy.

I commented on my personal Facebook status about this morning's event, and got some nice replies. One of them laughed and said "you are living your dream"!

I guess I am. We have been very fortunate in so many ways.

But, I don't think I was living my dream this morning as much as I was imposing my childhood dream on my own children.

Not that they seem to mind. Judging by their faces: No problem, Dad!

I returned later in the morning to retrieve the 3-year-old from preschool, and this time brought the 1-year-old. Two car seats strapped in the front of a fire engine cab are very amusing to behold, and brutally cute when their occupants are all smiles.


Picked the rest of the boys up again at the end of the day, where the actions were repeated all over again. The 11-year-old got out there quick and made a show of standing on the running board while E17 idled and we waited for the other two. What a show off. Reminds me of myself.

Here is the end of February...... looking forward to warmer weather and opportunities to do some work on the old girl.

More Pictures

We had a back-to-school party for many of our friends today, had a lot of folks over. I don't need much of an excuse to bring out Engine 2. Lots of fire engine rides today. Here's Engine 2 parked as the teenagers were playing some improv games.


While the camera was out, though, I documented the evidence of The First Krang. Still angry with myself for this..... the pedestal behind the bumper is where the Q2B siren used to be... and will be again eventually.


Here is the first front picture of Engine 2 since I removed the '1312' from the front and sides... though you can see where it was. Oddly enough, while testing equipment to see what still works, I found that the officer's side spotlight is on the same circuit as the 'wag-wag' (high beam flasher). Dude... that is just strange. Only one of the air horns is making noise. Lots of projects await.


The sealed holes on either side of the red light indicate that at some point after leaving Tacoma, Engine 2 had a full-size lightbar installed, and then removed. If I had to guess, I'd say GCFD5 put the bar on, and then removed it when it was sold to GCFD13. But that's just a guess. In any case, those and the other holes should be prettied up a bit when Engine 2 gets red again.


An unpleasant rusty square and a plumbing cap remains where the Stang water cannon used to be mounted. Could be tricky to replace that. I am not sure why so little of the booster hose remains, either. There isn't enough to be useful.... but there is still a dinky nozzle on it.

Officer's side panel... missing caps.

The hose bed's oak tray, used to hold the hose up and allow air circulation, is long gone, but you can see where its base rails used to lay.

Compartment interiors are in great condition for a 40-year-old engine.

Pump panel, more missing caps. Several of the gauges are not original, but it is the main pressure gauge with the white background that is most obvious. There's a few more things missing that aren't obvious from this far away. Projects... lots of them. The oak trays in those crosslays on the upper left are still there, though.

Ah yes.... the original red color is obvious inside the cab.

More later when there is more to talk about.

Pickup Day - Part II

Sister is realllly wanting in the engine with me, so first things first. Go to her south end house so she can drop the burden of having her own vehicle along, and we have a few places we want to go. We pull up, neighbors giving us undisguised and puzzled stares, and I give a couple of blasts on the out-of-tune Grover 1510's (they have lost their 'firetruck' stuttertone sound and bring to mind instead a UPS truck... another project).

The brother in law was just heading out the door to pick up the nephew in the north end. Sister parks the Explorer and in a flash she has an evil plan.

Soon she and I are on our way to pick up her kid and his girlfriend from an afternoon party. In the engine, of course. All the way across town to another neighborhood, more stares, more honks, more fun. It was unclear if nephew would be mortified or thrilled. He claimed the latter, and he and his girlfriend took the jumpseats before we pulled away with more weak UPS truck honks.

First stop: Tacoma Fire Station 2, where rumor has it one of the other 1970 ALF sisters is in storage in the basement (Station 2's basement has a rear ground-level entry and used to be the Fire Garage a long, long time ago). TFD has a handful of old apparatus quietly retained for eventual museum purposes, it is hoped, and in future years it will be realized just how valuable and cool this is. As luck would have it, a Battalion Chief was just returning from another errand and met us at the back. Alas, the sister is not here, but in another facility not easily accessed without prior arrangements. Amusingly, this BC also vaguely remembers me as the whacker kid fire buff from 8's of many years ago. I think he is pleased to see that I turned out sane and allegedly a productive member of the service. But wait, I just drove up in a privately-owned fire engine.... OK never mind the appearance of sanity. I think he was just being polite.

Next stop: Old Tacoma Fire Station 8. It is a private residence now, so we don't want to intrude. I park the engine in the street in front of the apron, jump out and grab a couple of pictures, and we're out of there. We amuse ourselves ever so slightly by running the engine back down 43rd Street towards 'M' Street as we recall Engine 8 doing endless times from our childhoods.

The nephew and girlfriend have had about enough now (it is a super-hot day even without sitting next to the hot cowl over the raging Detroit Diesel), so we drop them off at home. Still, they were all grins waving back at people giving them the usual puzzled stares and happy waves from the children.

Next stop: Tacoma Fire Station 10, this engine's apparent last full-time house when assigned in Tacoma. Luckily, the current iteration of Tacoma Engine 10 is in the house. 10's is one of the busiest companies in Tacoma now (~3,000 runs per year), so this is a stroke of good luck. We park across the street at first to stay out of the way, and knock on the door. Listening to just the duty crew, it was something like "Can we help you? You have a what? Really? Oh, it's here??" So we have FF Brent and FF Karen humoring us and our surprise drop-in, but you know it is cool for them to get a first-hand contact with the past of their house, something they are too young to have ridden when it was still with Tacoma. The LT didn't come out. Maybe he knew who I was, heh. Anyway, soon they insist that we back the engine right onto the apron for pictures. FF Karen even presented me with a parting gift when it was time for us to move on and let them get back to their day, which was extremely nice of her, and above and beyond... as for me it was gift enough to see old Engine 10 in front of her old house.

I'd post pictures - I have them - but the Blogspot posting interface doesn't work 100% on the computer I am using at the moment, but pictures will be forthcoming at some point.

Next stop: Mom's house. Living by old Station 8 was a significant part of her life, too, though she moved away from there several years before old Station 8 closed. Sister and I stop and switch places before we pull up, and Mom's husband is shocked to see sister behind the wheel as we pull up... "Wait.... you're driving??" This tickles him and Mom to no end. It is a short visit because time is tight. Mom really and truly thought I was nuts to buy this engine and made sure to tell me as much in advance, but I arrange for silence before starting up the big engine again, and she cannot contain her emotional reaction. She clenches a fist in victory, looks up and says "Yessssss!" You see, she's not nuts, but if it invoked this response in her anyway, then you get what it does for my sister and I. Well, just say you do and we'll move on anyway.

The last two appearances of the day were at house parties. One was a party that sister was involved in, and all of the grownups came out and walked around and climbed on and poked in and opened every door and compartment on that engine. Like young kids always wanted to do, but I gave them the green light to explore to their hearts content, and they all dropped 20 years for the next fifteen minutes.

Finally to a housewarming party that I had been invited to that day, and I parked the engine right on the front lawn. I'll tell ya... that sure brought out the neighbors for a meet and greet at the housewarming! There were lots of actual children this time, and again they got the green light to have fun. If I ever get this engine a new paint job, access will be restricted, but right now it is a 'working' piece, and a few more scuffs are of no importance. We stayed close to keep them from falling off or getting hurt, but I am here to tell you those kids had a blast. Literally. Lots of them. Lots and lots. So much so, in fact, that I swear they would have emptied the air tanks completely out with all that air horn blasting action except that I was sure we were heading towards a disturbing the peace complaint and finally put the kabosh on air horn usage.

It was a long and lonely dark drive home after that.

It was about as grand of a pickup day as one could hope for.

I don't know when this engine will get back to her hometown again, but the one grand day in town was sort of epic considering how long she had waited for it. And sometimes home isn't about place as much as it is about being cared for. I have a wife and six children who are my first priority, and other obligations that come after, but I intend to provide old Engine 10 a good place.

Welcome home, baby.