Tim cures his traveller’s paranoia of Aussie bushfires by visiting the Penrith Museum of Fire to play with its classic fire engines
Words & Photos Tim Chadwick
On a recent mid summer sojourn across the Tasman, I was relaxing with a fine wine and good company at Cafe Sydney, high off the ground and with an exceptional view of Sydney’s famous harbour bridge. From beyond the bridge a darkening purplish cloudy haze began to move towards the city, and I started wondering if the chef was over-barbequing my Barramundi! Far from it at this esteemed place of dining, so the local Kiwis filled my glass and filled me in on the phenomenon of Sydney bushfires.
When you get to Penrith you can’t miss the museum, as you are greeted by a Dennis on a stick
The police force was on high alert — not quite at the level of ‘Code Red’ but the bush fires had me thinking of the brave men in the bright red vehicles who, as I dined á la carte, were dousing the hilly hot spots. Being vehicular minded — okay, a little obsessed — it wasn’t long before I began talking flaming great names such as Ahrens-Fox, Dennis and Merryweather — then one of my hosts, former New Zealand truck driver Kerry Penman, made plans to further saturate the situation by plotting a visit to the well known Museum of Fire in New South Wales’ Penrith to view some rare fire appliances.
Fiery exhibits
A day later we were on the road in Penman’s air conditioned Renault Scenic RX4, passing places such as Blacktown and Rooty Hill on our way to Penrith’s esteemed collection of fire engines, history and memorabilia. When you get to Penrith you can’t miss the museum, as you are greeted by a Dennis on a stick — in fact, a streamlined vintage Dennis fire appliance with covered rear wheels high on a pole — a red beacon for the historically motor-minded. The Dennis is also a very pertinent welcoming sight, as this great fire appliance name features well in the rare Penrith collection and is a favourite marque of the Museum of Fire’s towering executive director, Mark White, who greeted us at the door of the impressive building with a firm ocker handshake and a friendly smile. As the temperature rose inside the building I wanted someone to get the hoses trained upon this un-acclimatised, sweaty Kiwi, but these are dry, polished static exhibits for training the mind, well displayed and with enough brass and chrome to reflect over 100 years of history. Passing through a fire engine model shop that would have our models columnist drooling, you start off here by experiencing the sheer size and shine of Penrith’s jewel in the crown, a rare and beautiful 1929 Ahrens-Fox P52, thought to be one of only three left in existence worldwide.
Leaving the cacophonous cicada click, crow caw and a temperature of around 38 degrees outside, we stepped into the voluminous museum building to begin a walk through the history of some of Australia’s rarest and more classic fire fighting machines.
Rolls-Royce of fire engines
These machines were often called the Rolls-Royces of fire engines, extremely well-crafted vehicles powered by huge 18.8-litre straight-six engines. Built in Cincinnati, USA, this example — chassis number 2304 — rolled off the production line on February 28 1929, before being loaded on the New Zealand ship SS Turakina on March 25 and delivered to serve and dazzle Sydney on May 10, 1929.
The 97kW (130hp) appliance is today a proud old red warrior showing more polished metal than a brass band concert. The Ahrens-Fox P52, with its gleaming ‘twin triple’ piston pumps, is flanked by two other gleaming greats, a 1940 Diamond-T pumper and a 1929 hard rubber-tyred Morris-Magirus.
Earlier snub-nosed Dennis’ were known as pigs, due to their snout-like bonnet and grille area
The Diamond-T as a marque will bring back great memories for some of our older readers, as it was once one of the great trucking names in New Zealand, also boasting World War II service with our allied forces. As part of the fire fighting force, the sparkling old dame, with horizontal chromed grille slats and diamond bonnet emblem, came out of the US factory in early 1940 powered by its great old 4015cc (245-cube) straight-six Hercules JXE engine. Complete with Hale rotary pump gear, this classic 68kW (91hp) Diamond-T was once a welcome sight at flaming infernos in Adelaide before being decommissioned in 1971, after which it was driven under its own steam to Sydney for restoration.
On the other side of the entrance way, and also flanking the historic Ahrens-Fox, is a very rare Morris-Magirus. Here I was to find that this long ladder appliance had nothing at all to do with the British Morris car and commercial vehicle company that later became part of BMC. The combined efforts of the Magirus ladder producers and the firm of John Morris & Sons (founded in Manchester, UK in 1875) built these grand vehicles over a Dennis chassis and 56kW (75hp) engine. Carrying its 26-metre wooden ladder, the Morris-Magirus served New South Wales from 1929 onwards. Another also reported for duty at Brisbane in 1929.
Big Mack, no fries!
We all know about Mack trucks in New Zealand, with their characteristic bulldog bonnet mascots, but here I learned about the Mack-Magirus, a fair dinkum Aussie special.
In 1949 a defunct Morris-Magirus, with its esteemed Magirus ladder gear still in good condition, had its equipment transplanted onto the rear of a 1942 Mack chassis. Before transformation this was originally one of 25 Mack ‘pumpers’ acquired by the NSWFB from the post-WWII lend-lease programme, and it went on to serve Australia until the late 1970s. In my more recent and second book — Trucking in New Zealand — I published a rare photo of a Garford truck, the likes of which I’d never seen in the metal until arriving at Penrith and seeing a pair of old Garford fire engines on display, including a very well restored 1926 Type-15 version, named for its 1.5-ton chassis. Originally on solid rubber tyres and powered by a four-cylinder petrol engine, the Garford gained a set of pneumatic footwear back in the ’30s when, in its heyday, it doused flames in places named Mullumby, Warren, Cobar and Blayney.
Forty-eight examples of these great old Garfords served the people of Australia. Unlike Garford, the Dennis name is more familiar to Kiwis when it comes to fire engines, and the museum boasts several great old examples of the marque including a very polished 1939 Big 6, a Meadows- designed rig powered by a six-cylinder ohv engine of 9.5 litres which developed around 89kW (120bhp). The fire pump is a Dennis-Tamini unit. First seeing service in 1940, this particular Dennis Big 6 served in the popular Rocks area of Sydney harbour from 1951-’54, before doing time at Pyrmont from 1954’-67 and then on to the fire brigade’s Training College at Paddington. Having also served as a services coffin carrier during fire staff funerals until 1973, this special fire engine was eventually fully restored. Earlier snub-nosed Dennis’ were known as pigs, due to their snout-like bonnet and grille area.
a fitting monument to the people who have served humanity
Penrith boasts a very good example of one of these, a 1938 Dennis Ace pumper known as The Flying Pig, which served at Bexley, Wauchope, Barraba, Laurieton and Broken Hill in a long career spanning 1938 to 1977. I prefer not to attempt here to write a book about all of the various fire appliances at Penrith’s museum, but a roll-call of names for other interesting appliances on show includes human-powered archaic pieces, horse-drawn devices and simpler units such as the legendary Furphy, along with names like Essex, Toyota, Merryweather, Ford, Morris and Dodge, the latter represented by a UK-built Dodge Brothers CO2 tender powered by a side valve 3.6-litre Chrysler Royal petrol engine. The Dodge is notable in being the very first fire engine in New South Wales and possibly Australia to have enclosed bodywork.
Ford favourite
Of the Fords, a favourite — which has been modelled as a diecast vehicle by TRUX — is the collection’s old ex-WWII Ford ‘Blitz’, with its familiar angular and Spartan cab. This rugged machine shares space with a fine piece of British Morris, a 1958 5FPM-based composite two-wheel drive appliance which held 2250 litres of water and carried a great Grand Prix-linked name in Coventry Climax, which supplied the portable pump that was part of the whole Morris five-ton package. The Morris served at Glenbrook right up until 1980.
As in New Zealand, Australia made use of the legendary Land Rover when it came to rural or outback fire-fighting duties. We featured a Haast-based Land Rover fire vehicle here in NZ Classic Car magazine a couple of years ago, and now I have seen my second such ‘Landy’ fire appliance at Penrith, complete with hard hats, and shovels bolted to the guards. A series 2A, the Land Rover on show is a 1963 version which served in the Australian armed forces in bright red at Moorebank until 1984.The chassis had been assembled by Rover Australia, and then the special body was fabricated at Sydney’s Pressed Metal Company Ltd.
A Japanese Toyota Landcruiser fire appliance donated to Penrith by sister city Fujieda in 1990 makes a good comparison with the old British Land Rover.
Firemobilia
Children aren’t left out of the fire drill at Penrith’s museum either, as they can play on an old coin-operated toy fire engine and go inside the cab of a Ford D-series to view action from the fireman out of television’s Postman Pat series. I was even allowed to climb aboard an electric powered miniature appliance, used as a fundraiser, to twiddle the knobs and flash the lights!
This, along with a visit to the museum’s well stocked memorabilia shop, rounded off a worthwhile trip. The museum on Castlereagh street is a fitting monument to the people who have served humanity through the fire brigade, and also to those who spent countless hours converting an old power station into such a great characterful museum, beginning with clearing millions of shards of vandalised glass and over 2000 dead pigeons before refurbishment and bringing in the big red rigs.
It’s an unfortunate person who can’t recall exciting childhood memories of fire engines at full roar, flashing by in red, sirens wailing, and hoses at the ready. For the child in all of us, and the classic vehicle enthusiast, Penrith’s Museum of Fire is well worth a visit.
