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Home | The team | The vehicles | Find out more | Credits | Forum
Introduction
Military history
Water power
Make do and mend
All hands to the pump
Other vehicles
The fire engine has spent the last 10 years gathering dust in a barn near Banbury when the Salvage Squad first see it. They have just two weeks to restore it to working order so it will be ready for the Coventry Winter Parade.
Built in 1939 in anticipation of World War II to serve the Rover aero engines factory at Solihull, the fire engine is a Bedford heavy pump unit. It is the only surviving engine of 12 built by Bedford, the commercial arm of Vauxhall motors. It fought fires during the Coventry Blitz when the Luftwaffe bombed the town on 14 November 1940. Hitler ordered the raid in retaliation for the RAF's bombing of Munich. For 11 solid hours the German bombers dropped 500 tons of high explosive and 30,000 incendiary bombs. On the night of the Blitz, the Rover factory fire engine was called in along with every other pump unit in Warwickshire.
The pump on the fire engine is powered by a Coventry Climax engine, which is capable of pumping 500 gallons of water a minute and produces a jet strong enough to knock over a double decker bus. The Coventry Climax Company was established in 1903 to manufacture specialist engines for small car companies like Triumph and Standard. Later they produced high-performance engines for Formula One racing cars.
Salvage Squad's Jerry Thurston volunteers to take on the task of getting the pump running again. Axel works on replacing the rotten bodywork, and Claire replaces the windows and sorts out the paintwork.
Jerry has a passion for old engines but the Coventry Climax pump turns out to be a really tricky job. His first task is to fix the magneto, which generates current to produce a spark for the engine. This is a test for Jerry's creativity, as few spare parts are available for the 60-year-old pump.
After searching through a box of rusty bits and pieces at the Fire Services Museum Trust Jerry finds a rotor arm that can be made to fit the magneto. Using ingenuity, a screw and a soldering iron, he fixes the electrode pole. Jerry uses a crank handle to start the magneto – and it works. But that is just the beginning.
The other members of the Squad have to be called in to help lift the pump off the engine with a crane. Jerry's next problem is to patch up the pump's leaking cooling system. The pump works by using the exhaust gases of the engine to create a vacuum. This, in turn, sucks water up. An 'impeller' then forces water out through the 2,000ft of hose carried by the engine. Jerry has to check the pump's vacuum and pressure systems.
The pump, which has not been used for 40 years, is put to the test when the Squad take it back to the Rover factory where it was based during World War II. There, today's Rover firefighters challenge the Squad to a demonstration, which ends in an unseemly waterfight.
Gipsy Moth
Thames sailing barge
Racing car
Stolly
Fire engine
Steamboat
Gyroplane
Bristol car
Tank
Steamroller
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