Old fire engines never die, they only get updated - 3781 refurbishment

[playmofire]

My favourite site is Norfolk Fire and Rescue as they report every incident and the website is updated every 30 minutes with new incidents.  They also have a good section on their vehicle fleet and a page for each station with room for local input by the local crew.  Mind you, I'm a bit biased as it was Norfolk who offered the post of senior technical officer (photographer) 20 odd years ago (after letting me write the job and person description!). Sadly, drastic house price rises in Norfolk prevented me taking the offer up.

I've visited Gloucestershire fire service.  At the time (the 1980s) they were partners in a project building fire engines based on a Jeep chassis.  They carried a small water tank but were capable of tackling 90% of the incidents in the brigade and because they were much smaller than the normal fire engine were more adept in the narrow country lanes.  They used lay flat hose, the same sort you could buy for your garden sprinkler.

[Timotheos]

The fire truck looks great!
It's amazing the potential hiding inside Playmobil!
-Tim

[Martin Milner]

Checking out the various regional Authorities websites, I cama across a good one for insignia at the Hamphire FRS.

http://www.hantsfire.gov.uk/theservice/organisation/rolemarkings.htm

I was wondering about the yellow vs white helmets.

It seems that Hampshire Firefighters and Crew Managers wear yellow, while every rank above wears white. Playmobil have provided both colours over the years, plus red, black (especially for the US), but the current offerings are all white. I'll be seeing if I can get some yellow ones by direct order (with thanks as usual to Playmodb for the part number).

[playmofire]

I was wondering about the yellow vs white helmets.

It seems that Hampshire Firefighters and Crew Managers wear yellow, while every rank above wears white. Playmobil have provided both colours over the years, plus red, black (especially for the US), but the current offerings are all white. I'll be seeing if I can get some yellow ones by direct order (with thanks as usual to Playmodb for the part number).

The standard UK practice is yellow helmets up to the rank of Sub-Officer (now Crew manager since the report some years ago into the fire service which felt it was too military in its organisation - not something I found!) and white for officers.  The story goes that these colours were chosen because in the days of metal helmets the fire crew had brass ones and the officers silver-coloured ones.  Rank markings are usually black, but some brigades use red.  However, where brigades adopt the French style helmet it only seems to be available in a silver finish.  The German practice is white/off white helmets for everyone with rank markings in red.  I suspect that any new PM firefighters will have a new style helmet based on the European standard one

Last year (2007) or the year before, the yellow helmets were still available and, of course, they are being used on the new Special out later this year.

[Martin Milner]

I'd forgotten all about the 4675 Fireman special coming out! The actual figure seems an odd choice of colour though - do UK or German firemen wear blue uniforms?

As the yellow helmet is clearly still in production, I shouldn't have any problems getting them on DS.

Interesting about the yellow vs. white helmets. I was thinking it was something more practical, like yellow being easier to see at night or in a smoke-filled room.

Of course this theory didn't explain the US use of black helmets, or red ones...

[playmofire]

I'd forgotten all about the 4675 Fireman special coming out! The actual figure seems an odd choice of colour though - do UK or German firemen wear blue uniforms?

As the yellow helmet is clearly still in production, I shouldn't have any problems getting them on DS.

Interesting about the yellow vs. white helmets. I was thinking it was something more practical, like yellow being easier to see at night or in a smoke-filled room.

Of course this theory didn't explain the US use of black helmets, or red ones...

Some of the new uniforms used in the UK are a blueish colour but it's not a pure blue. 

The white helmets of the German brigades usually have a narrow silver reflective strip just above the rim.  My brigade is modelled on the German brigades to a great extent, but this strip was very fiddly so I've used a reflective silver rectangle on each side of the helmet.

Overall, colour of helmet is probably unimportant as you can always add reflective striping or other shapes to help in poor visibility.

[Dan]

Gordon

Just out of idle curiosity, how big is your Playmo fire collection.  Is there a photo of it all?

I've been thinking of moving from military to civillian figures and a brass helmeted Victorian fireman sounds a good place to start!

[playmofire]

There's  a photo of some of the brigade here:

http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/index.php?topic=1680.0

but as I say in the post, there are other appliances being built or planned.  In addition, I don't mention there all that is planned.  There are plans for additional Jeeps for example, either as forward control units (like the present one) or as small, go-almost-anywhere pumps.  The lorry with the HIAB crane referred to is now built (http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/index.php?topic=1745.0), and there are plans either for a trailer unit to go with it or revamp which would end up with the HIAB-type crane off the new PM construction truck being used on a larger truck chassis.

I hope to create a website this year which will hopefully give a fuller picture of things.