Aerial Ladder Platforms - A Timeline

[flatcat]

Hi,
Thought I'd show a photo timeline of the large aerial ladder platform fire engines, which there have been 5 of (I haven't included the small ones)

Firstly, here is the overall timeline showing the order in which they were made:

[flatcat]

There have been two main types: the large 6 wheel units with the long ladders, and the shorter wheelbase units with slightly shorter ladders but with baskets.

The first type with crews of 6:






And the other type with crews of 2: (my 3182 is missing it's basket)

[flatcat]

Here are some close up infos. All information courtesy of collectobil and PlaymoDB

This is the 3525, my example being in a very poor state. Produced between 1981 - 1987:










My Crew:

[flatcat]

Next along is the 3781, some differences from the previous model being larger handles on the side drawers, new ratchet design, and wheel clips and nato hitch on the later models.








My crew:

[flatcat]

And finally is the 3386 fire truck, released in 2006 in Germany in a limited edition fire set.

The same jib body was used from the mobile crane from set 4084, which explains the holes along the side. On the crane these holes were used to stow the detachable outriggers.










My crew (temperarily borrowed from the TLF16 and LF8):



If you are wondering as to the transfers then these are custom figures made by Playmofire

So that's it - I won't bother doing close ups of the other two as we are all very familier with them by now.

Damo

[Wolf Knight]

Damo this is fantastic!! Thank you for your history lesson!!! I thought of doing the same with police motorcycles....

[playmofire]

Thank you, Damo, for that very interesting wander down memory lane; it was excellent.   The pictures of the 3386 were especially interesting as I had never seen any before other than the box illustrations.   The 3879 TL came between the last 3781 and the 3182, but was basically the same as the 3182 apart from minor changes to the accessories and crew.

And Wolf Knight, bring on the police bikes!

[flatcat]

Thanks for the great feedback Panos and Gordon, I'm glad you liked it

The 3386 arrived only this morning from Germany and I'm glad to have it as it is the only main one I was missing as I have planned this for a while and just waiting for that one, even though it set me back quite a fair amount

[flatcat]

I thought of doing the same with police motorcycles....

That sounds great, although a little word of warning that the last one I saw (I think it was on Playmoboard) they got up to 7 if I can remember!

[Wolf Knight]

And Wolf Knight, bring on the police bikes!

I'll pay a visit to my parents house tomorrow, if not the weekend, where i keep the earlier versions....I'll post them in a new thread though, don't want to spoil Damo's thread....

That sounds great, although a little word of warning that the last one I saw (I think it was on Playmoboard) they got up to 7 if I can remember!

No, I know for a fact that the basic design is 5...unless you count the different colours that were produced for the different countries which i am not for this project...it will go more than 7....

BTW Damo, the 3386 is altogether a magnificent set!!! A fire truck and a small FD Headquarters....and load of extras....have not seen this set before!!! Maybe you can scan the instructions for Heather to put in playmoDB....