Fire Station built

The Devonian · 5 Dec 2009

Nice work, best left purely as a fire station/house I believe. However, I do think it needs a drill (training) tower go accompany it.

peterbunce · 5 Dec 2009

Hi, The tower served a dual role, first it allowed the hoses to be hung up inside it to dry, it was also a lookout point for fires, and some of them were also used for training as they could be filled with smoke etc.It should also have on the roof somewhere a siren if it was manned by a 'volunteer' crew - very like the Lifeboat service in the UK. The siren also alerted peaople nearby to 'get out of the way' for crew coming in if volunterrm and also manned fire engine(s) going out! Nice model, thanks for the photos.Yours Peter.

The Devonian · 5 Dec 2009

Hi Peter, As someone who spent a lot of time in and out of drill towers I must get the correct order into focus. 1) It was built primarily for training purposes and testing ladders, then it served as a hose drying tower (providing it was of sufficient height - all were not). It may well have served as a lookout in some places but not in Devon - too many hills and if a retained (part-time station) there was no one usually to do the 'looking out'.

Sirens went out of fashion in the 1970's, in this and many Counties and were replaced by radio antennae for pagers and communications. The United States went down similar paths but at different times dependent on State/City/Town.Older stations (Hicksville/onehorsejoints) which had a ramshackle building of course were a different thing all together.(cf. Will Hay film 'Where's That Fire'). Railnuts will also know about 'Oh, Mr. Porter' :applause:

Fire Station built

The Devonian

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peterbunce

1880's Colorado Narrow gauge on 45mm track

The Devonian

Registered