Vintage Fire Truck: White 1918

My family was recently out to visit me. They live in Norway (cold country, next to Sweden ... invented the paper clip.... you get the picture), so we try to find things to show them when they come out. This time, we had an opportunity to show them the Travel Town museum @ Griffith Park.

I have been there before and I wrote a blog about their 1918 Mack dump truck that they have there. (If you missed it, you can see it here, it's a pretty neat truck). Well, I was so focused on the Mack that time that I completely missed the equally vintage 1918 White fire truck that was standing in the corner.
I spotted it this time, but unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. Luckily my brother, the photographer, came to the rescue and snapped some shots of the fire truck for me. (Unfortunately my brother isn't as passionate about this truck as me, so I may return with more detailed photos of this truck later, if I happen to go back to the musem....) (PS. He got some very good shots of the trains though .... maybe if I feel like doing a non-truck blog at some point, I'll share a few :))

Anyway, this 1918 truck is a fire truck that was built by the White Company. At the time they were one of the foremost truck builders in the country. The truck was used by Shell to carry equipment such as hoses, ladders and fire extinguishers, to the scene of a fire. There was a large chemical tank underneath the driver's seat, and water would be pumped through this tank, thereby adding chemicals to the water itself, which would then be more efficient in extinguishing fires.
The truck was used to fight fires in Santa Fe Springs, Huntington Beach and Long Beach oil fields that were owned by Shell.

Here are some photos of the truck, and like I said, I will bring my camera should opportunity present itself once more for me to go out there, and take some more detailed photos.

A view from the driver's seat.

A glimpse of the tire... quite different from what you see on firetrucks today.

Here's a photo of a photo of the White fire truck ;-) (Along with the description, which is where I got my info about the truck from...)

Sideview of the firetruck

Sideview of the firetruck

A view of the grill

Another view of the grill

I love these old trucks, if anybody has tips or info on other vintage trucks, feel free to alert me! :-)

Historic Trucks: 1918 Mack Dump Truck

Well, I may be a sucker for polished chrome & custom grills, but there is something to be said for these old faithful trucks that are still around today. I do like vintage cars, vintage trucks even better, and this 1918 Mack dump truck caught my eye while I was attending a birthday party.

I'm glad I finally get to blog about Mack! I've repeateadly sat down to try to include the story of Mack trucks in my big rig chronicles, but their history is so long with so many changes, it is taking me awhile to get my thoughts wrapped up and sorted into a blog ... (it'll happen some day ... you just wait & see...)

Of course, I hadn't brought my camera that day! I guess that should teach me to leave the camera at home because you never know when you'll run across interesting blog material!
Well, I made another trip out there, purely for the purpose of photographing the truck. Once I'd seen it, it didn't want to leave my mind!

This truck is displayed at the Travel Town Museum in Griffith Park. The museum consists mainly of trains, but they did make room for a few cars, and amont them this truck.

The following information is taken straight from the information sign that the museum had posted by the truck:

'This Mack Truck has special significance for Southern California. Unlike most Mack trucks of the period, it did much more than haul the usual loads of gravel, bruck, and logs. It was used during delivery and installation of the telescopic equipment at the Solar Observatory, which stands atop Pasadena's Mt.Wilson.

The Mt. Wilson Observatory, founded in 1904, contains two solar telescopes, one of which is a 60-inch reflecting telescop - the largest in the world. Our 1918 Mack truck was one of the several trucks used to haul the parts of the telescope up Mt. Wilson's winding toll road of dirt and gravel. The trucks, often wider than the road, had to make their way up a 12 percent average grade carrying the parts of the 4 1/2 ton telescope.

The 100-inch reflecting telescope was in operation by late 1918. Although it was closed in 1985, due to its costly operation, it remains a unique part of Los Angeles' istory, as does this 1918 Mack dump truck."


Here are the photos I took of the truck:

1918 Mack Dump Truck

1918 Mack Dump Truck - front tire ... don't know about you, but I just can't help
but compare these tires to the tires today's trucks are using... Maybe the evolution of truck tires
should be a blog topic some day.

1918 Mack Dump Truck - front crank. Funky stuff ... lol.

1918 Mack Dump Truck - nice side view

1918 Mack Dump Truck - rear view

1918 Mack Dump Truck - rear tire

1918 Mack Dump Truck - front

1918 Mack Dump Truck - side view

1918 Mack Dump Truck - shot of the grill

Certainly doesn't look bad ... for a 92-year old :) It hasn't aged a bit, its only problem is that time kept on moving and so did the evolution of trucks... oh well :) Still looks good to me!