30cwt

Fire Engine

Chassis Number 4439

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Reproduced by permission of Surrey History Service. Copyright of Alexander Dennis.

This Dennis chassis was delivered to Birmingham on 30th June 1922, following the resolution of the Birmingham Watch Committee to purchase it from Dennis Bros. of Guildford for 1,290 pounds.

It is believed to have had the registration number OK2124. If anyone has information on the early motor vehicles of Birmingham Fire Brigade I would be very keen to see it (Coming soon BFB fleet list).

When discovered it had been converted to an agricultural trailer and was purchased by the late Viv Kirk of Oxford. Viv bought the trailer as spares for his other Dennis lorries, but the parts were incompatible.

I purchased this chassis at the start of 2008, and now require a large number of parts to complete the vehicle. These include a 115x150 White and Poppe (Dennis) engine, Dennis 4 speed gearbox, a radiator and a Gwynne pump.

Reproduced by permission of Surrey History Service. Copyright of Alexander Dennis.

Parts required for completion

Engine

The original engine was built by White and Poppe (subsidiary of Dennis Bros). It was a four cylinder engine of 115mm bore and 150mm stroke. 

Gearbox

The gearbox was of Dennis design with an integral power take off for the Gwynne pump.

Pump

A Gwynne pump was originally fitted at the rear of the appliance.

Wheels

Originally on solid tyres and spoked steel wheels 4439 was probably converted to pneumatic tyres by Birmingham Fire Brigade in the 1930s. It requires a two more 20 inch wheels to run on pneumatics or a set of solid tyre wheels to revert to solid tyres. We have now found a set of original solid tyre fire engine wheels for this exact model, not many were built so the might even be the ones that were delivered with this chassis.

Steering Gear

When 4439 was converted to a trailer it had all the steering mechanism removed. It requires a replacement steering box, track rod, ball joints etc.

Click here for further photos

If you have any information on the pre 1925 models or spare parts please let me know.

If you have any information on Birmingham Fire Brigade or early Dennis vehicles please email me: benjamin.p.hawkins@gmail.com