Waterloo, Iowa's 1956 American LaFrance 800 Series Arrives, via Trucker Phil Moelker

This video is dedicated in Memory of Herman Wenzel, Assistant Chief and Master Mechanic of the Waterloo Iowa Fire Department, with 44 years of service from 1950 through 1994, February 22, 1925 -- August 23, 2012.
Herman's 1956 American LaFrance 800 Series pumper is shown here, arriving in Illinois on July 14th, 2012. Serial 9446 was specified by legendary Waterloo Fire Chief Ray Tiller to look like the 700 Series to which Tiller had become accustomed. Instead of ordering it with the pump panel on the left side, and with rear compartments, as was newly-standard on 800s, Chief Tiller ordered the truck with rear fenders and a right side panel. But time marches on, and Herman Wenzel kept up with it and moved out ahead of it. After he ordered the first diesel engine in a fire truck in the State of Iowa in 1968, a Detroit Diesel 6-71N, age and innovation were making older trucks obsolete. Faced with accident damage and limited funds, Herman made do by taking advantage. Waterloo's 1966 Aerial had its cab damaged in an accident, so it got a new one. Herman took the damaged cab, fixed it himself, and thus modernized this truck by installing the newer cab on it. He then used the older, narrower cab from this truck to modernize their 1952 Aerial (pictured in the video), which had come with a very-cold-in-the-winter open cab. But he didn't stop there. He built compartments of his own design on the back, rebuilt the back end to function like the 900 Series, moved the booster reel from the original tailboard position to above the pump compartment as was then standard, custom-made the dashboard, installed air-over-hydraulic brakes, air horn, and an electronic siren and PA -- and the first diesel engine in a fire truck in the State of Iowa was also moved into this truck when the 1968 got a bigger engine, replacing this truck's original gasoline-powered American LaFrance "E" Series V-12! Herman owned the '56 for several years, and I am honored to be its new custodian, as it now becomes the perfectly-matched set to the 1952 Aerial which sports its former cab.

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