Commer Magirus Fire Truck Turntable Ladder Restoration Project

In 1968 and 1969 I was working in Western Australia as a roofing and wall cladding sub-contractor on wheat silos and factories.

I returned to UK in 1970 and got a job with GKN Lincoln Electric in Welwyn Garden City, who made welding machines. I worked as a ‘production engineer’ principally re-tooling welding jigs, vertical borers and a large turret lathe.

But my mind kept returning to Western Australia, as I had fond memories of the place and the simplicity of life there.
I investigated the possibilities of taking a machine back, which would give me an advantage in industrial wall cladding.
I checked out various high access machines, but they were all far beyond my budget.

However, I was determined to return to Australia, so I handed in my notice at Lincoln Electric anyway, not knowing what I was going to do.

I happened to mention what I had in mind to a friend Viv Tozer in the office, and he immediately said, “get a fire engine”. When I spoke to him a few years later he said, “where did you get that idea from”.

The hunt was on and I wrote to every fire brigade in the UK that had turntable ladders and was impressed by the very prompt replies from almost all of them, saying that they had no vehicles available but wishing me luck with my search.
However, three brigades had turntable ladders for sale, and I settled on this Commer Magirus machine. After delicate negotiations I managed to acquire it, though I do remember looking at it in the fire station and thinking ‘you’ve got to be mad taking this on’!

It was driven down to a farm at Luton by a fireman for temporary storage near where I was living, to prepare it for shipping. The shed entrance was too low for the front of the vehicle, so the front wheels were temporarily removed while a forklift supported it, lowered it and then pushed it into the shed.
Interestingly, the basic Commer truck chassis was made in Luton before the bodywork and ladder were added in Birmingham.

In the meantime, I found a toolmaking job at Wheathampstead Spring Co. in Harpenden for a few months whilst I was organizing the shipping arrangements. My uncle Bernard, who worked in shipping, gave me an agent’s name to contact.

The oil crisis was peaking in 1973 and shipping was uncertain but eventually I heard that it would be going on the ‘Manapouri’ from Liverpool, 180 miles away.
I found a fireman at Luton Fire Brigade (Terry Loveday) to drive it up to Liverpool with me as I didn’t have a truck licence at that time. The only truck I had driven was a Mack road train through the Northern Territory in 1967 when I first arrived in Australia!

At Liverpool, the ladders were removed, and the turret turned 180⁰ to save on freight costs.

I then needed to be in Perth before it arrived, and the only seats available out of London for several weeks were on Aeroflot via Moscow where it was -30⁰C! It all worked out well.

When the ‘Manapouri’ arrived at Fremantle I went on board and, deep down in the hold, it looked like a ‘Dinky Toy’ fire engine roped in place amongst a mass of steel girders.

I asked a guy with a crane to lift the ladders onto the truck and away I went to get it registered. A Fremantle fireman, Barry Herriot, drove it for me as I still had no truck licence. By chance I met him 25 years later when he came to a church meeting at my place and saw the Commer there.
They wouldn’t register it in Fremantle because I had called it a ‘fire engine’ so when I took it to the main branch in Perth, I kept my mouth shut! A man came out with a clipboard and wrote it down as an ‘extension ladder’ and from then on, it was in the system!

The vehicle required additional side lighting and had to have a low vacuum brake warning lamp fitted before registration could be completed, plus additional modifications to meet the machinery department safety requirements.

Although I had originally intended using it for cladding and roofing, that’s not how it worked out. It was used for a wide variety of other work including inspection and maintenance work, cleaning buildings inside and out, painting, tree lopping and (pre-drone!) photography etc.
John Best and Eddie Conroy helped me set up the business which I called MBC Ladder Hire, from our 3 surnames.
I hired and operated the turntable ladder out of Perth, as far north as Dalwallinu, 155 miles (250kms), east as far as Kalgoorlie, 370 miles (595 kms), and Albany, south 260 miles (420 kms).
I stopped operating it in 1992 after the ladders had a major breakdown.
It has been parked in my driveway since then and I started restoration work in 2019 to bring it back to the best possible condition.

Thank you for reading this article Geoffrey Morris.
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