Posted October 8, 2020 I'm not sure. I was looking at Squad 37's youtube, seeing if he's caught M35 lately but I only saw T35 and E35. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 12, 2020 On 9/30/2020 at 6:08 PM, firepost said: The Chicago Fire Department had used Tillered Aerial Ladders for years just like many other big city fire departments did. In 1965 of Chicago's then 62 Truck companies 58 of them were using TDA's and the other 4 were Mack/Magirus rear mounted Aerial Ladders whose Ladders were manufactured in Germany by the Magirus company. They were purchased in 1959 and 2 were 100 feet in height while the other 2 were 144 feet in Height and amongst the Tallest Aerial Ladders in the United States at the time. Most of Chicago's TDA's had 85 foot Wooden Aerials on them and only 5 of them had Metal Telescopic Aerials and of those 5 two of them were retrofitted on two older trailers that had wooden ladders on them when delivered. Chicago was still purchasing Wooden Tillered Aerial Ladders in the 1950s and from 1954 through 1956 the CFD purchased 25 Wooden TIllered Aerials. Of the 5 metal TDA"s 3 of them were purchased in 1942 and of the 2 retrofits one was done in 1959 and the other was done in 1963. Chicago began a large scale fire apparatus replacement program beginning in 1966 and by 1976 most all of Chicago's TDA's had been replaced by new Non Tillered Aerials with the vast majority being rear mounted ladders. Chicago's famous Fire Commissioner Robert J Quinn who had been the Fire Commissioner from 1957 until 1978 decided to give the idea of Tillered Aerials a last hurrah and in 1975 he sent 5 1954 model TDA trailers to the Seagrave company in Clintonville Wisconsin where they totally rehabbed and rebuilt the trailers and they also installed brand new 100 foot Metal Retractable Aerial Ladders on the trailers and the CFD had also purchased 5 International Harvest Cargostar Tractors for the "new" Aerial Ladder trailers and they were put in service in 1976. Chicago ran them in frontline service until between 1988 and 1989 when most of them of them were taken out of frontline service and it was one of those TDA's that was used as "Truck" 46 in the beginning of the movie Back Draft. In Chicago the Highest number Truck company is Tower Ladder 63 at O"Hare Airport. Chicago's Truck's 46 and 43 were both taken out of service on November 16th 1971 so Chicago is currently running with 61 Truck companies of which 10 of them are Tower Ladders and the remainder are rearmounted Aerial Ladders. Of the 51 rear mounted Aerial Ladders 49 of them range in Height from 100 to 103 feet and Truck 8 recently received a 2019 model 137 foot E/One Aerial Ladder with a Prepiped Waterway and so it is Officially called Aerial Tower 8. Truck 1 has a 2006 model Pierce Heavy Duty Aerial Ladder with a Prepiped Waterway and it is officially designated as Aerial Tower 1. None of our other front line straight Truck companies are equipped with Prepiped Waterways however we have a 1988 model E/One 135 foot rear mounted Aerial Ladder that acts as a spare rig for the other two Aerial Tower companies and it used to be assigned as Aerial Tower 1 before it was replaced in 2006. As to why Chicago doesn't use TDA's the bottom line is probably the cost involved in purchasing the apparatus which wouldn't match the other Truck companies and having to train and qualify some members to be Tillered Ladder drivers on those rigs. Many fire departments went away from using TDAs years ago however there are some fire departments that use them exclusively due to some tight streets and some narrow turns where they can be more easily be maneuvered. New York City got rid of most of their TDA's except for 13 Ladder companies that are located in some areas were they have very narrow streets and they need to have them there. Boston took all of theirs out of service and Houston and San Antonio no longer uses them however Dallas runs with 7 of them. San Francisco runs with them completely because of the hills and some narrow streets where they are more maneuverable. A case can be made for them in a few congested areas of Chicago which tend to be near the Lakefront due to some narrow streets however there are no plans for any at the moment. I know that Los Angeles uses them exclusively as they needed them in the narrow streets and some of the curves in the Santa Monica Mountains however I have also seen some pretty wide streets in Los Angeles where they could probably manage without them also. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 12, 2020 Here is great video taken in the early 1970s of one of Chicago's Wooden Aerial Ladders which was probably built either in 1954 0r 1956 by the FWD corporation and is being pulled by one of 2 1960 Mack B Model Tractors that were purchased to replace some Older Tractors for some of the TIllered Aerials that Chicago was still using at the time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 13, 2020 Los Angeles uses Tillers for many reasons. Carry more ground ladders and equip. Tradition and manage streets through out the city limits. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
