ENGINE 51

(1972 to 1974)
   The first Engine 51 was Crown Firecoach 1000 gpm pumper unit, which was an actual unit assigned to the LaCoFD as Engine 60. The Firecoach with her trademark front and overall "looks like a fire engine should look" was the "stereotypical" fire engine in the minds of Hollywood film producers as many were used in all types of film products.

    Crown produced several types of equipment, the pumper, which was originally available in the "open cab" configuration, and the closed cab configuration. The Closed Cab was provided as a later updated model of the Firecoach. At the time of the open cabs, the Closed Cab was most notably used for "boom and basket" apparatus such as the Snorkel (Truck 127). Truck 127 was a real unit stationed at Station 127 (which we see as Station 51 in Emergency!). The Closed Cab Crowns can be seen in the industrial fire featured in the pilot. Closed Cab Crown pumpers are a regular feature in many Emergency! Episodes alongside their ‘Open Cab’ sisters.

    Crown fire engines and most notably Engine 51 were mostly powered by gasoline engines made by Hall Scott. They have a distinctive "rumble". The engine power mated to (what was aboard Engine 51) a standard shift 4-speed gearbox. In "Boot", one has a rare opportunity to "ride along" in the first few minutes of the response to the tanker accident as the camera is as close to Mike Stoker as it can get. As Stoker is driving the engine one can hear the engine as he shifts through the gearbox.

    The Hall-Scotts are inline 6 1090 cid or 935 cid (Engine 51 had a 935-cid engine). They are huge, heavy, low-revving torque-monsters. The Crowns came mainly with the 2 larger engines, to drive pumps of 1000-2000 gpm range. To compare, most North American cars at that time had engines ranging from 250 cu in (found in the Ford Maverick, Valiants, and similar sized cars) to 450 cu. (found in Oldsmobile Delta 88’s, Cadillacs and Lincoln Continentals, and also in muscle cars such as the Barracuda, Corvette, Mustang, Mustang/Shelby, and Camero).
 

    The rigs with these Hall-Scott engines required the most attention from mechanics. The Hall-Scott engine was a high HP output machine that had to burn premium leaded gas. They had a chain driven overhead camshaft that gave little trouble but had a weak crankshaft. Every so often one would break a crank and have to be towed back to the shop.
    A not-so-fondly remembered LACoFD chief specked and ordered some Crowns with anaemic 478 cid Waukesha engines back in the 60's, in an attempt to get more trucks at the same budget allocation. They were known as the "Toyopet" Crowns, after the first Toyota Crown import automobiles (pieces of junk!) that were sold in California at the time.


    LA County also had at the time Seagraves, Internationals, FWD engines. The snub-nose at the tunnel in the pilot and also at the camp in "Brush Fire" was one of 2 late 50's Calavar-FWD all wheel drive brush rigs. To complete the dieselisation of the fleet, LA County began phasing in new equipment to replace the Crowns which were, (unless still active) being reassigned as backup units. In the pilot and first season episodes, one can see many of the older equipment that LA County had at the time, as all were actually units in the fleet. Truck 8 in the pilot movie is a Seagrave. An Engine 51 Seagrave can be seen (briefly) in the arrival at the smokestack at the beginning of "Botulism" (where a different electronic siren is heard).
    Crowns were sold not only to LA County but also to many southern California fire departments such as Pasadena, and Compton.


    The lights found on the Crown apparatus were usually one of two types. One is the familiar revolving red light found on the front top centre of the engine. This was the Federal BeaconRay. The BeaconRay was a light that found its way to police cars, and other emergency equipment in the 1960’s and 1970’s before the Federal Twinsonic squarish light bar started to appear. The other is a "red spotlight" also found on the front top centre of the engine. This type of lamp was found on both open cab and closed cab Crowns, and was called a "Mars Light". When switched on by the engineer, it oscillated back and forth. A close-up of it is part of the drama unfolding in the pilot Emergency! movie as Station 10 starts to respond to the industrial fire.
    The oscillating lamps seen on Engine 10 and Truck 10 in the pilot are these Mars lights (the plate on the base reads "The Light From Mars"!). Another unit in the pilot Engine 268 that appears at the industrial fire in the pilot movie "The Wedworthst Townsend Act" also had one of these. Another unit that had one of these is a Seagrave pumper that appeared briefly in one episode as Engine 51 (could have easily been a backup engine) The Mars lights were made in Chicago, IL, and were a standard LACoFD warning device until the Federal BeaconRay more-or-less replaced it.
    It was been written that the Crown Firecoach was the "favourite" of the two engines featured on Emergency! It was the only one that was mentioned by its name in the show (mentioned by Chet in "Drivers" when an exasperated Johnny Gage came up with an idea to catch civilians not pulling over for their squad).

    In the early 1970’s LA County began a programme to complete dieselisation of its entire fire apparatus fleet, and tendered for additional units. In 1971, Ward LaFrance won a bid for 46 new 1250gpm triple combination pumpers for LA County FD.

    Crown (based in L.A.) produced fire apparatus for many departments, but also as a sideline manufactured buses. Many of these were school buses. You probably rode in one to high school. (Canadians however, didn’t have that luxury of the Blue Bird with; squeaky seats, teeth jarring ride, ear splitting gear shifting and heaters that didn’t work well when it did at all was used) A Crown bus looked like a closed cab LACoFD engine at the front with its rounded face and two piece windshield. Crown discontinued its fire apparatus line in the mid 1970’s and for a time focused on its bus products before going out of business in the early 1980’s.


Engine 51 Responding
Engine 51 1974 - present
Squad 51 1972 - 78
The Ambulances
Other Apparatus
Miscellaneous Info & Footnotes

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