MTFCA Forum

I believe these 10 cars were given to the assistant Chief's. They were right hand drive because the drivers were use to the horse drawn vehicles, where they were on the right side.
Nice pictures, thanks for posting.

Another possibility they were RHD, is all the fire engines in that era were also RHD.

Interesting "over-sized" tires/wheels!!

Easy to mess with or accidentally reverse photos. At least this one is safe. right hand drive... oh yah

Wasn’t just fire apparatus, the vast majority of automobiles were right hand drive then. Fantastic pics!

Great photos,what year are the cars 10?

These photos show the 1911 NYPD Fire Cars. They were a variant of the 1911 torpedo/open runabouts. The Fire Cars were built on RHD 1911 torpedo/open runabout chassis and the open runabout body. A wood box was mounted just behind the gas tank. The parts drawing for the box is in the collections of The Benson Ford Research Center and shows that the top of the box was marked F.D.N.Y. in large block letters.

My understanding is that at that time NY State required all fire fighting vehicles to be right hand drive.

Respectfully submitted,

Trent Boggess

They look like modified 1911 open roadsters, similar to the better known 1911 torpedo roadsters, but without the body sides and doors. Notice the long, curved, fenders and short running boards common to both roadster styles. The runabouts had the regular fenders those years. I am wondering if the gasoline tank is under the seat? Or behind it as most open roadsters were? The tank which can be seen behind the seat on a few of the cars could be a chemical tank, common on fire department cars in that era. The large tool box undoubtedly has quite a few tools in it (probably including an axe!). The wheels are interesting. Six lug early for model T after-market demountables. Most Firestone (and others similar to Firestone, like Pearlman) demountable wheels of the era for model Ts were five lug.
The cars could have been customized by any of a few companies that specialized in fire apparatus, or by Ford itself.


I see that Trent B has responded and answered some of my questions! Thank you Trent!

I'm sure that's the gas tank in the rear Wayne - chemical tanks of that period would have had a small dome on top for the acid bottle and a crank/stir mechanism on one side or the other.

The oversize tyres are 6 lug demountables on accessory wheels. Can't have the fire crew stranded on the road fixing a flat on a non-demountable.

Allan from down under.

Here is one I have had for a while. It is of a single car.
Trent were these the special red Torpedoes that went to the NTFD?

Nice picture, Herb. I have not seen this one before.

I have not seen any documentation on the individual fire cars (although the shipping invoices should be in the collections of the Benson Ford). However, the photo you posted is consistent with a red fire car. In 1911 the type of film used for photographs was monochromatic. Films of this type portray the color red as black. So this could be a photo of a red car.

Respectfully submitted,

Trent Boggess