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Tuesday 24 November 2015

Snow Patrol. Part-One.

Vehicle Adaptions.

There is money in snow, one has only to ask the Swiss, French and Austrians! 

Many vehicles have been adapted to work in snowy conditions, while many more have been specifically designed to operate all the time. Caterpillar tracks have the great advantage over the wheel in moving through snow and ice, but there is much more to this area than one might think!

Many vehicles can be fitted with snow ploughs and they have a limited use in clearing roads to rails, but the problems only start when the snow freezes and is extremely difficult to shift. Many early types started life as military vehicles (British Army Viking) and are now standard civilian vehicles used in a huge variety of ways from utility to scientific research.

Skies work great, when the surface is flat and smooth with many aircraft and helicopters being capable of operations in high mountains and winter flying conditions. Kamov Ka-32

Tuesday 17 November 2015

Fire Engines. Part-Three.

Aviation and at Sea.

Every airport across the world has employed specialist fire engines to deal with burning aviation fuel. We generally see this as foam being sprayed from powerful jets, it from years of gathered experience that this method has become a standard. 

Meanwhile fires at sea are extremely dangerous and can be fatal on most types of shipping, if they are not brought under control very quickly. It is the good old faithful Tugboat that has become the mainstay of the sea fire man. These vessels handle much more than towing and assisting shipping, they are fitted with extremely powerful jets and carry large tanks of sea water, than can be continually refilled.

Both in aviation and sea fire, much was learned from the Battle of Britain and the bombing by Nazi-Germany's Luftwaffe of the Port of London docks during World-War-II (1939-45). Tugboat on the river Thames were the most vital piece of sophisticated equipment at the time in fire fighting.

Tuesday 10 November 2015

Fire Engines. Part-Two.

Specialist vehicles.

New York was the first skyscraper city and Paris had its Eiffel tower, but as the 20th Century progressed Hong Kong, Tokyo and Dubai would see the popularity of having the race for the highest tower blocks. Nothing different was thought of in the west until 9/11, but Moscow had to cope with the various Chechen militant attacks five years earlier which killed hundreds of people.

Japan has set in place specialist vehicles to deal with Earthquakes and high towers, if they are not fully evacuated. Claims have been made in the U.K. and U.S. that they have various hydraulics to rescue people in the event of a fire from high-rise buildings. There are so many problems with getting ladders up to great heights, wind is one and mechanical failure is another.

Many of these vehicle types are based around the eight-wheel chassis of military transports and the up to twenty-wheel civil telescopic cranes. in the future It it better to fit some form of emergency elevators/lifts to securely evacuate buildings in the future and we just do not really know anything until that dreadful event should occur.

Tuesday 3 November 2015

Fire Engines. Part-One.

Bonfires.

In a few days time, the emergency services will be stretched to their limit dealing with bonfire night and the madness of some people. Here in Wales the Fire Brigade has to deal with regular arsonists every dry period, lighting gorse fires.

But generally Halloween and Guy Fawkes night 31st October and the 5th November are the big nights. The need for a fire truck has been around probably ever since man could carry water on a cart? But it is really only in the last 200 years that some type of what we term 'Fire Engines have been developed to deal with house fires.

In the United States they are known as ladders, because they had to deal with tenement fires and later the early 19th Century sky scrapers. The first horse drawn tankers took full advantage of water pumping systems and were able to cope, despite being very limited. it was not until the 1920's that the first motorised trucks were designed as we see them today.