1955 Series I 86” Fire Tender

Chassis number: 170600358

Registration number: AFF 218

Engine type: 2.0 Petrol

Gearbox type: 4 Speed

Vehicle spec:
Built to 1956 Model Year spec on 29 September 1955 and transferred to Rover’s Technical Sales Department for installation of the fire appliance equipment. The completed vehicle was despatched-out on 4 October and delivered to Rover dealer Davies of Barmouth. 

It was registered with the Merionethshire number AFF 218 on 17 October 1955 and the original buff logbook shows that its first owner was Cooke’s Explosives Ltd of Penrhyndeudraeth, near Porthmadog, a subsidiary of ICI that produced nitroglycerine-based explosives up until the site’s closure in 1995.

In November that year it was donated by ICI to the Dunsfold Collection and Brian Bashall drove his Velar YVB 172H to North Wales with a trailer to collect the Series I, although the return journey was apparently a nightmare. Brian only worked out why when he was unloading the Series I: the fire engine’s water tank was almost full and the weight of nearly forty gallons of water splashing and surging around at the rear of the trailer was the cause of all the havoc!

The vehicle has less than 8,000 miles on the clock runs and even though it looks a little tired we are happy to preserve it in its original condition, complete with all its original hoses and equipment.