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The Borough of Hanover, PA placed an order for one of Mack Trucks’ BX series (produced from 1932-1940) fire trucks in 1935. It was a pumper, designated Type 75BX—because the water pump by Hale Pumps could produce 750 gallons per minute. This pumper served the Borough well, until 1966. It was transferred to the Clearview Fire Station #3 for four years; then it was put on reserve status and stationed at the Borough landfill, to serve until 1976. It then went back to Clearview Fire Station #3 until 1978. Amazingly, the sturdy little pumper is still in good running order and has been to many parades and musters—testament to Mack Truck build quality.
Yat Ming has just released a 1:24 scale tribute to this piece of fire-fighting history. Like the earlier 1941 GMC, this image has a flawless finish (with beautiful pinstriping) and gleaming chrome parts. Undercarriage and under-the-hood detailing is above average for an image in this price range. Though a fair number of detail elements are of the molded-in variety, there are also a lot of chromed, removable, and moving parts. The steering wheel turns the front wheels, the front seats tilt forward (as on the 1:1 item), and the left and right hood sections lift and fold to reveal the uncomplicated six-cylinder engine. The searchlight on the right side pivots in its mount (but does not swivel). There’s a primitive, three-light, rotating, emergency signal system on the driver’s side. Two sections of hose can be removed from their trays by releasing two clamps. A small length of flexible hose, with a nozzle, extends from the rear hose reel but doesn’t unroll. Additional, detachable accessories include: an extension ladder, four pairs of boots, and three chromed fire extinguishers to be placed in mounts on the truck’s running boards. Yat Ming also provides one of those tools for opening hatches, hoods, etc., and a gold-plated medallion to round things out. Even the box is a worthy display for this truck—with its black velvet base and sides to hold the medallion, extra “goodies,” and CoA. [A particularly nice feature is that the mounting screws that hold the image on the base don’t go into the underside of the image but into two plastic brackets that clamp to the sides of the image—a nice touch.] The overall “look” of the image is very sharp indeed. Yat Ming continues to impress me with the degree of build quality on such reasonably priced images ($40-45). What’s more, they make them in 1:24 scale, so we collectors of precision 1:24ths can easily add these nifty fire trucks to our car displays and dioramas.
You don’t have to be a fireman to appreciate one of Yat Ming’s fine images of fire-fighting vehicles. So far, they’ve done this one, a ’38 Ford, and a ’41 GMC—with more 1:24ths in the planning stages. I’m finding them irresistible.
(01/19/2005)
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