Despite nearing its halfcentury the Green Goddess fire engine could
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live on with a massive refurbishment programme. Would a revamped Bedford really be the answer to our needs—or mutton dressed as lamb? Robert Coates meets the engineers who are busy rejuvenating an ageing goddess.
Like losing The Ashes, Bank Holiday tailbacks and hospital waiting lists, Green Goddess fire engines have been an intrinsic part of the British way of life for a long time. Now TNT Truckcare hopes to persuade the Home Office to grant the old campaigners a new lease of life.
For more than 40 years Bedford RL 4x4 emergency pumps have gone into action whenever the front-line firefighters are overstretched—or on strike. And the next chapter in their long lives could be an object lesson in environmental good practice.
The Bedfords are stored at Marchington, near Uttoxeter, where they are maintained by TNT Truckcare. And if TNT has its way the fleet will go through a major refurbishment programme which will take it into the next millennium. That's a whole lot greener than buying new ones: someone must have known a thing or two when they nicknamed the RLs "Green" Goddesses.
Tendering TNT Truckcare's contract manager, Harry Wood, formerly a regional engineer, has been with TNT for 22 years, following a spell in the RAF, and has been involved with the RLs since 1987, when the Home Office carried out a competitive tendering process. Wood was involved in both the preparation and the presentation of TNT's tender, partly because of his service background. At the time the fleet was stored piecemeal around the UK. One reason TNT won the contract was its plan to centralise storage and maintenance.
Original plans involving a warehouse at a disused airfield had to be modified following problems with planning permission. The present site, an old grain warehousing complex, was refurbished to a high standard with temperature and humidity control. TNT installed the first vehicles in 1990; the fleet, including contingents from Northern Ireland and Scotland, now numbers 1,074.
In the front line are 52 Goddesses which are kept fuelled up and ready to go, but the entire fleet can be mobilised very quickly—all appliances are regularly exercised to ensure that they're roadworthy and ready for action. During CM'S visit 36 of them were out on driver training duties; the workshops were busy fettling their replacements to keep the immediate-response fleet up to strength.
The Goddesses are exempt from plating due to their age, but they're still maintained to test standard—and Wood finds they are "very reliable", which is a far call from the days when, he recalls, if you needed five, you had to send for 10.
Their emergency equipment is also maintained to modern standards; for example, hoses are periodically pneumatically tested.
Most of the drivers are younger than their vehicles: many have never seen a Goddess before, and have to pick up ancient trucking skills such as double-declutching.
That feeling of going back in time reminds us that, good as they are, the RLs are 40 years old, so some problems are inevitable. For a start, those carefully maintained engines run on petrol—and four-star petrol at that, which won't be available for much longer. Even now, refuelling presents problems, because at 7-8mpg, too much fuel is used simply travel ling to and from refuelling points, and mobile refuellers would be a potential ha7ard when attending fires.
Racing Also, even Bedford enthusiasts would agree, an RL4x4 would not be your first choice for a season's truck racing. Goddesses don't climb hills very well and even on the flat, with a following wind, they're unlikely to top 45 or 50mph. Stately progress is not a prime requisite for an emergency vehicle when seconds can mean lives saved or lost.
Nonetheless, the Goddess fleet has one huge advantage: cost. Setting up a reserve fleet of 1,000 front-line appliances would cost millions of pounds at a time when fire stations are closing for want of funds. The Bedfords were paid for a long time ago and many are in as-new condition.
To TNT's director of engineering, Alan Parker, and his team the solution was obvious: upgrade the existing vehicles. Top of their shopping list was a diesel engine, driving through a five or six-speed box. Something also had to be done about crew: installing a cab heater is hardly a luxury for personnel who have been working with water in mid-winter.
TNT's final choice was the ubiquitous Cummins B-Series, rated at 112hp—almost identical to the Bedford petrol burner's 110hp—and a five-speed ZF gearbox. It's no coincidence that the Cummins/ZF combination is compatible with the PTO gear, which needs 1,500rpm at the pump.
The Home Office has made no promises about this project, but it did donate a vehicle to experiment with. It's in TNT's Atherstone workshops now, complete with its Cummins/ ZF driveline and PTO, and is being rewired to suit the new engine and electrical equipment.
This includes improved beac nd scene lights with new flashing case you wondered, they flash bludd to It, linked with the headlights, 3:bected t , red/blue at the rear). In raworki.— vers don't notice there's fag, ,odcless coming their way, TNT's .g a white-noise direction al siren and ystem.
Other ir ements include roller-shutter locker doors (the present ones are prone to jamming), electrically heated mirrors and a vacuum braking system. The prototype also has a new livery. The Green Goddess still lives up to its name but the green will be brighter and a red and-white stripe might help disguise the RL's middle-age spread. Inevitably, there's a new logo: EFS (for Emergency Fire Service) replaces the AFS badge.
TNT clearly sees the time and money it has devoted to the project as a sprat with which it hopes to catch a large mackerel. It comes as no surprise that component suppliers have been happy to get involved. Not only could this be good business; it would be wonderful publicity.
Neither is it a surprise that TNT is stressing that rejuvenated greener Goddesses are lifesavers for the new millennium.
In some respects, the company is quick to point out, they already outperform their more glamorous red counterparts: it cites fourwheel drive, high ground clearance and a huge pumping capacity. There's even a stirrup pump, which is said to be the best way of dealing with chimney fires, no matter what colour fire engine you drive.