Scratchbuilt 12th scale Fire Hose Reel.

There is a Fire Hose Reel at the M.O.V.E museum at Shepparton Vic and has some excellent designs painted on it, I thought it looked quite good, so I took quite a a few photos OF IT for future reference.

I found a working drawing of a Fire Hose Reel amongst all the old working drawings I have, so put the two together and this was created.

It's a Scratchbuilt 1/12th scale model of an old Fire Hose Reel, these were actually used in anger many moons ago, but when the modern type of fire fighting equipment became available, these old Fire Hose Reels were delegated to competition work at local shows, or to do demonstrations. This kept the “fireys” from getting a fat guts from just sitting around doing nothing at the Fire Station, waiting for a Fire Alarm to go off.

When they were used in anger, they could be propelled along at a bloody good speed, by just adding more “turkeys” to pull it along. If the town was in hilly country, then you could even add more “turkey”s by adding ropes fitted with shoulder straps, or even get a couple more to give it a push.

But Alas, they went of fashion and they are now mostly relegated to museums.

Wheels on this Fire Hose Reel are quite different from a normal Horse Drawn Vehicle Wheel, as the spokes are fitted to the wooden hubs as per a pushbike wheel laced up with steel spokes. So no dish in these wheels at all, or staggered spokes, just half the spokes are on one side of the hub and the other half are on the other side and they come up together to join onto the wooden fellies in the centre of the hub.

Even added a few tools to the Tool Box that the Fire Fighters would have needed as well.

It is a tad different, but have a look anyway and any questions, then please ask?

9 additional images. Click to enlarge.