London Fire Brigade AEC TLs Fire Engine's 1986-Soho & Dowgate

Another London Fire Brigade vid now from way back in 1986/87. We start off at Soho fire station in Shaftesbury Avenue and move on to Dowgate fire station in Upper Thames Street, near Cannon Street Stn. There we see their TL coming & going plus a training exercise in the rear yard. If you liked the video please subscribe to my channel, there are lots more transport & quirky vids to upload!

[@robbierobson3251]

For those like myself, who wonder about these things, JUL57D has been untaxed since 11/10/1991, and last had a V5 on the previous day. JUL61D has been untaxed since 1/11/1994 and had a V5 on 9/8/1999. It therefore seems unlikely that either vehicle is still around. I find it a real tribute to these fine vehicles, that they were still performing daily duties when over the age of twenty years. We will never see their like again!

[@iwasglad122]

Real fire engines! Iconic design. I'm sure professional firefighters would say these appliances would not be fit for purpose in the year 2019, but by God they looked a lot better than our modern machines. How I miss the days of Pump Escapes, Turntable Ladders and, my favourite, Emergency Tenders!

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

When this was filmed the firefighters loved them. They were good, solid, dependable machines and their modern replacements had a tendancy to topple over at speed on corners as they were top heavy! The AEC machines had a good solid chassis where's the later ones didn't!

[@BumberenzoManilupinoCity]

Actually, Hong Kong had these fire engines before. They had two tones but now they have either been scrapped or put in museum. I wish Hong Kong had a recording of those firetrucks.

[@jonathanwarrenberg9260]

I was a retained fireman in Ilkley West Yorkshire, Bradford division in the late 1970's and 1980's. We had a pair white Dennis F46's, water ladder and water tender. Our nearest TL was Keighley 12 miles away, it came over for rescue drills. Great times.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thanks for your memories.....

[@paulbennell3313]

Still fully operational and immaculate well into the second half of the eighties. People looked after their toys back then.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

And well built kit as things were back in the day.

[@nphil93992]

Yeah, made when things were built to do a job properly and not to the lowest price. From the reg plates i would say they were made in the late 50's or early 60's

[@Saxonx500]

You can see they are cleaned and polished properly too......

[@malcolmmarshall4371]

Still love to hear the old two tone nice sound

[@jpht1964]

The last days of the 2 tone horns as primary signals...

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I assume the replacements had the new sound.....

[@jpht1964]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus , i think so

[@seanfusco58]

Love the sound of the Two Tone Air Horns.

[@djensze]

nice video, nice two tone

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thank you.....

[@northlincsfox243]

I loved the old TL’s. Now and again, I would see the one turning out from Whitechapel (near Gardener’s Corner) when passing through Central London.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Yes, they moved about a bit. Certain stations had to have a TL or HP (high platform) on the run, vehicles were transfered a lot, bit like LT forever moving buses around between garges and/or Aldenham Works!

[@NeilM01989]

Great video mate 👍🏻🧑🏻🚒

[@grahammaguire404]

Deep respect and gratitude to the "FIREFIGHTERS" from Lincoln South this morning at approximately 1100am,they got a shout to a pedestrian who had been hit by a van on the A15 BROADGATE A MAJOR CITY CENTRE ROAD IN LINCOLN CITY CENTRE .....All I heard on the radio was a serious RTC in the city centre involving a pedestrian and a van (serious in Lincolnshire 99.9% means fatal) about 10 minutes afterwards I had no choice but to go past the scene and instantly was met with a sea of tarpaulin ....sheeted of the scene and sadly the victims body was wrapped up to give them dignity and respect after passing away , the immediate vicinity was blocked off while police investigation teams began the all to familiar task of working out what had gone so tragically wrong,in total there were approximately 15 emergency service vehicles diverting the traffic and doing their level best to keep the public away from the distressing incident,nearby is a pedestrian walkway bridge and people with camera phones were filming the whole incident until a police officer livid with them quickly kicked their butts and erased all the footage of the incident and quite rightly so .It beggars belief what happened as 20 MTRS away was a pedestrian crossing which would appear the victim may or may not have used( a regular occurrence), amazingly people risk their lives by jumping over the central reservation railings and walking out on a red light at this particular crossing,it turns out this victim was a 54 year old man,sincere and deepest condolences to your family ( RIP)

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thank you for your report. It shows you what they go off to face when they get a shout. We see on them my films leaving the station going to face god know's what, and hope they all come back again later........

[@britishcarfan9601]

Dowgate was used in London’s Burning. Series 3 episode 2 when Josie Ingham is now a junior officer and she’s an acting sub officer. All of that was shot at dowgate fire station.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

The main station used, as Blackwall, was Dockhead, which was the south side of Tower Bridge......

[@robbiethebruce6488]

​@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbusThey also used Leyton in the last and final series, but what station was used for Shadbrook on a regular basis, when Blackwall were "covering" for them?

[@Finnmarken91]

Is there a more beautiful apparatus than the AEC Mark V Turntable.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

An AEC RT bus perhaps?...... The bus nut in me coming out.....lol

[@crusinclassicslucas6218]

3:07 the firemen look like fireman Sam from season one

[@terjeaasheim3651]

They do

[@Charlzey1998]

The only real con to these as opposed to modern day Aerial appliances is lack of Stabilisation legs, as these were only on jacks

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Yes, i've seen the crews winding them down back in the day.

[@user-ei3dq2dw6i]

Fire truck looks if it's from 1936

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

They're actually from around 1966!

[@mortgagewizard40]

It will still be running in 2066 lol, dennis will be long gone and forgotten and scanias will just be a distant memory.

[@johnpiper3416]

Did you ever film the TL's at Dagenham ( L25 ) or Poplar?

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Sadly not. These were filmed for a friend of mine who was into AEC vehicles in general and who also liked the Fire Service. We mainly went chasing the AEC's plus anything else that was at hand.

[@omashaushalt]

Nice! Very, very nice! I like these old, robust things. Do you know when this ladder was built? Greetings from Nuremberg, Germany

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

It was built in 1966 and was still hard at work in 1986. They had regular maintainence and over-haul's (just like London's buses of old, vehicles which also lasted 20 years+) and just kept going, AEC built very sturdy vehicles......

[@omashaushalt]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus Thank you for the information! Yes, you can see that the vehicle has the style of the 1960s! ;O)

[@MrBonafida]

The Ladders were Merryweather built, when they were still at Greenwich

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@MrBonafida Yes, they kept those ladders until withdrawl. Good kit from what the fireman used to tell us.

[@LONpaulDON]

I'd like to see a video of the old Dennis pump escape fire engines

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I can only upload what films i have from back then.......most of the filming focused on chasing AEC TL's plus whatever else was around.....

[@LONpaulDON]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus I wasn't asking you to upload any videos Soi Buakhao I was speaking in genaral your videos of AEC TLs were so good I'd like to see some of other appliances uploaded by someone else

[@robbiethebruce6488]

Best to watch early series of London's Burning for old style Pump Escapes, when they used Shelvoke & Drury appliances, before changing to Dennis RS then, finally Volvo FL6.

[@hayleywilliams8750]

Does anyone know how much they are? i would want to buy one. i love old fire appliances, and it bring me joy because i dont have any friends ever have and probably never will

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I sem to recall most of these last TL's were scrapped sadly......

[@colinloc]

I think that sometimes the ladders were even older than the appliances

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Quite possibly, if the ladders were of a good quality and only the appliance they were fitted to was life expired then yes, they may well have been fitted to these machines.