Me and my machine at our first group squirt. Sleap Airfield, in the rain.

On the line at Shobdon

Shobdon's SO at whose kind invitation we were allowed onto the apron to line up with the duty crew. The SIII FC behind is his personal machine (Now sold), a fairly standard ex Army machine.

Shobdon's Fire 1, the ex Birmingham Airport RIV and famous subject of Ralph Horton's model

The line up of 3 TACRs and 1 Commando at Gaydon Range Rover Day 2005

The Swiss railways Commando. Plenty of lockers but nothing in them.

Anyone recognise that small bunch of anoraks standing by the first TACR? The chief anorak in particular?

The East Lindsay Fire Protection Crew take a break. 300 gallon tank and a portable pump. What more do you need? Newark Show 2005

A rainy afternoon in Skegness. The small airfield there operates this ex DERA machine. Apparently it is very useful for putting out fires on the adjacent caravan park! It wins the prize for the vehicle with most moss growing on it.

Twin fillers on the roof of the Skegness machine. Big one for water, small one for foam.

I know a lot of you use your fire appliances as an excuse to get away from your wives and girlfriends, but as this picture shows, they can be quite useful.

Cosford Airport 2001. My first ever show. Where I met John Arthur for the first and only time.

Another of my favourite pictures. The TACR and Canberra at Cosford 04

This is 'my' machine in action, when it was still based at Shoreham Airport

At the Gaydon Land Rover Run 2005, alongside the machine that would today I guess replace the TACR.

'Er indoors' on the hose again, this time at Gaydon.

The original Commando goes through it's paces. Gaydon 04

Shorehams new(er) TACR doing it's stuff. Picture pinched from their website

Something a bit bigger. Wick Airport Fire Service

TACR pump exposed

Old Wardens TACR locker, which gave me inspiration for the lockers in my machine. Vehicle now resides in Holland

Old Warden Airfield August 1992

My favourite picture of my old machine when still in service at Shoreham. Picture given to me by the late John Arthur.

It was a friends sons birthday, as he is apparenlty a Fireman Sam nut, we turned up, blue lights ablaze to give him a treat. We believe they all enjoyed it, especially the dads.

As the birthday party picture seemed to be the most popular in my album I thought I'd add another. The birthday boy gets his treat! They were incredibly well behaved.

Now the dad's line up for their go. Difficult to decide who were most excited.

As an ex biker Cynthia couldn't resist a go on this ex MOD Police escort bike.

Derby 2002. I'm in there somewhere.

This is what I get up to sometimes when I'm not photographing Land Rovers

I like Land Rovers, Cynthia prefers this!

This is us in the Brecon Beacons, in the 90 I rebuilt from an insurance write-off. Yes I know it isn't a Fire Engine, but Walter said this was my album and I could put what I like in it!

Well come on then. Is it left or right?

My patented TACR spare wheel carrier. The one I should have had that day I had the blowout on the motorway, and no spare wheel!

Me again (It is my album alright!) trying to look serious at Gaydon

Dutch MFV photographed in Carmichaels yard *

Pinched this from the Guernsey Airport website.

That's me on the extreme left, working at Simon Engineering in the early 70s. The guy on the extreme right is Colin Cartwright, chief draughtsman and later export rep. Next to him is a chap from the Fire Service College at Morton in the Marsh (anyone know his name?). The others are a group of overseas students from the college, visiting Simon for a day as part of their course.

Here's another blast from the past. This is my good mate Jeremy (GEM) Marsh checking the controls of a Simon Snorkel SS220 destined for export in the old factory building at Dudley. Incidentally, we never even considered safety harnesses in those days despite the fact that one of the engineers was bounced out of a cage at a great height! (Note the Square 8s Walt)

Sleap Airfield December 2004. Prior to Wellesbourne this was the most TACRs we had managed to gather together in one place at the same time. I remember it was bloody cold!

Bembridge Airport. Isle of Wight. Picture courtesy of John Hook DAFO.

RAF Valley

RAF Valley

RAF Cosford 2004

TACR1s. Cosford 2004

Kemble Air Show 03. Mutual interest between crews of TACR and RB44.

On the line at Kemble 04, at the kind invitation of Alan Hughes.

Fixing Paul's pump. This is when Walt and I went to help Paul Wrist fix his pump. Which we nearly did. The dark creature lurking in the comparative warmth of the cab is me, those are Paul's legs underneath so Walt must have been on the camera. It was freeeezing!

If you've never seen a TACR2 pump drive shaft exposed this is it. UJ on the left, then the driving cog, then the main bearing and finally the mounting bracket on the right. A very heavy unit. In this case the bearings were shot. Fortunatley Paul had a spare in his garage. How many of us can say that?