It\u2019s back to the future for Upper Darby Fire Department.<\/p>\n
The fire department has recently placed an order for a new tiller ladder truck that will serve the township\u2019s east end, something not seen in the township for many years.<\/p>\n
Assistant Chief Robert Callahan said the department had a tiller truck running out of the West Chester Pike station about 40 years ago but sold it and went to rear-mounted ladder trucks.<\/p>\n
Recently the township ordered a new pumper and a 100-foot Tractor Drawn Aerial from Pierce Manufacturing costing in the range of $4 million, Callahan said. Issues in firetruck manufacturing have caused extensive delays so Upper Darby expects a four-year wait to see new trucks.<\/p>\n
Callahan said to prepare for that time the department has entered into an agreement with Five Points Fire Company in New Castle to \u201cswap\u201d ladder trucks.<\/p>\n
Upper Darby will take their 1991 Pierce LTI American LaFrance tiller and Five Points will take Station 37\u2019s 1996 Seagrave rear mounted aerial.<\/p>\n
Officials at Five Points Fire Company said that due to staffing issues at the combination career-volunteer department, it was becoming increasingly difficult to staff it with two drivers.<\/p>\n
Callahan said crews will train on the tiller, which will start off in a reserve status while their new unit is on order.<\/p>\n
They recently held a formal class for drivers. Though the tiller is longer than a rear-mounted ladder truck it is more maneuverable allowing it to better get down tight streets in the township\u2019s eastern end, Callahan said.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia has a number of tiller trucks and in recent years Gladwyne and Kennett also have had tiller trucks.<\/p>\n
Callahan said both trucks were reviewed by each department with some minor repairs performed.<\/p>\n
A distinctive requirement of driving the back of a tiller truck is the driver must turn in the opposite direction the truck is going.<\/p>\n
The used tiller is expected to head to Upper Darby on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s back to the future for Upper Darby Fire Department. The fire department has recently placed an order…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[212,182,139,28,210,147,149,148,150],"class_list":["post-320973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-delaware-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-dtd","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}