Old Equipment Gets A New Life

I was in Arizona all last week on business. While driving from Tucson to Phoenix to catch my flight, I received a phone call from an old friend. He told me he was attending an estate sale in the city of Mountain View (CA), and found some items he thought I may be interested in. I was able to quickly establish that it was the estate of the late Bill Field. Bill was the former owner of Field's Ambulance Service which was founded in 1953, and operated until he sold it in the late 70's. His service was contracted to serve as the emergency ambulance for the cities of Sunnyvale and Mountian View, both in the heart of the "Silicon Valley".

As our phone call progressed, my friend described the ambulance related items he had discovered. They included tachographs, Dynamed jump boxes, 02 equipment, shoulder emblems, and a host of other goodies.

I had him buy most of the things he found, but I was most excited by the tachographs. One has a stainless steel housing with a cut out for a Cole-Hersee battery switch. It is an earlier model with records up to 90mph, plus time, and when the emergency equipment is activated. The other is a later model that records speeds up to 120mph as well as the electrical events.

If my memory serves me correctly, the tachograph housing appears to be built by Miller-Meteor. I plan on installing it with the 120mph tach, and mount my NOS Cole-Hersee to it as well. The other mount is a cast aluminum piece that must have been designed for an under dash installation.

Additional photos:

Notice the helmets on the floor, and between the jump seats in the Ambulance. These were painted gold and blue, and required wear when the ambulance was moving for any reason.

nice find, some neat old equipment. we never used anything like this around here that I know of. we normally just wrote down the mileage on the odometer at the end of each run. we would put it on the start on the next trip ticket. so do you know if the ran another cable back up the the car speedometer. I would think they would looking down would be a sure fire disaster.

So, you're in Tucson and you don't come by? I'm taking you out of my will.

John Dorgan said:

So, you're in Tucson and you don't come by? I'm taking you out of my will.

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Hi John - I was operating on a VERY tight schedule with multiple appointments during my one day Tucson visit. Had I had the time, I would have loved to have seen you and Helen. I'll no doubt be passing through your area again in the next few months, and will make sure I make the time to stop by and say hello.

Robert

John ED Renstrom said:

nice find, some neat old equipment. we never used anything like this around here that I know of. we normally just wrote down the mileage on the odometer at the end of each run. we would put it on the start on the next trip ticket. so do you know if the ran another cable back up the the car speedometer. I would think they would looking down would be a sure fire disaster.

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Most of the ambulances I worked in over the years had dual mph readings from the tachographs and the speedometer, as it was not uncommon to find the former mounted behind the driver's seat. The tachograph served as the "black box" for ambulances as well as other emergency and commercial vehicles. It recorded the speed, time, and when the lights and siren were active. The paper disks were changed every 24 hours, and the, crew, unit number and date were written on them. The tachograph recordings could save you in court, or hang you.

Robert Shepard said:

If my memory serves me correctly, the tachograph housing appears to be built by Miller-Meteor. I plan on installing it with the 120mph tach, and mount my NOS Cole-Hersee to it as well.

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Is there room for the Mastr II scan head on top of it?

Robert Shepard said:

Most of the ambulances I worked in over the years had dual mph readings from the tachographs and the speedometer, as it was not uncommon to find the former mounted behind the driver's seat. The tachograph served as the "black box" for ambulances as well as other emergency and commercial vehicles. It recorded the speed, time, and when the lights and siren were active. The paper disks were changed every 24 hours, and the, crew, unit number and date were written on them. The tachograph recordings could save you in court, or hang you.

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And then somebody invented the "Fail Safe Driving System". Boy was that ever a treat. It had G force sensors for front to back and side to side sway. You had to record the number of counts to miles driven to come up with a drivers score. They said that it saved on the wear and tear on the vehicles, made for s smoother ride, and prevented a lot of crashes. The administrators loved it. As for the crews, what a pain. If you had too many counts per miles driven, you had to go to more corrective drivers training. It got to be kind of funny to come into the garage and see the truck up on a jack with the transmission in drive and the wheels turning to add miles on the odometer to improve your average. That fell out of favor many years ago.