*UPDATE* 1955 GMC Carryall Ambulace-WBFD
Happy Easter Monday everybody. Hope you find yourselves full of ham and surrounded by love ones. Today, I have some new information on one of the Christopher ambulances I have been trying to track down, the 1955 GMC Carryall that was owned by the WBFD. To properly present all the information, I am going to list the history of this particular ambulance in a timeline. This is the ambulance I have had the most success in tracking, and therefore is my best led. Anyways, here it is
The story Of this ambulance starts between the years 1955-1957, in New York City. At this time, The fairly new Coachbuilding company, Christopher, started to roll out their new Res Q apparatus, based off the 1955 gmc carryall. The West Bend Fire Dept, out of Wisconsin, was one of the first fire departments to order these vehicles. Because of this, the ambulance that WBFD ordered was chosen as the vehicle Christopher would use in most of their promotional materials. I the add below, you can clearly see the WBFD logo on the rear of the ambulance.
I have recently emailed the west bend fire dept asking for any info they may have on the ambulance. I was able to talk to current betallion cheif John Sparts. According to him, the ambulance was in use for about ten years by the WBFD, until at wich time the fire dept ordered new ambulances. At this time, the ambulance was retired from the fire dept, and was then Used by the West bend Parks and recreation Department.
Once in posession of west bends park and rec department, the ambulance was painted dark green, and recrested with their logo.
After finding out that WB parks and rec were the second owners, I sent an email to them as well. I was able to talk to Craig Hoeppner, the director of WB parks/rec. Unfortunatley, not a lot of info exists in their records about the ambulance. He was able to tell me that past employees do remember using the vehicle, but no active employees have ever used it.
After West bend parks and Rec was done with the ambulance, no one knows quite where the ambulance resided. There were no records depicting who bought the ambulance after. I contacted the Washington county historical society to see if they had any records. I spoke with acting curator Heather Pryzbylski, but she said that she did not have very much records of the 1950s onward, but would look into it.
Though the ambulance was lost to the records for a period of time, it did resurface in 2009 in western Massatutsis, in a craigslist add.
Todd Merrifield, member of PCS, talked to the poster of the add in 2008, named Brian. Apparently, the craigslist add was not to sell the ambulance, but to seek money to restore it for a museum. At the moment, no museums in Massatutsis have this ambulance in their posession, so it is not restored yet. I do have reason to believe that this Brian fellow still owns the ambulance, because during my conversation with John Sparts, he told me that he knows the person who is restoring it. He has not let me know who it is, but hopefully Brian continued in his pursuit.
I hope this has been helpful. A location is close, I can feel it. Until nex update, Clay.
Timeline of the 1955 WBFD GMC Carryall
Happy Easter Monday everybody. Hope you find yourselves full of ham and surrounded by love ones. Today, I have some new information on one of the Christopher ambulances I have been trying to track down, the 1955 GMC Carryall that was owned by the WBFD. To properly present all the information, I am going to list the history of this particular ambulance in a timeline. This is the ambulance I have had the most success in tracking, and therefore is my best led. Anyways, here it is
1955-1957
The story Of this ambulance starts between the years 1955-1957, in New York City. At this time, The fairly new Coachbuilding company, Christopher, started to roll out their new Res Q apparatus, based off the 1955 gmc carryall. The West Bend Fire Dept, out of Wisconsin, was one of the first fire departments to order these vehicles. Because of this, the ambulance that WBFD ordered was chosen as the vehicle Christopher would use in most of their promotional materials. I the add below, you can clearly see the WBFD logo on the rear of the ambulance.
1957-1965
I have recently emailed the west bend fire dept asking for any info they may have on the ambulance. I was able to talk to current betallion cheif John Sparts. According to him, the ambulance was in use for about ten years by the WBFD, until at wich time the fire dept ordered new ambulances. At this time, the ambulance was retired from the fire dept, and was then Used by the West bend Parks and recreation Department.
1965-Early 1970's
Once in posession of west bends park and rec department, the ambulance was painted dark green, and recrested with their logo.
After finding out that WB parks and rec were the second owners, I sent an email to them as well. I was able to talk to Craig Hoeppner, the director of WB parks/rec. Unfortunatley, not a lot of info exists in their records about the ambulance. He was able to tell me that past employees do remember using the vehicle, but no active employees have ever used it.
Early 1970's-2009
After West bend parks and Rec was done with the ambulance, no one knows quite where the ambulance resided. There were no records depicting who bought the ambulance after. I contacted the Washington county historical society to see if they had any records. I spoke with acting curator Heather Pryzbylski, but she said that she did not have very much records of the 1950s onward, but would look into it.
2009-Present day(28/03/2016)
Though the ambulance was lost to the records for a period of time, it did resurface in 2009 in western Massatutsis, in a craigslist add.
I hope this has been helpful. A location is close, I can feel it. Until nex update, Clay.
