Classy Cadillacs

Extremely Original '68 Superior Combo

Beautiful original '68 Superior combination.
 

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I was fooling around in some old converted photo files yesterday afternoon and came across this beauty. It's a 1964 Cadillac Miller-Meteor straight ambulance operated by the Lorain (Ohio) Fire Department as Rescue 21.

A little backstory here. Lorain was the home of a large Ford Assembly Plant for many years. Ford Falcons and Mercury Comets were produced there, followed by the Econoline when they were introduced. Prior to this Cadillac, L.F.D. ran all Ford ambulances and staff cars. The Caddy replaced a '62 Ford Siebert shown in the second photo. The big Ford replaced a '61 Country Sedan that operated as Rescue 23. Ford had an absolute hissy fit when the Caddy was purchased, but no Ford alternatives were available. I believe that they purchased one more Cadillac in '67 or '68, a Miller-Meteor 48" unit. After that, it was back to Fords in the shape Econolines.
 

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Another Maryland Guardian, from Charles County, MD, Rescue Squad.

(Boy, I'd hate for my nickname to be "Snorter"....)
 

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These photos are marked September, 1957:

Fleetwood, PA F.C. No. 1
1957 Eureka/Cadillac
(SL collection)
 

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1968 mm

It's been some time since I lasted posted these photos. These were taken one morning around 1984 after she had been out on a call in the night. I attempted to purchase this car but the FD sold her to a local postal carrier and you can guess the rest of the story. The mileage at this time was around 50K.
 

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maybe a C/B Olds was last?

We operated our '73 C/B Olds 48" ambulance in Cerro Gordo, IL, (east of Decatur, IL) until 1984..........this unit now owned by Gene Smith. Dan B
 
Wellsboro, PA's S&S fleet

1. The beacon on the '67 is mounted much farther forward than were most on S&S hightops of this period. Most of them, the majority of which were Dietz #211s, were mounted at the center of the roof. The pedestal-mounted C6B is unusual, as well; most of these used S&S's optional "nested" (flush mounted to cab roof; Federal base not used) mount. What are those things on the side door...exterior nameplate mounts, maybe? Check out the three shoreline outlets. Someone had to make sure these cars were completely
unplugged before leaving the house!

2. The '73 sports a Unity #RV-46 "Spitfire" beacon as well as corner strobes...an obvious sign of too many people on the vehicle committee. (A camel is a horse designed by committee!)

3. This '75 "camel" appears to be a clone of the '73, except for the blanked-out rear side window. Perhaps this car had cabinetry over the left wheelhouse?

(SL collection)
Steve, may I please have your permission to use all of these Wellsboro cars, and the photographs of them in my upcoming book I am writing on the S&S Company History? Also, does anyone else have any additional photos and/or information regarding the Wellsboro fleet? I am working on correspondence with the Wellsboro, PA Fire Protection District and Rescue Services to see if they have any information regarding their former S&S rescue ambulances, which were known loyal S&S customers, and their rigs pretty much checked all the boxes and added many additional customer features and options on all their cars.

Steve, your posts are always so thoroughly researched, documented, and meticulously written that it would be difficult if not impossible to re-write them in my book so I will have to figure out the correct method of directly quoting your words, and citing the source(s) of them correctly without plagiarizing. I will have to include an index, and bibliography with massive footnotes which has me thinking of creating this book as an annotated history vs. having a massive bibliography appended to the end of the book.
 
Wellsboro, PA's S&S fleet

3. This '75 "camel" appears to be a clone of the '73, except for the blanked-out rear side window. Perhaps this car had cabinetry over the left wheelhouse?

(SL collection)
This '75 "camel" appears to be a very well used, rode hard and put away wet example of the otherwise impeccable Wellsboro, PA Fire Department fleet of S&S units. Note how 'grungy' it looks, especially in the rear quarter panel; it is also missing a wheel cover, one of the shoreline outlets has been left open, and there appears to be some minor front-end damage as the front license plate is warped/dented, and one of the fog lights appears to have been bent inward. These girls must have really had to earn their keep!

(Inserted photo was originally posted by Steve Loftin earlier in this thread, and credit belongs to SL Collection)75 SS 55 Wellsboro PA_001.jpg
 
Well, I guess not...



As can be seen here, the one I drove had different window decals. The Q2B isn't original; she originally had a different siren behind the grille. The beacon is a Super and the front tunnels are Solar Rays.

(SL photo, taken in 1977 with a 110 camera)
Interesting that this '65 S&S Parkway low-top has the S&S front tunnels that their hightop counterparts usually sported, instead of the usual lowtop fyrballs. This rig does have fyrballs in back, however. I think the Federal Q2B mounted behind the Super beacon looks rather outlandish, although it provides more front coverage of the beacon.

(SL photo, taken in 1977 with a 110 camera)65 Parkway_001.jpg
 
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