1928 Seagrave 6CT
David W. Horsnall
1928 Seagrave Serial #53165
1928 Seagrave formerly owned by the City of Virginia, Minnesota has only 3,218 original miles. The City of Virginia was heated by a central steam system. Since steam was widely available to the citizens of Virginia there was very few who needed a fireplace or furnace for heat. Since fireplace embers were not being produced and chimneys were not clogged, the engine saw little or no work and therefore, accumulated very few miles.
The engine is basically the most original Seagrave fire engine known to exist. The engine still maintains its original motor, drive train, and most of all its paint and gold leaf. The nickel finish has been preserved as well as all the appliances. The windshield was an original order as well as the electric wipers.
Powered by the immense "F" series motor and rated at 80 horses the engine moves along at about 20 miles per hour. The motor runs a single dual magneto set up and this allows the rig to be started on battery and then switched to magneto 1 or 2 if the driver, officer, or department required.
The small cups on the sides of the cylinders are for cold weather starting. When weather was at its worst the chauffer would add a small amount of gasoline into each of these cups and open the pet-cock and allow fuel to enter directly into the cylinder. The engine does have a choke, but when these rigs needed gas it sometimes wasn't enough.
The rig also is unique for the fact that it has wood artillery wheels and is chain drive. In 1928 manufacturing had turned to the use of steel wheels for the strength and ease of use. They also had shifted design to the new "Worm Drive" rear. Virginia however liked the wood artillery wheels and chain drive for the height that they gave. Dealing with large amounts of snow each year, the fire department wanted to make sure that their rig wouldn't get stuck in the drifts of snow. They wanted it and they got it.
The engine also saw service at the Big Balsam Lake Resort in Northern Minnesota. It was put to use protecting vacationers during their stays at the Lake.
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Watch a short video of Dave out with the "Old Virginia". The engine wasn't built with the conventional "Buckeye" exhaust whistle, but instead used the great sounding flywheel siren.
Pump Test Report
The great thing with this engine is that is has many original documents. The documents include pump blueprints and an order booklet that contains 7 pages of stock and specialty equipment.
With the big 1000 gallon per minute pump the engine proved to be a huge asset to the City of Virginia. It seems that the North-Central areas of the country are very susceptible to flooding. Twice in the engines career it pumped for more than 100 hours to prevent water from entering the Cities main powerhouse and then again to keep the local telephone office dry.
Dave recently participated in the SPAAMFAA National Muster in Syracuse, NY.
See David W. Horsnall's other Seagrave
