By Ron Heal
During the 1950s and through the 1960s FWD tractor-drawn aerials (TDAs) were familiar pieces of fire apparatus responding to fires in the city of Chicago, Illinois. The Chicago Fire Department placed orders for a total of 25 of these rigs in 1949, 1954, and 1956. These TDAs featured 85-foot wooden two-section ladders and full complements of ground ladders. The main section of the ladder was spring-raised. The fly section was extended by a hand crank and roller system. The turntable was also rotated by hand cranks. A full complement of solid beam wood ground ladders included a 50-foot Bangor ladder with supporting tormenter poles; two 38-foot extension ladders; one each 30-,26-, 20-, and 16-foot straight ladders; a 16-, 12-, 10-, and eight-foot roof ladder; two 16-foot pompier ladders; and a 10-foot stripping ladder. The trucks also carried six axes and as many as sixteen pike poles. The aerial ladder truck tractors were powered by Waukesha model 145 GKB 240-hp gas engines. By the late 1960s Chicago was moving toward rear-mount steel aerials. One by one the retired FWD units found their way to the “boneyard” at the Chicago Fire Department shops at 3100 W. 31st Street in Chicago. Here the fate of aging fire apparatus would be determined over a period of time. Often the shops personnel would remove components that could be used on repairs to in-service apparatus. From time to time, the city would conduct a sealed bid sale to reduce the number of units in the boneyard. That was what happened in 1977 when a young Roman Catholic priest, Father Tom Franzman, learned that five of the long-retired FWD TDA rigs would be sold.
Father Franzman was ordained in 1970. His first assignment was to Fox Lake, Illinois. Early in his time in Fox Lake, Father Tom was given the opportunity to be the chaplain for the Fox Lake Fire Department. While Father Tom was in seminary at Mundelein, Illinois, he had served on the seminary fire brigade. There they had the use of a 1949 International/Darley pumper purchased from the Countryside Fire Protection District. The brigade would respond to grass fires on the seminary property. Father Tom had always been interested in anything mechanical. That extended to the care and operation of the International/Darley. The brigade also practiced with the Mundelein Fire Department. The chaplain duties with Fox Lake Fire Department lasted for seven years. In 1978 Father Tom was assigned to the Cathedral in Chicago, where he would serve until 1990. During that time Father Tom met and got to know many members of the Chicago Fire Department.
1977 would be a time when Father Tom and a vintage 1954 FWD TDA would connect. The Chicago Fire Department was selling five of the vintage aerial ladder trucks in “as-is” condition. Father Tom had visited the “boneyard” and found one combination that was more complete than some of the other units. He had no idea what to bid. He heard that often the old rigs would be run over the scales and sold for scrap for a mere $50.00. With this knowledge, Father Tom submitted a sealed bid. His bid of $75.00 awarded him Truck 8’s tractor and Truck 53’s trailer!
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