TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sun Apr 11, 2010 7:00 am

I just purchased this fire truck and from all i can find it is one of only two ever made. I spoke with R. Darley, the grandson of the founder of the Darley fire truck Co. and he confirmed they built only two of these for Kiddieland outside of Chicago, IL. If anyone has pictures of this I would greatly appreciate it. I will put the only pic of the one I have on here so you can see whar it used to look like.
THEN

[/img]

Sun Apr 11, 2010 7:15 am

thats a pretty sweet ride...what are you going to do with it?

Sun Apr 11, 2010 7:19 am

YES...thank you for unearthing this. Several years ago, I posted on TS about this, asking if anyone knew anything about it, but didn't get any hits.

My ex-wife grew up in Chicago, and either she or one of her sisters rode one of these as a little kid. They had 2 or 3 pictures of kids in the back of it, about to go for a ride. None of the pictures showed the complete truck, or even enough of it for most people to know what it was based on, but I saw enough details to know it was a single cab.

I always regretted NOT copying those pics when I had the chance. Please post more pics of this interesting single cab. What are your plans for it?

Sun Apr 11, 2010 7:26 am

Neat pics!

Sun Apr 11, 2010 7:33 am

that is very cool. Hopefully you plan on restoring it back to kiddieland glory.

Sun Apr 11, 2010 7:37 am

Choice! When can I ride, huh. Can I sit up front. Can I bring my cat. Can I can I. I'll be good. I won't spill ice cream. I won't yell. I'll be good. So when, huh. Can I.

Sun Apr 11, 2010 8:36 am

Did you buy this at the Kiddieland auction?
I remember as a kid there being a few of them (maybe one was Crosley-based), I see in the old photo there is a #3 on the cab, maybe others survived? Very cool, brings back memories!

Jim

Sun Apr 11, 2010 8:54 am

wow that's weird...

Sun Apr 11, 2010 9:14 am

Gonna look sweet slammed on some earlys :lol:

Sun Apr 11, 2010 9:34 am

Heres #2, taken on one of the last days it was open.

http://www.kiddieland.com/history.asp
Black and white picture above.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stormdog42/4222922666/
Another picture.

From what Ive read, it was used for carting kids around for their birthday.
Mind sharing how much you got it for?

Sun Apr 11, 2010 9:54 am

Weird but cool....

Sun Apr 11, 2010 10:40 am

Nice find! Have fun with it.

Sun Apr 11, 2010 11:16 am

Sweet :) Love the history. Ex volunteer Firefighter,so rings my bell, Awesome find love the photo picking up kids for party

Sun Apr 11, 2010 12:46 pm

vw7266 wrote: thats a pretty sweet ride...what are you going to do with it?
I plan to restore it back to original kiddieland look, I just need more photos of the one with the black roof. They had two of them.

Sun Apr 11, 2010 12:48 pm

BarryL wrote: Choice! When can I ride, huh. Can I sit up front. Can I bring my cat. Can I can I. I'll be good. I won't spill ice cream. I won't yell. I'll be good. So when, huh. Can I.

Sure when it is done.

Sun Apr 11, 2010 12:50 pm

vws-microcars4jim wrote: Did you buy this at the Kiddieland auction?
I remember as a kid there being a few of them (maybe one was Crosley-based), I see in the old photo there is a #3 on the cab, maybe others survived? Very cool, brings back memories!

Jim

No this one has been down here in north Louisiana for awhile. The other one was not sold at auction, it wasn't offered for sale the owners of kiddiland kept it for themselves.

Sun Apr 11, 2010 2:27 pm

thats cool! you have to love finding a bus with a great history... please post progress as it happens.

Sun Apr 11, 2010 2:48 pm

When I was a little kid, my family made an annual trek out to visit my mom's side of the family in Denver. There were TWO amusement parks,
both in north Denver, Lakeside Amusement Park and Elitch's Gardens.

Elitch's, if I'm remembering correctly, had a ride-along fire engine just like this. It drove you around the grounds, and you either sat inside the bed or stood on the running board on the back. I remember riding on the
back of it when we visited the park when I was about ten yrs old. That would have been 1957.

It was built on a VW pickup chassis. Anybody from Denver back in the day remember that??

Sun Apr 11, 2010 3:06 pm

Here's one from Douglas County, WA

Sun Apr 11, 2010 3:51 pm

you need to hang whats left of that ladder up in your game room perhaps some other bits and pieces. perhaps you could partner with a local firefighters group, they could help in exchange for use at events. nice unique truck.