Stepjam

For those of you who remember the classic American LaFrance Century series, and who were as deeply disappointed as I was by Code 3's awful attempt to replicate them, have I got a "kitbash" for you!
To my eyes and many others, the Code 3 model wasn't even close to the original LaFrance. In fact, Code 3's botched Century, followed by an even worse 900 series tiller, are what put the first nails in their coffin. The most obvious flaws with the Code 3 were that the cab had a flat roof, a flat nose, and a straight windshield. A friend on a hobby board that I belong to suggested "squeezing" the Code 3 cab in a vise to get the roof curve. So I figured "why not?" and tried it.
The vise certainly improved it, but I had to fashion a brow over the windshield to catch the tapering effect of the Century's classic lines. Next, I had to grind down the original cab (the Code 3 was too tall) and widen the doors by filling the gaps in the casting, and scoring new ones with a razor saw. Finally, I had to scratch build a whole new windshield. Anyway, I have been pecking away at this master for a while, and it's just about ready for resin casting.

This is a factory-fresh Code 3, which any old time buff can see is a disaster.

This is after I stripped one and gave it a squeeze in a vise, then added the stiffener around the rear of the cab and the brow to the roofline, over the windshield.

The cab is beginning to look better. I filed down the original windshield, but ultimately would replace it with a scratch-built one.

This is the new nose and roofline, and the new scratch-built windshield. I am going to vacuum-form a new windshield from this one, and thus have a nice clean copy. The crappy one-piece clear parts that were headlights have been removed and the holes filled in. The front nozzle and trash line tray have also been removed. I dumped the clunky and out of scale original bumper, the new bumper is scratch-built.

A lot of adjustments were necessary to get the modified cab to work with what's left of the original Code 3 model. With installed wipers and new body mouldings, the cab is ready for casting. The windshield with the wipers will be vacuum-formed as one piece.

These are 2.4mm Swarovski crystal rhinestones, which on the final casting will serve as headlights. They are a big improvement over the plastic parts that Code 3 originally used. The "jewelled headlights" were one of the things about the old Corgis that really charmed me as a child.

I haven't cast or painted it yet, but I was curious to get an idea of how it will look. This is a simple photo manipulation using Windows Paint.

Just yesterday on the Taconic, I passed a guy taking a long pull on his beer (a Corona, I think) while cruising along at 50+. I wonder if he had his cell phone on, too?

They also make their telephone poles out of concrete. It is not because of fire, is because they cut down most of their forrests to burn, build ships etc. and how much was destroyed in multiple wars. That is the main reason that 200 years ago they wanted to control No. America...timber.

In the wake of the Carmel tragedy, I asked some questions about the apparent fire vulnerabilities of lightweight home construction. There were some really informative replies, too. But the thread was removed, I guess someone took offense to it.

Do my eyes deceive, or is that Station 10 in the first picture? Talk about first due!

Do my eyes deceive, or is that Station 10 in the first picture? Talk about first due!

Do my eyes deceive, or is that Station 10 in the first picture? Talk about first due!

Do my eyes deceive, or is that Station 10 in the first picture? Talk about first due!

I forgot to add that my thoughts and prayers are with the Trooper. He used deadly force, and even if it's justifiable it is something he will have to live with.

There are many ways that lightweight construction endangers human lives as opposed to "legacy" construction.
Trusses: by now we should all be very familiar with the dangers of lightweight wood trusses. These along with sheathing act as a system to form roofs and/or floors. The trusses themselves by nature allow for fire travel and spread, are thinner and smaller dimensionally thus allowing for faster burn through/failure, and generally fail as a system. The truss holds up the sheathing, the sheathing holds the trusses together and in place, it's like a house of cards.

Light weight carrying timbers: large dimensional wood is expensive, so we have engineer lumber using small chips and particles pressed and glued together to make large carrying timbers. Under normal loading conditions these allow for greater spans between walls and hold up very well. Under fire conditions their surface to mass ratio along with the glue allows them to fall apart and burn far more rapidly than dimensional lumber. Also since they can allow for larger spans, we're seeing larger rooms and less compartmentalization in far greater numbers, as what was once a sign of the rich is now affordable to far more homeowners.
Cheap sheathing: OSB, chip board, particle board, you name it, it's cheaper to stick little pieces together with glue than use true boarding boards or even plywood. Money saved on sheathing which the homeowner never sees can be used to reduce costs or allow for upgrades. This stuff fails under heat faster than legacy materials again due to surface to mass and glue failure.
Vinyl siding and worse yet, soffits. A very quick way for fire to get from floor to attic today is vinyl soffit covering. With modern construction knowledge demanding ventilation from soffit to ridge, the open air space in the soffit used to be plywood or boards with screening between to allow air travel, Now, to make that worse, we use vinyl covering as it's preformed, fast, doesn't need to be painted and cheap. This allows fire from failed windows or outside fire to rapidly extend into the attic space with some fuel at the entry point to speed the process!
Energy efficiency. Tighter houses heat cheaper, which also means they heat faster and hold heat better leading to faster flashover if there's enough air to support the combustion, if not, it can lead to greater backdraft potential.
And of course, while not part of the construction specifically, the fuel load of today is far more than ever before. Nearly everything we buy today is made of petroleum based plastics and far less natural materials, allow for far faster heat release rates and greater BTU's per pound.

In all our stuff burns much hotter, much faster and in far less safe homes, than ever before. The only viable answer in sprinklers.
I don't beleive the insurance lobby is against sprinklers, they protect them from much greater payouts and in our state they've found that 99% offer a reduction in fire insurance premiums(5-15%), though in the grand scheme it's not enough to be a selling point. The fact is, and I'm sure BNECHIS can speak far more eloquently on the subject, that insurance companies, crazy as it sounds are heavily regulated. That is to say they can't just start charging everyone more for not having sprinklers, they can offer reductions in cost, but that's taking money away from them. If they could charge more for those failing to build new with sprinklers, that'd be huge.

Not to hijack this thread or anything but I think Mexico has made great progress in reclaiming their land and then some. Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Mount Kisco, Brewster, Port Chester, Spring Valley, and all the other places overrun with illegal Mexican and Central/South American aliens.

We started requiring sprinklers in one and two family dwellings using the Life Safety Code as the "driver". The training issue is nearly non-existent in my area. In the last 4 months I've gone to a local plumbing supply house where they've hosted two different system designers certification programs, in both cases the class was less than 4 hours and myself, our COD, the local Code Officer and his assistant have all become certified installers, along with a room full of plumbers. Both classes were free and gives the installer access to certified designers who get the home plans and design the system and give the installer a sprinkler plan, then make a single site visit to ensure you competed the work as they designed and the system is certified. As for homeowner maintenance, it's very limited. If you're on city water it's really maintenance free, unlike commericial systems with quarterly and annual inspections, testing etc. On a well/tank system you might need to verify your pump is working but that's about it. The new CPVC and PEX systems are far easier and quicker to install and the design is such to make them more attractive rather than onerous systems the homeowner need worry about.
The two main impediments are misinformation on the part of the home builders/real estate brokers part and the fire service for not being educated enough ourselves to convince our own and the public that this is the best way to minimize injuries and deaths for everyone involved.

Here is an article from 2007 in Firehouse on how light weigh truss are built.....
http://www.firehouse.com/article/10499153/how-the-lightweight-truss-is-built
As we know they are quite dangerous!

In short, yes to all. I'm also not a carpenter but I'll briefly explain.
Lightweight truss construction in modern houses, while economically efficient and structurally sound under ideal conditions, provides a higher surface area to mass ratio in regards to fire development and spread. In addition, the steel "gusset plates" that affix the different parts of the trusses do are frequently not reinforced with nails. When the metal heats up and expands these plates can pop out, meaning the truss fails. Since trusses are built using triangles its pretty simple to visualize what a triangle looks like when one side falls off.
You're pretty much spot on about the sprinklers. Or at least that's the argument being made.

One thing that the usually under-informed Journal News omits from the article is Indian Point's emphasis on fire prevention. This is accomplished through housekeeping, chemical controls, proper storage of combustibles, and standing fire watches during any hot work, such as cutting and grinding. Most of the critical areas are covered by either an automated deluge system (sprinklers? HAH!) or a CO2 system. The Fire Brigade is also very effective. I'm sure the Journal News is hoping that its readers will draw the conclusion that Indian Point is defenseless against fire.

One thing that the usually under-informed Journal News omits from the article is Indian Point's emphasis on fire prevention. This is accomplished through housekeeping, chemical controls, proper storage of combustibles, and standing fire watches during any hot work, such as cutting and grinding. Most of the critical areas are covered by either an automated deluge system (sprinklers? HAH!) or a CO2 system. The Fire Brigade is also very effective. I'm sure the Journal News is hoping that its readers will draw the conclusion that Indian Point is defenseless against fire.

One thing that the usually under-informed Journal News omits from the article is Indian Point's emphasis on fire prevention. This is accomplished through housekeeping, chemical controls, proper storage of combustibles, and standing fire watches during any hot work, such as cutting and grinding. Most of the critical areas are covered by either an automated deluge system (sprinklers? HAH!) or a CO2 system. The Fire Brigade is also very effective. I'm sure the Journal News is hoping that its readers will draw the conclusion that Indian Point is defenseless against fire.

I remember that building. My best friend from childhood (we're still good friends) lived on the second floor. It was a tiny, dark apartment. The kitchen window looked out on to the brick wall of the building next door. His dad, BTW, was a cook for many years over at Moon's take out on South Broadway (yes, they are Chinese). I'm talking early 70's here, I don't know if Moon's is there anymore, although I highly doubt it.

Your post doesn't make me apprehensive at all.
As of this moment, there is no proof or evidence at all that a "meltdown" has occurred in Japan. There are certainly quake-damaged fuel assemblies, and some RCS has boiled off and carried aloft some miniscule traces of fission products. There was a huge amount of radiation released locally when the fuel was uncovered, but that has since diminished. The main focus right now is getting the cooling restored and stablizing the coolant levels. This will eliminate the hydrogen threat, which is what did most of the damage, and provide shielding so that further repairs can take place.
This accident is much more severe than Three Mile Island, but is not even close to Chernobyl.
This is still a developing event, and I am not surprised that the media is doing its level best to whip up an Armageddon scenario. So far, it doesn't look like the American public is taking the bait. If you want real "news" about what's going on with this, go to the ANS, IAEA, or NEI websites. By far the biggest life threats to the Japanese people are hunger, lack of potable water, lack of sanitation, disease, and exposure to the elements, not radiation. Let's not lose focus because of screaming headlines from "news" agencies.

Your post doesn't make me apprehensive at all.
As of this moment, there is no proof or evidence at all that a "meltdown" has occurred in Japan. There are certainly quake-damaged fuel assemblies, and some RCS has boiled off and carried aloft some miniscule traces of fission products. There was a huge amount of radiation released locally when the fuel was uncovered, but that has since diminished. The main focus right now is getting the cooling restored and stablizing the coolant levels. This will eliminate the hydrogen threat, which is what did most of the damage, and provide shielding so that further repairs can take place.
This accident is much more severe than Three Mile Island, but is not even close to Chernobyl.
This is still a developing event, and I am not surprised that the media is doing its level best to whip up an Armageddon scenario. So far, it doesn't look like the American public is taking the bait. If you want real "news" about what's going on with this, go to the ANS, IAEA, or NEI websites. By far the biggest life threats to the Japanese people are hunger, lack of potable water, lack of sanitation, disease, and exposure to the elements, not radiation. Let's not lose focus because of screaming headlines from "news" agencies.

Your post doesn't make me apprehensive at all.
As of this moment, there is no proof or evidence at all that a "meltdown" has occurred in Japan. There are certainly quake-damaged fuel assemblies, and some RCS has boiled off and carried aloft some miniscule traces of fission products. There was a huge amount of radiation released locally when the fuel was uncovered, but that has since diminished. The main focus right now is getting the cooling restored and stablizing the coolant levels. This will eliminate the hydrogen threat, which is what did most of the damage, and provide shielding so that further repairs can take place.
This accident is much more severe than Three Mile Island, but is not even close to Chernobyl.
This is still a developing event, and I am not surprised that the media is doing its level best to whip up an Armageddon scenario. So far, it doesn't look like the American public is taking the bait. If you want real "news" about what's going on with this, go to the ANS, IAEA, or NEI websites. By far the biggest life threats to the Japanese people are hunger, lack of potable water, lack of sanitation, disease, and exposure to the elements, not radiation. Let's not lose focus because of screaming headlines from "news" agencies.

Your post doesn't make me apprehensive at all.
As of this moment, there is no proof or evidence at all that a "meltdown" has occurred in Japan. There are certainly quake-damaged fuel assemblies, and some RCS has boiled off and carried aloft some miniscule traces of fission products. There was a huge amount of radiation released locally when the fuel was uncovered, but that has since diminished. The main focus right now is getting the cooling restored and stablizing the coolant levels. This will eliminate the hydrogen threat, which is what did most of the damage, and provide shielding so that further repairs can take place.
This accident is much more severe than Three Mile Island, but is not even close to Chernobyl.
This is still a developing event, and I am not surprised that the media is doing its level best to whip up an Armageddon scenario. So far, it doesn't look like the American public is taking the bait. If you want real "news" about what's going on with this, go to the ANS, IAEA, or NEI websites. By far the biggest life threats to the Japanese people are hunger, lack of potable water, lack of sanitation, disease, and exposure to the elements, not radiation. Let's not lose focus because of screaming headlines from "news" agencies.

At what point do you stop throwing good money after bad?
In the case of many inner-city public schools, it's not a lack of funding or incompetent teachers that result in a failing school system. Its often because the students themselves lack a supportive family structure or any kind of discipline at home. The parent (or grandparent) can't cope with what these students face outside of the home. The school system is accused by media demagogues of being inadequate, racist, or worse. But lack of funding is not really where the root of the problem lies. It's an almost total lack of accountability at every level: the students, the parents, and the school administration.
A case in point: Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook wunderkind, announced that he was donating $100 million to Newark city schools. Now, we can all easily conjure up the popular images of life in one of America's worst cities. However, the City of Newark already spends $22,000 per student. The average per student spending in the State of New Jersey (including all of those "rich" districts) is only about $16,000. Zuckerberg's money could have done a lot more good to a lot more people if he had given it to the Salvation Army or even a local college, for example. In a corrupt, patronizing, inefficient system like the one in Newark, that money will just disappear without a ripple.
And yes, Catholic School teachers make a lot less than Public School teachers, so much less that I wonder why they take the jobs. But when you look at the Administrative level, it's usually one or two iron-fisted priests (or nuns) that run it all, rather than a plethora of "Education Professionals."
I am a proud product of the Yonkers Public School system. From the southwest side, I might add. That included attendance at PS-3 (gone), Hawthorne JHS, and Saunders and Yonkers High Schools. All "inner city" schools. I believe I got an excellent education. I was fortunate enough to complete my public education (and leave Yonkers) before the clueless do-gooder Federal judge Lenny Sands destroyed the entire system through mandated bussing and widespread low-income housing, and by appointing race-baiting hack lawyers "oversee" the Board of Education. This just spread the indifference through the entire city like a cancer, and put Yonkers real estate values in the toilet for a while. I'll give Zuckerberg credit. he undoubtedly believes that he's doing the right thing, and put his money where his mouth is. It's ashame that his generous gift will be squandered. So, to hairbag Michael Moore and the rest of the Hollywood Apparatchiks, I say you do the same. You spend YOUR money. Leave mine alone.
Take the last paragraph any way you want. But facts are facts.

Show me an American made TV. I'll buy it.

At what point do you stop throwing good money after bad?
In the case of many inner-city public schools, it's not a lack of funding or incompetent teachers that result in a failing school system. Its often because the students themselves lack a supportive family structure or any kind of discipline at home. The parent (or grandparent) can't cope with what these students face outside of the home. The school system is accused by media demagogues of being inadequate, racist, or worse. But lack of funding is not really where the root of the problem lies. It's an almost total lack of accountability at every level: the students, the parents, and the school administration.
A case in point: Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook wunderkind, announced that he was donating $100 million to Newark city schools. Now, we can all easily conjure up the popular images of life in one of America's worst cities. However, the City of Newark already spends $22,000 per student. The average per student spending in the State of New Jersey (including all of those "rich" districts) is only about $16,000. Zuckerberg's money could have done a lot more good to a lot more people if he had given it to the Salvation Army or even a local college, for example. In a corrupt, patronizing, inefficient system like the one in Newark, that money will just disappear without a ripple.
And yes, Catholic School teachers make a lot less than Public School teachers, so much less that I wonder why they take the jobs. But when you look at the Administrative level, it's usually one or two iron-fisted priests (or nuns) that run it all, rather than a plethora of "Education Professionals."
I am a proud product of the Yonkers Public School system. From the southwest side, I might add. That included attendance at PS-3 (gone), Hawthorne JHS, and Saunders and Yonkers High Schools. All "inner city" schools. I believe I got an excellent education. I was fortunate enough to complete my public education (and leave Yonkers) before the clueless do-gooder Federal judge Lenny Sands destroyed the entire system through mandated bussing and widespread low-income housing, and by appointing race-baiting hack lawyers "oversee" the Board of Education. This just spread the indifference through the entire city like a cancer, and put Yonkers real estate values in the toilet for a while. I'll give Zuckerberg credit. he undoubtedly believes that he's doing the right thing, and put his money where his mouth is. It's ashame that his generous gift will be squandered. So, to hairbag Michael Moore and the rest of the Hollywood Apparatchiks, I say you do the same. You spend YOUR money. Leave mine alone.
Take the last paragraph any way you want. But facts are facts.