FetchtheEngine…
fire officer whose love of all things fire engine- related has spawned a restoration project that has breathed new life into a 1937 Leyland cabmajor pump fire appliance so gorgeous that it stops pedestrians in their tracks as it roars by. Wannell acquired the engine –which he calls Belinda -in 1980 as “awreck; a rolling chassis and some boxes of bits” as he describes it. The unit sat at the back of his shed largely untouched for years. “We bought this three acre paddock to house the engine but that used up all ourmoney so it just sat there for years,” he recalls. “We did get a £500 grant fromthe TransportTrust whichwe used to replace the electrics. But shortly after, wewere broken into and the vandals ripped out the newly-replacedwiring loom.” But in 2012, the restoration of Belindawas kick- started byWannell’s daughter,, and her impending nuptials. “In February 2012, she remindedme that I had promised to take her to church in the Leyland. That gave us just eightmonths to complete the restoration, to restore Belinda to her former glory, and tomake her ready formy daughter’s big day,” Wannell recalls. “That rather concentrated themind.
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