[Robin Craig]

When the folks at the Newburg Fire Department won the bid on the truck they went to the factory at UTDC to collect it. They were told to drive around the building very slowly and keep going round and round, "just do it" is what one person recalled.

So, in the vehicle they got, and duly drove around slowly, as they did people opened doors and walked out and stopped them carrying boxes of random spares and were told "better you have these than they go into the dumpster".

They got quite a haul in the end.

The vehicle if I understand, was the prototype for the wrecker and I think has a different rear axle spring set up than the Karsons water truck.

The folks at Newburg built the whole of that tanker body themselves. After finishing the work they approached Dupont, another local Kingston business in an attempt to cut costs and get some free paint for it. The reply was swift from Dupont. "No, we wont supply free paint", the next sentence floored them, "But give us the whole truck and we will paint it for you" which is what happened. The vehicle went to Dupont and duly returned in a paint job better than they could have ever done.

I will try to link up with them over the winter and see how the truck has survived.

Curiously that photo shoot turned up a weird cargo body section that got turned into a civvy trailer, must look that up..

The Karsons truck is an unknown to me, I never did get anyone within the company willing to speak nor did I have the resources to chase them. I think Eagle Eyed Eric (Booth), the editor of CMP magazine, was the first person to alert me to its existence. As it has a provincial licence plate that could reveal some data.