Category: OTHERS

Blood Service

WX14 ETA Freewheelers BMW F 800 GT

WX14 ETA
Freewheelers
BMW F 800 GT
A blood bike seen collecting samples in Bristol. Note the yellow box on the rear, this has been designed to carry Covid-19 samples to go to the local NHS or Public Health laboratories. This bike is one of the reserve Blood Bikes.

Lifeboats

LK18 FVU Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) Tractor Unit

LK18 FVU
Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI)
Tractor Unit
Used to launch a lifeboat at Bridlington. The combined tractor and trailer is 20m long, 3.5m wide and 4m high. It weighs 37 tonnes and the engine is a 13 litre turbo-charged one. This all combines to a top speed of just 10 mph.

Doctors

WN69 PKZ BrisDoc Honda CRV

WN69 PKZ
BrisDoc
Honda CRV
This car is one of four replacements for the Out of Hours Doctors cars for BrisDoc in Bristol. Four more cars are due to come into service in early 2020. Due to the change in contract in providing Out Of hours provision, SevernSide integrated Urgent Care Service was formed and gone into
partnership with the 111 service. This model of care is the new standard of Urgent Care within the NHS 999/111 service and will become operational across the UK in the coming year allowing Doctors, Nurses & Paramedics to attend home visits.

The Cars still have green lights to allow a clinician to attend urgent medical care when required. Also there are alley lights on the bar light to aid the clinician and driver to find house numbers at night.

Coastguard

OU66 DNY HM Coastguard Mitsubishi L200

OU66 DNY
HM Coastguard
Mitsubishi L200
This vehicle is based at the Coastguard’s Bridlington base (pictured). The Truckman rear carries various rescue equipment for use on cliffs and other parts of the coastline.

Armament Support

15 AY 54 Armament Support Unit Volvo FL6

15 AY 54
Armament Support Unit
Volvo FL6

The vehicle was part of the Armament Support Unit (ASU) based at RAF Wittering and was used to protect weapons convoys in case of fire and accidents. This role has now passed to the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston. The vehicle was only one of three made and they were named after Knights of the Roundtable. This one was named Arthur.

The photos show that as of summer 2019 it is undergoing significant restoration back to the way it was when it was new (final photo). It is owned by the RAF Museum of Firefighting.

Because of the convoy work the vehicle would carry far more equipment than if was operating on a RAF base. Apart from the usual fire fighting kit such as hoses, branches, axes, ropes, crowbars, first aid fire extinguishers, it also carried a camera, binoculars, road maps, incident boards, safety hard hats, large first aid kit, ventilators, breathing apparatus sets with tools and spares, chemical splash suits and a hydraulic rescue kit.

Due to the nature of the convoys, the crew were armed and provision for gun and ammunition storage within the vehicle was made.

The engine is a Volvo TD61F six cylinder 5.48 litres turbo charged intercooled diesel, developing 152kw at 2800rpm (207bhp). The gearbox is a six speed manual.

The combined water and foam tank has a water section with a capacity of 2273 litres (500 gallons) and two foam sections each of 150 litres (33 gallons). The pump is a Godiva GMA 3600/19 with aluminium two stage multi pressure, the output from the low pressure stage is 3600 lpm (750gpm) at 6.9bar (100psi) and from the high pressure stage 250 lpm (55gpm) at 22.6 bar (400psi). It is equipped with two high pressure first aid hose reels.

The previous vehicles dating from the 1960’s that were built for this purpose were built by Morris/Alfred Miles, Bedford/HCB Angus and Bedford/Hawson/Gloster Saro.

Search and Rescue

Border Search and Rescue The line up of vehicles at the rescue base ..

Border Search and Rescue
The line up of vehicles at the rescue base in Kelso. The base is a garage with three doors and is no longer suitable for us by the service. There are no toilet facilities, the vehicles only just fit in and there is very limited storage space for equipment. Other equipment is stored at another site one mile away which slows down response times to rescue calls. They are currently fundraising £450k for a new purpose built base that will meet the needs of the organisation.

Search and Rescue

SN06 DYW Border Search and Rescue Land Rover Defender

SN06 DYW
Border Search and Rescue
Land Rover Defender
Based at Kelso, Scotland. The team respond to call outs made via the police to searches in the Scottish Borders. Working on the boundary between two countries brings its unique challenges, such as identifying which side of the border a found body was on (and therefore which police service will investigate it) and working with neighbouring North of Tyne SAR who are under the Mountain Rescue England and Wales umbrella rather than the Scottish equivalent.