Stepjam

Hey guys, Looking for some shots of Yonkers Police cars, from around 1976-1983. I remember they were pretty simple; white sides, dark blue roofs, trunks, and hoods, with double reflective stickers on the trunks that said "YONKERS" and "POLICE." Small blue on white shield on each door. The cars were Diplomats (or were they Furys?), LTD's, LTD-II's (my favorites), Volares, and Ambassadors. I have a diorama modeling project in mind, and although none of these are available in the scale that I need, I can improvise. Thanks!

Thomas Ford. I remember that one, I think it was arson?

Ferrara would be wise to take a history lesson from Mack and Seagrave. When you set up a productions schedule that caters to a single buyer, at the expense of numerous smaller buyers, that's going to hit your bottom line in the long run when those smaller buyers go elsewhere. It's the Walmart theory of supply and demand.

There are plenty of 65 year olds who could run lots of 20 year olds into the ground, when it comes to physical fitness. Just sayin'.....

The Sullivan family right in Putnam county a couple of years ago. They didn't have a chance. My own home, built in 1988, is probably LWC through out, judging by the 2x4 truss assemblies in my attic.After that disaster at the Avalon, I think pressure has to be applied to changing the building codes, and maybe eliminating the "cost-effectiveness" of future construction by having insurers charge a hefty premium for underwriting structures that are built this way.

There's a new-ish "Luxury Condo" in Peekskill that appears to be of very similar size and construction, if not appearance, to the Avalon complex in Edgewater. I remember being amazed, as I watched construction progress each day, that a residential structure of that size was being built almost entirely of engineered lumber, slathered over with vinyl siding. To me, it looked like a fire trap in the making. Toll Brothers has also built a huge cluster multi-family condo units in the village of Fishkill. They are four story units, probably sixteen or twenty apartments each, also of all engineered wood and vinyl construction. Incredible.

Coming along nicely. Next step is to break down the trailer and put in the compartments. That crappy Code 3 was good for something after all.

Yes to all....as far as I humanly can. I still haven't solved the windshield problem; I made a lot of expensive attempts at vacuum forming a new one, but they weren't successful. I will probably have to hand cut one in Lexan from a tracing I make from the cab. I'm less worried about the bubble windows on the gondola. For those, I'll use PTFE (soda bottle) and heat it up, then push it through a square opening cut in a piece of balsa. This is the most challenging one I've built yet, but I need to build it.

Every now and then, I can snatch an hour or two to work on something. Other times, if I have no distractions. I might spend the better part of a day. I don't think 200 hours would be an unrealistic estimate.

I had to start the cabinets all over again. The completed assembly was too short. This time, I used .005 styrene overlaid on .02 ABS, then sanded it out. I want this rig to look "beat up" rather than factory fresh, and I remember the real one was practically falling apart by the time it was retired. It, and its two sisters, were worked very hard during a time when Yonkers was broke. Anyway, I made a lot of headway on the trailer. The tillermans's gondola needs some work, these rigs had open ground ladder cribs rather than the continuous deck on the Code 3 version.

There are quite a few pictures of to real 70, 73, and 74 tillers in the "Protection from the past" section; most taken by JJPinto.

Started the trailer modifications. VERY difficult disassembly, and I still haven't figured out how to detach the ladder and turntable. Once I stripped it down to the base plate, I used a Dremel to grind it back about 1/16" on each side so that the new side panels for the compartments will be flush with the existing fenders. Next, I measured for the length of the high side compartments, leaving a space behind the front fender, which is where the rear hydraulic outriggers wold retract into, did some arithmetic, and marked out the panels. I used .02 ABS sheet for a base layer, and .01 ABS on top of that for the panel doors. Then I ran a strip of DP between the uppers and lowers. Each compartment was a separate unit on the actual truck, so I scribed a deep line between each section. Later, after it's painted, I will use a black wash to highlight the low spots.

Thanks. It will be Ladder 73.

1. Plead gulty. 2. Pay the fine. 3. Get a receipt. 4. Hold on to the receipt forever.

I am trying to find some historical information or newspaper articles about a very large fire that occurred in Yonkers, at 106 Highland Avenue (Riverview Gardens) on March 1, 1994. This particular address is part of a connected complex of seven six-story apartment buildings, built during the 1920's. I believe there were forty eight apartments in the building. What makes it interesting to me is that I once lived in that complex, and it was purportedly "fire proof," at least as far as 1920-era codes dictated. Although the building was of very robust construction, it was gutted. I have done all kinds of searches, including the archives at the Journal News (earliest available is 2002) and the NYT. Nothing. The fire was sufficiently damaging and displaced enough people that it qualified affected persons for Federal disaster relief via the SBA. I moved out of Yonkers long before this fire occurred, but I heard that it was deliberately set in the basement dumbwaiter shafts and went right up to the roof. I also know that this building would be difficult to approach, since three of its exposures are inaccessable to apparatus. Anyway, maybe a forum member is on the job in Yonkers and remembers it? Thanks.

Thanks!

That supply line must have weighed a ton once it was stretched and charged, tough job overall. I hope no one was injured. And thanks for the suggestion about the fulton history site. Unfortunately, they only have the old Herald Statesman up to 1985 and not the Urinal, I mean the Journal News, But the JN's coverage of anything in Yonkers, if they covered it, always sucked anyway. The old Herald Statesman was the best and Yonkers became a little poorer when it closed down. Thank you for the helpful and informative replies, gentlemen.

I question this too. It's common human decency, and if they were that rigid about procedure, the house could have called dispatch themselves (I think?). I doubt this is the whole story.

A tiny investment that pays huge dividends.

I posted a similar query on the Facebook YFD page, and a few guys commented. They couldn't get an aerial over it, and undertook very aggressive roof operations as Chief Flynn explained. One guy mentioned that it was caused by bad wiring, and another said that the management now vents the clothes dryers into the old dumbwaiters-another fire waiting to happen. When we were kids, we spent a lot of time running around on that huge roof. It was the biggest open space in the neighborhood, lol. I had no idea that the whole complex had a common cockloft, so it could have been much, much worse. Kudos to YFD for stopping it at one building.

Yes Chief, those are defintely the buildings. I had completely forgotten about the standpipe connections; there was one on each landing and they were vandalized on a regular basis. The brass "Croaker" nozzles on the hoses had all been stolen. Yes, the buildings were at one time very beautiful, when originally built the courtyard had a large working fountain. The entry hallway in our apartment was twenty five feet long, and we had ten foot ceilings. I can remember when we first moved in, the lobbies were actually furnished. This was in the early 70's, and the neighborhood and building was in decline even then. I was shocked and saddened to hear that such a devastating fire had hit this complex, and I can remember wondering "what if" when I lived there, because it was such a difficult building to approach. It must have been a hell of a job.

Semper Fi.....

I remember reading somewhere that the floor of the store was covered in concrete and tile, and that the members may not have known that the wooden floor beams that supported it had burned through. A tragedy, may they all rest in peace.

I have never sat down and taken inventory, but off hand I would say that I have about one hundred or so Code 3's. Not all of them were bought for display, probably half were picked up cheap as parts donors for kitbash projects. I never limited myself to Code 3's, I also like Corgi and Matchbox, and I have a lot of older diecast from the 1960's in my collection. The only thing I limit myself to is size or scale. I have nothing larger than 1:43, and nothing smaller than 1:64. Right now, my entire collection is packed away. I also have a lot of lesser-known makes in my collection, such as Tekno (Danish), Conrad (German), Dinky (British), Replex (French), Solido (French), Minichamps (German), Siku (German), Tomica (Japanese), RAF (Russian), Lledo (British), and Ashton (American). Here are a couple of pictures of my wall cabinet. As you might be able to see, there are very few Code 3's displayed. These were taken ten years ago in my old house:

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.