Hi All,
Had a slightly unusual situation travelling down the motorway on Monday afternoon. Wasn't pushing it in any way, but caught up a with a convoy consisting of a fire engine, response van and unmarked Passat estate with blue lights flashing. As wasn't going that fast had seen them well in advance, and seen other drivers overtaking. As I approached I was reluctant to overtake in case they were responding to an incident on the motorway and I could become an obstacle to them, so pulled in some way behind the Passat to see what happened. Was a trip to the dentist, and had allowed plenty of time for any hold ups.
The convoy carried on past the first junction (22), and about halfway between 22 and 23 the Passat pulled into lane 1 as traffic lightened. I took this as a sign was OK to pass, but was being overtaken myself with the van still in lane 2. By the time was clear for me to pull out could see we were approaching more traffic in lanes 1 and 2 so waited in case the tender needed lane 3, but with clear roads coming up to J23 I overtook. In the end I didn't see any incidents, but as I left the M5 at Taunton (J25) the speed matrices were set to 50, and there was a marked Police 5 series on the roundabout at the bottom of the slip road parked up with blue lights going.
Ever since I have been wondering if I had got this right, or should I have done it differently. One thing I should add was that when I caught up with the convoy, traffic was still light behind me, but one of the things that prompted me to pass was could see a handful of cars starting to build behind and could see this developing into a bit of a tailback. The eye opener for me was other drivers reactions. All the cars that overtook crept past slowly, taking an age to do so with the potential to block the convoy in and slow them down. Looking in my mirrors going past J23 the convoy was all in lane 1, with cars overtaking in lane 2, and lane 3 clear. Although there was a car coming down the slip lane, which then joined ahead of the convoy, no one moved into lane 3 to give room, but didn't see if it did get blocked in.
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If they dont want you to pass (rolling roadblock for example) they will let you know quite firmly
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I remember being told many years ago, that fire engines were transferred between stations under blues and twos if a station was left under-equipped because of an incident.
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Surely a fire engine is capable of traveling from one fire station to another with out the need for a convoy.? Suppose it's only taxpayers money after all.
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Came up behind a USAF convoy on M25-had trouble keeping up!!
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do they still haul the nuclear weapons around the country?
Does that strange two's and blue run still happen once a week on the M3/A316?
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If travelling to an incident then they go at the speed of the slowest vehicle - there's no point in the Commander turning up 10 mins before the fire engine as he can't do anything on his own.
Fire engines are not that fast - they're heavy and unwieldy with big (but not that powerful) diesel engines and auto boxes. In theory they'll to 70 ish but apparently they're terrifying to drive at speed - the water sloshing about doesn't help either.
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>>In theory they'll to 70 ish but apparently they're terrifying to drive at speed - the >>water sloshing about doesn't help either.
If you think a modern fire engine is scary try a Green Goddess.
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- there's no point in the Commander turning up 10 mins before the fire engine as he can't do anything on his own.
he can assess the situation, inform control, inform the crew on route, decide where he wants the pumps parked, get traffic moved out the way, confirm the number of pumps called to the scene is correct, shed loads of things.
Fire engines are not that fast - they're heavy and unwieldy with big (but not that powerful) diesel engines and auto boxes. In theory they'll to 70 ish but apparently they're terrifying to drive at speed - the water sloshing about doesn't help either.
I paced in front of one - he ws on two & blues on a single cariageway, nowhere for me to pull in, nowhere for him to overtake so I kept in front of him. His natural pace seemed to be bout 60ish,
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Speaking with the advantage of experience in London....appliances travelling to standby at another fire station to maintain fire cover did use blue lights and, what then were, bells/2 tones... but not for many many years. Now travel at normal road speed. It is not the case that they travel only at the speed of the slowest vehicle.....they get where they're going as soon as they can no matter what they're driving. The water has very little bearing on the stability of the vehicle. Wheeled Escape Ladders did have a bearing on cornering, however!
Edited by KB. on 07/01/2009 at 18:57
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KB. Have you been away for some time?
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Not really away, FC, ....regularly view & appreciate BR banter but usually prefer to leave it at that. Lots of new names, a few old timers. Good that it's still here. Was tempted to post recently re. the thread mentioning how dreadful the Maestro is/was. I bet I'm the only one here who's owned three of them over the last ten or more years (one at a time). The current one now relegated to 'second vehicle' status having just treated myself to something a tad newer.
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Good to hear from you again!
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Thanks, FC........(retreats back in to comfortable anonymity)
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