Special Interest Vehicles

Club Members - Send me your photos via email or bring them to the next club meeting in an envelope. Please place your name and car information on the envelope. Photos will be returned to you after they are scanned.

John's 1925 REO Speedwagon Fire Truck. Picture # 1 is during restoration and picture #2 was taken 1/31/04. I still need to replace the Gold leaf on the truck and some additional work on the tail board section. As you know, there is always something you need to do. The Childs-Foamite Company built the truck for the Windsor Illinois Fire Department on the REO Speedwagon chassis. It is a combination pumper which means it has two ways of pumping water. One is with a gear pump and the other is by using a chemical reaction like the old soda acid fire extinguisher (that you turn up side down), except the truck had a bigger 44 gallon soda solution tank that would be charged with acid to create pressure. The power train is a 240 cubic inches 4 cylinders set in two jugs with 27.2 rated horse power with a three on the floor and a top speed of 40 mph (That is why they called it a speedwagon).