Temple Diamond T Fire Truck
When driving around Temple on July 4, 2019 looking for things to photo, I stopped at the Temple Fire Station to photograph their bell. I started talking to Matthew M. Perrine, Temple Fire Rescue, Battalion Chief B Shift and he kindly let me photograph the old fire truck they had in the fire station. The photographs did come out as well as I hoped, but we will arrange another photo shoot. In the meantime, I’m putting these photos up on the site. Mr. Perrine sent the following write-up which gives a history of the truck and the company that made it.
“The Diamond T Motor Car Company was founded in Chicago in 1905 by C. A. Tilt. Reportedly, the company name was created when Tilt’s shoe-making father fashioned a logo featuring a big “T” (for Tilt) framed by a diamond, which signified high quality.[1] The company's hood emblem on trucks was a sled dog in harness. From its beginnings manufacturing touring cars, the company later became known for its trucks. By 1967, as a subsidiary of White Motor Company, it was merged with Reo Motor Company to become Diamond Reo Trucks, Inc.[2].
During World War II, Diamond T produced a classic heavy truck in the 980/981, a prime mover which was quickly acquired by the British Purchasing Commission for duty as a tank transporter tractor. In addition Diamond T built the entire range of the G509 series 4 ton 6X6s, including cargo, dump, semi tractor, and wrecker trucks, as well as some lighter trucks, and even G7102 half tracks. Diamond T ranked 47th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts.[6] Diamond T manufactured two pickup trucks: the Model 80 and the Model 201. Both pickups were powered by the Hercules QX-series 6-cylinder engines. The Model 201 was produced from 1938 to 1949.” Copied from Wikipedia.
So, the history of our little truck. Our Diamond T was purchased new and served as a front line truck for nearly 30 years then five more as a reserve before it was “put into storage”. According to the Telegram article I’ve attached, and stories I have heard directly from some of the men who responded on it and refurbished it, the truck was found in the back of a warehouse at the city garage with “stuff” piled all over it. Several firefighters along with the Temple College automotive students and local businessmen restored the truck to a parade apparatus in the early ‘80s.
Sometime after 1960, uncertain if it was during its normal use or during the restoration, the original Hercules L-head 205ci 6 cylinder motor was replaced with an early ’60 Chevy 235ci straight 6 cylinder. Our truck had several fine years into the early ‘90’s serving as a parade truck until it started having issues that made it “less than reliable” and had to be pushed off parade routes more than once, leading to a lack of interest in maintaining it. Unfortunately it sat unused and often forgotten in one of our slower stations for several years. Moving forward to 2016 our current Chief mentioned trying to get it ready to use in a Christmas parade and that was all myself and two coworkers needed to hear, we moved the Diamond T to our Central station where we were all stationed and started nursing her back to health. We started the ball rolling” but over the last three years more coworkers have shown an interest in keeping the Diamond T going! She still needs a lot of repairs and continuous maintenance however, I don’t think she will be forgotten and put away anytime soon!
On a little side note, in the newspaper article a missing hub cap was mentioned; for the last three years four of us have been aggressively searching for one. Today we purchased one that we think will work and is correct, it is only one of six we have come across in the last three years! The others we found were either to damage to use or completely out of our budget.