Here is the story behind the “Hartsville Hale”.

In 1969 I was working in Reading, Pa. I commuted daily from my home in the Hartsville area of Warminster, Pa. One day I was visiting a machine shop in the northern part of Reading as part of my duties. I was a volunteer firefighter with an interest in old cars. I stopped at a truck repair shop to admire an old fire truck that had “Hale Fire Pump Company Conshohocken Pa” cast into the aluminum floorboard. I inquired about the truck and was told it was at the repair shop by the owner in order to get it running. I never heard of a Hale Fire truck, only pumps. The truck soon disappeared from the truck repair shop.

Several years later I saw the same truck parked in front of an old home on Rt. 422 in Wernersville, Pa. This is about 7 miles west of Reading. It was parked there and used as an advertisement for a gift shop in the old home. Within a few years the gift shop closed and I inquired at a local business about the availability of the old truck. I found the owner and he wanted $350. for the piece of solid rust that was now deep in the dirt. I bought it.

Around Christmas time 1976 my brothers and I towed it to my brother’s home in Southampton, Pa. with a rope. That spring the head was removed in order to remove the mice nests that had been built on top of the pistons. There was no muffler and the creatures climbed the exhaust pipe to use the engine as a mice motel. The motor ran that spring.

When the truck was placed in gear and the clutch left out the wheels didn’t move. The drive shaft turned but not the rear wheels. Peaking inside the rear through an access hole in the top, revealed that an idler shaft and gears were missing. We had discovered what the truck repair shop had known years before. The truck hadn’t run because of a gear failure and someone put it back together just so it could be moved (towed).

Word of mouth among friends in the old car hobby put us on the trail to the New Jersey School for the Deaf in West Trenton. The school had several old Hales around the grounds that were used for the kids to play on. I spoke to the headmaster and explained the situation. One of the trucks was close to ours. He allowed us to remove the idler shaft and gears so long as we returned the truck to a safe condition. A lot of work went into this project because this truck was also well weathered and heavily constructed. After the tires and axels were removed, a hoist was needed to lift out the ring gear assembly.

The shaft was good but the gears were the wrong diameter to mesh with our rear. We found the right gear in a Boston Gear catalog. The gear was machined to the proper width and broached with the proper spline. The truck was put back together mechanically and moved under its own power in 1977.

Research from the truck and a trip to Hale showed that Friendship Fire Co. in Royersford, Pa. ordered the truck on 8-5-1922. It was delivered as a Type 5 Triple Combination on 3-10-1923. It features a Midwest Model 399, 4 cylinder 4 ¾” x 6”, overhead valve engine serial # G0033 and a 3-speed transmission. It has a 350 GPM rotary gear Type 5 pump. The valve cover has “Hale” cast into it. It gives the appearance that the motor is a Hale. She delivered 427 GPM at 8.5” vacuum during her 6-hour pump test while producing 25.5 Horsepower.

A total ground up restoration began in 1980. During that time my fire company was purchasing a new fire apparatus from Hahn Motors of Hamburg, Pa. During a trip to Hahn the salesman and I chatted about old Hale fire trucks. He told me he had a friend who had one. I called that friend and he gave me a phone number for a farm in Harrington, Del. Within a few weeks I visited the farm. There it was, another 23 Hale. This one was purchased by the Edge Hill Fire Co. of Abington Twp., Pa. It had the same engine, pump and transmission.

The farm owner purchased it in the 60’s to help irrigate his farm. The first night after diner they used it to take everyone for a ride. They repeated the same thing on the second night. However, the battery was dead on the third and it never ran again. It had been sitting in the same place for 20 + years. I only needed some parts but the farmer said if I didn’t take the whole thing, I couldn’t take anything. So, I swallowed and bought a second piece of junk for $900. cash, April 18, 1984.

Several weeks later I made a trip to the farm with by brother’s 1957 Studebaker flatbed truck. It had ramps and the plan was to roll the Hale onto the Stude. Well, the first problem was the brakes had rusted to the brake drums and the rear wheels didn’t turn.  The second problem was the truck was going to be too heavy for the Stude. The farmer cut off the hose body to lighten the load. A farm tractor with a forklift attachment was used to push the front of the Hale up the ramps and lift the rear onto the flat bed. After an all-day event to get this hulk ready for travel the load was hauled home. It was quite a site. The 57 Stude was sagging, but made it home.

Key items on the Edge Hill truck that were missing from the Royersford truck were a bell bracket, the Hale “Type 5” emblem from atop the pulsation chamber on the pump, aluminum battery box cover, running board corners, front bumper and brackets and several small items. It was a time when these parts were vital to the successful completion of the restoration.

The finished Hale was lettered Hartsville Fire Co. It remains in the Hartville station where I continue to maintain it. It is used for various parades and fire prevention programs. It always needs some attention. The Edge Hill Hale was offered to Edge Hill and they turned it down. It was stripped of everything and the chassis was scrapped.

As an aside, Hartsville’s original fire truck was a 1923 Brockway LaFrance chemical truck. The Hale was built the year Hartsville Fire Co. was formed and serves as a reminder what it was like to ride in those days.

Ed Pfeiffer