1958 Ford Mainline and Specificatiions plus required Modifications for Ambulance Use

GM wrote:Around about 1953 I visited my relations in West Wyalong, they were living in the Ambulance Station and he (John Martyn) was the Ambulance Superintendent.
The Chev MF 454 was the first ambulance in West Wyalong and was retired not long after the photo was taken.
The 1951 Chev had been modified from a normal sedan, as it was difficult to get new ambulances at that stage.
When It was retired it was reworked and spent many years in the local area as a sedan. GM

Hi!
John Martyn was my husbands pop and we were wondering if you also were related?

Hi Amie, yes I am related to John Martyn by marriage, his wife Norma was my cousin, she was an Edwards.
My mother made her wedding dress.
Would like to hear from you, please PM me. GM

The Bland Shire Chev Ambulance with Driver Harry Edwards at my parents home in Granville.

GM wrote:The Bland Shire Chev Ambulance with Driver Harry Edwards at my parents home in Granville.

Hi GM,
I'm Norma and Johns granddaughter. I've sent you a friend request on here as I can't seem to PM as a new member. Would be great to touch base.
I've heard about your Mums fantastic sewing skills (from Marj) and seen her work first hand, was lovely.
Sarah

Des anyone know if the NSW ambulance service is due to sell off any of their Mercedes fleet? I saw one the other day and they would make a great camper or other use you could come up with.

They only have a fairly short shelf life, maybe 2-3 years, possibly leased through government supply contracts.

Plenty of second hand ones floating about, check Pickles or Mannheim auctions.

They would be worked pretty hard I'd imagine. Beware of relatively small capacity highly turbo European power plants flogged from cold!!
The interiors look great though.

Hello all, great topic on the Ambulances.
I have just recently purchased an International Harvester AA120 4x4 ex ambulance & am trying to find out it's history so I can restore it back to original. The vehicle was located in Rubyvale, Qld & I'm led to believe it was a rescue/ambulance vehicle in the Carnarvon Gorge area?
It still has the dickie seat for the attendant & holes in the roof for lights & sirens ( long gone unfortunately ).
Would anyone know anything about these Inters or have some pictures? The vehicle is around the 1959 vintage.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,

Can you post a picture of it?

I have several images of QLD & NSW ambulances built by Athol Hedges Pty Ltd in the late 1940s up to the 1960s if anyone is interested.

Hornibrook wrote:I have several images of QLD & NSW ambulances built by Athol Hedges Pty Ltd in the late 1940s up to the 1960s if anyone is interested.

Does this mean Domino and later Austral, also made Ambuli?

Swift wrote:

Hornibrook wrote:I have several images of QLD & NSW ambulances built by Athol Hedges Pty Ltd in the late 1940s up to the 1960s if anyone is interested.

Does this mean Domino and later Austral, also made Ambuli?

Unfortunately not, the images do not cover those later years.

Hi, I have a 1934 Terraplane ambulance which may have been built by Athol Hedges. Any photos of old ambulances would be great. Just google Terraplane ambulance to see photos of my car

Clance66 wrote:Hello all, great topic on the Ambulances.
I have just recently purchased an International Harvester AA120 4x4 ex ambulance & am trying to find out it's history so I can restore it back to original. The vehicle was located in Rubyvale, Qld & I'm led to believe it was a rescue/ambulance vehicle in the Carnarvon Gorge area?
It still has the dickie seat for the attendant & holes in the roof for lights & sirens ( long gone unfortunately ).
Would anyone know anything about these Inters or have some pictures? The vehicle is around the 1959 vintage.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,

Hi, I've just joined this forum as I research info as part of my pursuit of a Denning, MCI or Silver Eagle coach.
Anyway, I'm a retired paramedic and still heavily involved with the QAS museum and the QAS retired officers' organization.
I've copied your photo and will see what I can find. I have occasional access to just about the complete QATB fleet up to '92.
I can tell you what the signwriting would be, roof signage and equipment inside.
A late response admittedly.

Swift wrote:Des anyone know if the NSW ambulance service is due to sell off any of their Mercedes fleet? I saw one the other day and they would make a great camper or other use you could come up with.

As a retired paramedic, I can attest that these get a tough life from new. Hard driving from cold starts, and pretty much treated like a shiny but well stocked rental car. The worst ones to get are any ex ambulances with low KMs. That usually suggests a dud vehicle that crews tried to avoid or spent a lot of time out of service. If something goes wrong, you try and get back to station so that at least you can have a feed while filling out the defect report. Any loud engine/drivetrain noises get drowned out by the stereo!

Coover wrote:

Swift wrote:Des anyone know if the NSW ambulance service is due to sell off any of their Mercedes fleet? I saw one the other day and they would make a great camper or other use you could come up with.

As a retired paramedic, I can attest that these get a tough life from new. Hard driving from cold starts, and pretty much treated like a shiny but well stocked rental car. The worst ones to get are any ex ambulances with low KMs. That usually suggests a dud vehicle that crews tried to avoid or spent a lot of time out of service. If something goes wrong, you try and get back to station so that at least you can have a feed while filling out the defect report. Any loud engine/drivetrain noises get drowned out by the stereo!

I have heard they get started every eight hours or something like that. If so, at least the oil hasn't had a chance to drain almost completely from the friction surfaces into the sump. Plus the engine is made by the Germans. That could help -or not due to tight tolerances.
Buses get treated hard from cold as well, yet they manage to be durable. You certainly make a very valid point about their hard life.

There are at least 2 on Gumtree in NSW at the moment

Sometimes ambulances will sit longer. Where I was stationed we had 8 Sprinters. Six were your standard 319 emergency response units, and two long wheel base patient transport units. The PTS units were only used Monday to Friday.
The others were rostered for a particular shift. for example, unit 123 was the "Primary Day Shift" unit, 124 "Primary Afternoon shift" unit, and 125 "Primary Night shift" unit. The support crew work days/afternoons. Anyway, on average an ambulance will sit cold for about 12 hours before being used next. At start of shift you do an engine/electrical/equipment check, and give the engine a quick run to check the warning equipment. Most often you jump in, start a cold engine unit, and within a minute or so you're doing the "stomp hard" accelerating, and using the Sprintshift to help you go a bit faster.
If anybody was in the market for a retired unit, one thing I'd seriously look at apart from the drive train is cracks or holes in the fittings. You'd be surprised how much body fluid finds it's way into nooks and crannies regardless of design or how well you clean out the floor. I've even hosed out the back of a Sprinter on the odd occasion.

Wondering where this vehicle now as my grandfather was ws grice

Hi Lalken and welcome to this discussion board.

Other than the photo's I posted back in June 2013 on here of the Austin Sheerline, I'm not familiar with their ambulance bodies.
My interest however has been William Stanleys bus bodies, a number of which found their way to tour operators at Katoomba (eg Dinds).
I'm trying to put together a history of road passenger transport in the Blue Mountains and have collected a few images of the Grice bus /coach bodies at work.

I assume you're aware of the plans and other paper collection held by the Sydney Powerhouse Museum related to the WS Grice Body Works business. These may have well been donated by the family.

A very nice looking coach body of its time.

sv1ambo wrote: ↑Mon Feb 25, 2013 4:33 pm I have a photo of the Chev truck when it was new. Taken outside W. S. Grice Motor Body Works in Summer Hill, Sydney, where it was built. The sedan based side loaders and boot loaders were a common conversion during and post WWII due to vehicles being in short supply.

My wifes grandfather owned ws grice coach builders she has got drawings of the ambulances and buses from the start you might be interested in them thanks ken

Would be great to see those drawings