RandyW

Here's another two cents. "Rodent" is absolutely correct There were three Dodge D300 cab and truck chassis owned by the studio and used in the series and T.V. movies. Squad 10 in the pilot was a 1970 Dodge that was on loan to Universal from the LAcoFD. The first Squad 51 was a 1972 D300 and it's common knowledge today that the Fabrication Shop at Universal built this chassis into a faithful replica of a LAcoFD rescue squad. This truck lasted two seasons and prior to season three the studio acquired a 1973 D300 truck. The '72 was stripped of all useable parts including the rear compartment box. The front grill was also swapped to the '73 truck so the stock footage of the running squad shot in the first two seasons could be used again. Watch season one and you'll see why. The '73 truck was virtually identical to its older brethren with the exception of the two "D" ring towing lugs bolted to the diamond checker plate rear bumper and the Dodge letters on the front of the hood being painted over with the exterior color. Once again, this truck survived two seasons and was replaced by a '74 D300. And again the older truck was stripped to help build the next squad. This is the vehicle that currently resides in the LA County Fire Museum. Decode the V.I.N. of this truck and it will indeed reveal that it's a 1974 Dodge D300 1 & 1/2 truck cab and chassis. (The excellent book "Emergency: Behind the Scenes" incorrectly states that the museum truck is a 1972 model, yet they provide the V.I.N. that proves otherwise). The '74 is discernible from the previous two squads by the rear external box light and the black vinyl upholstery trim inside the two cab doors. The earlier trucks had bare metal doors painted to match the exterior with beige coloured arm rests. An interesting and ironic twist to the Dodge rescue squad truck story. When Universal actually began filming the pilot movie, the LAcoFD had stopped purchasing the Dodge truck to supplement its fleet and began using Ford trucks. When Universal denoted their Squad truck to the County, it was the "newest" Dodge truck in the department. The latest Dodge trucks owned by the County were 1970 models. On a sidebar, back in 1980 when I was twenty years old, my buddy and I spent a week in Los Angeles and we toured the Universal lot. I happened to spy a studio employee who was wearing a "Squad 51" t-shirt. Being the fan that I was I had no apprehensions about approaching him and asking if he had worked the series and did he ever meet the cast. Regrettably the answer was no, but he worked in the Fabrication Shop and was part of the crew that built the third squad. I asked what happened to the other two trucks and he said after they were stripped they had no real value and nobody knew where they ended up.

Most impressive.

Greetings and salutations. As the title of this post states, I'm not your usual scale car modeller. I've been in this hobby for fifty-one years. Started building spaceships as I come from the "space race" generation. Then naval ships because I grew up around the big ships since I was a navy brat. But aircraft and armour monopolized most of my time and money. I have built a few cars in my days. These were Corvettes that I modelled after the cars I once owned and drove. I was a member of IPMS for fifteen years. Eventually I became a judge at the annual contests which really had me appreciate the quality of work of some of the better modellers in the club. In the past five years I've weened myself off most of what the hobby has to offer. I have a bucket list of half a dozen scale modelling projects that I want to finish prior to retiring. After which I will devote my retirement years to toiling in the craft of wooden ship models (H.M.S. Victory and Vasa). One of those bucket list items is a scale model of the Squad 51 and that's why I created an account here. I grew up with "Emergency" in the 70's. I would always show up late for our football parties on Saturday night because I had to watch "Emergency" at 8:00 pm. Now it's time to build that model that I'll proudly display on my mantel. I know exactly how this build will go, but I'll still snoop around here and get some tips.