The days of the vintage ambulance

When we were kids my grandmother’s elderly sister used to arrive at the farm for her annual summer visit in one of these old fashioned Ghost Buster style ambulances.

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She came from a family of small town undertakers that had started an ambulance service to help smooth out their cash flow and I suppose create a bit of a morbid supply chain for their main business.
 
In the 50's and 60's a number of funeral homes had their hearses reconfigured by Superior, Sayers and Scoville or Miller Media coach companies for dual use body or patient transit. As a hearse the coach just used the casket slider and as an ambulance the slider would be removed and replaced by either a Ferno or Junkin single level stretcher.
The dual use coaches used a small fold down seat in the rear compartment and a small medical bag. Oxygen was contained in a medium sized box containing a pressure or volume cycled respirator. For medical response a red dashboard light was plugged into the cigarette lighter jack or a magnetic mount light on the roof. Many of the dual use vehicles were owned an operated by contract with a hospital, fire or police department, morgue or office of the coroner using a local funeral home.

Back in day a creepy rumor spread that the funeral home men who usually responded in suits were going to make sure the patient they were getting paid for emergency transport in some mysterious way did not survive and now they got a twofer. Possible, impossible? Make of it what you will. These scenes are depicted the 60's era Blood on the Highway reckless driving film and a number of the Ohio State Patrol safety videos. The depicted accidents are real and include disturbing video and audio. Watch at your own risk.
 
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Aunt Bea said:
When we were kids my grandmother’s elderly sister used to arrive at the farm for her annual summer visit in one of these old fashioned Ghost Buster style ambulances.

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She came from a family of small town undertakers that had started an ambulance service to help smooth out their cash flow and I suppose create a bit of a morbid supply chain for their main business.
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I believe the S&S rigs were the king of the road in the 60's The medical cabinet facing the interior was huge and the cushion ride didn't sway when cornering at high speed.


Enjoy
 
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Aunt Bea said:
When we were kids my grandmother’s elderly sister used to arrive at the farm for her annual summer visit in one of these old fashioned Ghost Buster style ambulances.

View attachment 499482

She came from a family of small town undertakers that had started an ambulance service to help smooth out their cash flow and I suppose create a bit of a morbid supply chain for their main business.
Click to expand...
WOW!!! that's a lot of lights. A Federal Q siren too. Gotta have two batteries under that hood. Nice ride.
 
I saw this 1950's UK ambulance at the transport museum last year...

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When I first started working for Metropolitan Toronto's Department of Ambulance Services in 1977, we had a few of the old style limo Ambulances. They were terrible to try to work in, compared to the Dodge vans that comprised most of the 120 vehicle fleet. Cramped so bad that you could not do CPR because the roof was so low. These had been previously privately owned by 5 for profit Ambulance services, that were amalgamated into Metro Ambulance in 1975.

Today Toronto Paramedics have one historic vehicle a 1954 Henney Packard as a parade vehicle, and a couple of the mid 70's Dodge vans, with the original colour paint job and the original interiors and lights on top.

link. EMSClassics.com - Image Details
 
Time Waits 4 No Man said:
A VINTAGE IRAQI WAR US AMBULANCE
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Is that real or a mock up?
MACKTEXAS said:
My personal favorite, 1952 Cadillac

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Those rigs were built like tanks.
hollydolly said:
These American ambulances are soo beautiul..unlike our Utilitarian vehicles...
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After the early sixties the same coach companies producing hearses and flower cars wanted their new line of ambulances to be designed as single or dual use coaches. I have seen ambulances from a large number of countries including England that were redesigned vehicles originally designed for goods transport. They were not the best for patient transport but the medical profession realizied the horse and buggy medical transport system was risky at best and took quite long to travel in a timely manner for patient survival. We have utilitarian style ambulances too but they are used for huge multicasulty incidents.
 
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Ambulance styles: Type 1 Type 2 Type 3 Special use.

www.ambulancemed.com/types-of-ambulances/

This is Reyno and not only is he a paramedic for FDNY-EMS but a doctor in the Dominican Republic. This is just one of his many videos preparing emt's what to expect when they step foot in the first day of FDNY-Ems class. There is no official AMT position in FDNY-EMS and no student gets kicked off the bus, they get driven back to the hospital or outpost they are assigned to. Other than a tall tale or two he is a pretty decent partner and training officer.

OUCH!!!!

 
jimintoronto said:
When I first started working for Metropolitan Toronto's Department of Ambulance Services in 1977, we had a few of the old style limo Ambulances. They were terrible to try to work in, compared to the Dodge vans that comprised most of the 120 vehicle fleet. Cramped so bad that you could not do CPR because the roof was so low. These had been previously privately owned by 5 for profit Ambulance services, that were amalgamated into Metro Ambulance in 1975.

Today Toronto Paramedics have one historic vehicle a 1954 Henney Packard as a parade vehicle, and a couple of the mid 70's Dodge vans, with the original colour paint job and the original interiors and lights on top.

link. EMSClassics.com - Image Details
Click to expand...
www.toronto.ca/city-government/accountability-operations-customer-service/city-administration/staff-directory-divisions-and-customer-service/toronto-paramedic-services/

 
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