Hallmark Ornament Fire Truck


U

UP2CSX

Fleeing from Al
Hallmark has neat fire truck ornament on sale this year. It's about O scale and would be a nice addition for an O scale layout or just for a fire truck collector. It's a 1965 Chevy brush truck with very nice detailing for a Christmas ornament. If you remove the ornament hanger and replace it with an antenna, it would be as nice as some of the ones I've seen for selling for $50 and up at model fire truck web sites. At $18.50, it's a bargain. I did a little extra detailing, like adding lenses for the spot lights and red lights on the cab sides and some gold striping, but most of it is as it comes out of the box. The headlights and roof beacon light when you press a button on the hose bed.

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wow, good find Jim!
Keep digging, there must be some HO ornaments out there somwhere!
 
Rico, I wish. I shopped for about 45 minutes in the ornament section. They had a nice Reading steam engine that looked close to N scale, a nicely detailed police station, complete with cells, that was close to O scale, and the fire truck. About the only thing close to HO was Tinkerbelle and I don't think I need her on the layout. :) No police cars either. :(

I wish I knew what company actually made the fire truck. I took it apart to see how the wiring was done (very neatly, BTW) and couldn't find anything but the Hallmark name and the usual Made in China label. The picture doesn't really show it but the roof beacon has an LED that is a good simulation of a rotating light. I'm almost sure this was made by a regular model company and slightly modified for Hallmark. Even the interior is complete with gauges and pedals. The only thing missing is windshield wipers. Whoever made it, Hallmark got a good deal.
 
LOL... you're still a kid, aren't you? Just had to take your new toy apart, eh?
I'll bet you can find the wipers somewhere if you're so inclined.
I have a ton of the hallmark train ornaments, they are close to N scale for sure.
 
Even with that loop on the roof I have a hard time believing it's a Christmas ornament. Definately a very good find.
 
Excellent! Hallmark is not the only ornament maker out there. Another company, Enesco, does some stuff close to HO, though some of the buildings will need new windows as the stock ones are uber-clunky.
 
After the original post, I checked around local stores that carry such ornaments without any luck. My wife used to work in a gift shop and told me the Hallmark ones start coming in around July. So I did a Google search and found some available online, at higher prices ($24.00+), so I checked eBay.

I did find some on eBay, some with higher prices but also found one with a "Buy it Now" price of $18.99, so I ordered it. I assume I'll get it this coming week, slow because of the Xmas rush. Not a bad buy, O scale vehicle with operating light!

Thanks to the original poster for the heads up!
 
Bob, glad you were able to find one at near the original price. I'm sure they got snapped up pretty fast by fire truck and ornament collectors. I got the last one they had at my Hallmark store.

Matt, that's a 1965 version of a brush truck. It was called a triple combination then because it had a normal suction pump to work off hydrants, a 500 gallon tank to fight fires where there were no hydrants, and the controls to act as an auxilary pumper with a booster reel. It wasn't for another 20 years or so that what we now know as brush trucks were developed. Self-contained generator pumps, four-wheel drive, and lots of compartments for brush gear and backpack hand sprayers were still in the future.
 
Boy i guess that really shows my generation, heres a pic of the brush truck that the dept that i help out during the summer has. its since been modified alittle bit i beleive but this is pretty much it
 
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Jim- they average 90 calls a year in a small agriculture town lol i dont know how many of those are brush related though.
 
Jim maybe you could throw some highrail wheels on that truck.:p
Here's one I used to run, sort of a bush truck:
 
That would be a nifty idea if I had an O scale layout. Were you working a rail grinding train? I know the SP always had to have their fire fighting tender following them whenever they were rail grinding across the Sierras.
 
Yes that was following one of the Loram "Big Yellow Dragons" across BC.
Those fires spread pretty fast when you start them on a "fuzzy hill"!
 
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