For Sale McDonald & Arneson model M

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tsquale

Lifetime VIP Donor
Oct 12, 2010
10,511
Minnesota, USA
1- McDonald & Arneson model M: untested, but looks like it needs work. Dome does have some large cracks, but the dome is in one piece. Base needs polish. Nice legible tag. I do have replacement pencil-flashers should they be needed. $125 85 shipped.

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Skip Goulet

Member
Feb 23, 2011
4,241
Midland, TX
Whooooa! Haven't seen one of those in many, many years, Tony! First ones I ever saw were in the late '50s on Ft. Worth P.D. units. The federal gov't also used a large number of them on their Pontiac coach-type ambulances. I worked out of an old '58 ex-Air Force Pontiac ambulance that belonged to a nursing home in Big Spring, TX that also operated Alert Ambulance, the local ambulance service that was literally "dumped" into the nursing home's lap in 1965 or thereabouts. Bruce Frazier, who operated the nursing home, bought the Pontiac just for transporting nursing home patients, as he didn't get along with the owner of then-Big Spring Ambulance. But suddenly late one night, B.S.A.'s owner called the police dispatcher and informed the dispatcher that as of midnight that night their operations would cease. Dispatch in turn called Bruce who swiftly learned that his nursing home would be the sole ambulance provider in Big Spring. At that time the lone piece of emergency lighting on the '58 Pontiac was a Model M light mounted front-center on the high top, and he had already replaced the little EG siren that had come with the vehicle with a B&M S8B Siro-Drift siren. During their first few months of operation, the Pontiac ran with "just" the M light and the B&M. But the ambulance was eventually involved in an MVA that destroyed the B&M siren. When the ambulance was rebuilt, Bruce added small double-faced red lights to all four corners of the high roof and a Sireno RJ8 siren over the cab. He eventually ended up with a fleet of three ambulances by the time I went to work for him in the summer of 1966. Just by coincidence also in 1966, the City of Lubbock bought a fleet of 1957 low top military Pontiac ambulances when the five funeral homes who operated ambulances suddenly discontinued their ambulance operations. The Pontiacs were all painted solid white. The sole emergency light was a Model M light mounted over the cab. They remained on the vehicles, with the city adding a pair of red Dietz "lollipop" lights to the front corners of the roof a Federal 66G sirens to the left fenders to replace the small sirens that came with them.

The Pontiacs were then stationed at each of the then-seven fire stations in Lubbock, with two stationed at the Central Station downtown. Lubbock's one-and-only venture into the ambulance service only lasted a few months for two reasons: (a) The old Pontiacs were in miserable condition from the start and were constantly being worked on; and (b) One funeral home, Henderson Funeral Directors, announced that they would re-enter the ambulance service. Once Henderson was up and rolling again, LFD dropped their ambulance service and never looked back again. In 1967 another funeral home re-opened their ambulance service, but received a hard time from city fathers since they had left the ambulance service. In response to that, the funeral home along with three others formed a corporation known as AID Ambulance, which opened in 1968 and for whom I dispatched from 1968 until 1972.

As to the old LFD Pontiacs, all but one of them were sold at auction. The remaining one was kept in service until the mid-80s when it was finally sold at auction (and for which I got beat out). It had been used once a year as a standby unit at the annual Panhandle-South Plains Fair that ran in September every year. Never knew who ended up with that last Pontiac as I think it left town. By that time my standby ambulance service was up and running. That's why I bid on the old beast, just to add it to the fleet!
 
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