Keystone No. 251 Fire Department

Here's the last of the three known keystone Fire Stations/Fire Departments, the No. 251 from ca1950. My source claims all three stations came out about the same time but I find that unusual. This is a more modern looking structure. The doors on this one are lever activated vs. the dowel-&-string arrangement of the the previous two with the actuating lever on the outside front of the building. That alone make me believe that this station came out later than 1950. There is a water tank inside that fills from the top but has no outlet from the bottom, but apparently feeds the water hydrant placed on the sidewalk just in front of the tank. As my sample is incomplete I would need to see photos of how this feature looked when properly set up and how it worked. The siren mechanism is housed inside the building (and works great on my sample BTW) but is activated by a wire lever sticking out of the 'SIREN ALARM" standing on the sidewalk out front. The base measures 17 3/4" (45.08cm) W x 10" (25.40cm) D. The building measures 17" (43.18cm) W x 7 1/4" (18.41cm) D. It is 8" (20.32cm) H overall. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

BJ George - Built-Rite Fire Department

For Fire Engine and Emergency Vehicle Friday we have this nice paper fire station from B.J. George. This model was designed using my photos of the Built-Rite No.56-5 Fire Station and is about half the size of the original. You'll notice as you look through the photos that I'm not the world's greatest modeler and rushing through these projects didn't help much either, but I've been wanting to post these for years now and just haven't gotten around to it so when I did start it was a rush to get things finished. At the last moment I decided to put a floor in this structure and open up the doors so that fire engines could go inside, but it also needs a ramp for the trucks to drive up onto. That'll be a project for another day - or year :-)  Hope you - Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

You can see the cardboard floor attached to the inside of the building

The portion of the upper roof that juts down to meet the flat roof must be trimmed to fit

Here it's shown with a Kellogg's Corn Flakes Fire Engine premium from 1957

Cereal Premium - 'Kellogg's Fire Dept' Fire Chief's Car

Today on Fire Engine and Emergency Vehicle Friday we're going back to our plastic roots but this time with a slight twist.  For the next few weeks we're going to take a look at some delightful, and diminutive, vehicles.  These were Kellogg's cereal premiums from, I believe, the late 1950s (I don't have any reference books on cereal premiums but the styling of the vehicles just screams late 1950s).  Generally speaking, cereal premiums came in several varieties:  toys which were packaged inside the box of cereal; cut-outs of all sorts printed on the back of the box; and nifty stuff you could send away for by either saving a bunch of box tops (or in later years, proofs of purchase or barcodes) and sending them in, or just sending in money.  The toy we're featuring today would have been packaged inside the box of cereal and it is the Kellogg's Fire Department (K.F.D.) Fire Chief's car.  It's only about 2 1/2" long with separate wheels.  The size and color made these a little difficult for me to photograph with my limited abilities but I hope you Enjoy!