Our 1956 American LaFrance pumper was in service until 1983. It had all of the features of our 1947 LaFrance, and more. You can see a deck gun (a master stream appliance), midship on the top. A 2-way radio was mounted under the dashboard. And the hose bed, that carried 1,000’ of 2½” hose, had a new addition: a shelf was installed above the hose bed to carry a skid load. The skid load consisted of two 150’ lengths of 1½” hose, preconnected to a 2½” supply line. This made it possible to deploy two attack lines and a supply line in a hurry. As you can see, the pump operator’s panel was located on the curb side of the apparatus.