When Fire Engines were OMG

Fire engines were not always today's high tech wonders. This one looks as if it was once a 1890s horse drawn and then converted to horsepower drawn. Diesel or gasoline? Who knows. I'd guess the conversion, if it was converted, took place in the 1920s.

Looks like it was a bear to steer, and God knows how you pumped water from the tank. Guess they used that old fashioned kind of power once termed elbow grease, or man power.

Of course, the pump may've been driven by the engine hidden from sight under the Snoopy nose dangling four feet over open space.

I do not know who is standing proudly in front of the behemoth, but I suspect he didn't drive it. At least not dressed in a suit right out of the 1950s.

All I know about the photo is that it was taken in Westville, New Jersey, by someone who was, yup, from Jersey.