77-79 Downsized Ambulances

Daniel Scully

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Was looking thru some old TPC,s and found this article.35-3.jpg35-4.jpg35-5.jpg35-6.jpg35-7.jpg35-8.jpg35-9.jpg35-10.jpg
 
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Interestingly, of the four downsize Superior ambulances delivered in NJ that Craig discussed in his article, at least two of them still exist. The Cheesequake '77 is now owned by PCS member Mike Barruzza. The '79 from Twin-W is still owned by them as a display/parade piece.

Both the Kearny and Marlton ambulances have been at past PCS meets in the 80's, but I don't know their current fates.
 
The 1978 Stettler General Hospital, Alberta Canada belongs to me. I purchased the car from the Copper River EMS. The car was taken in as a trade toward a new Crestline ambulance, by Peter Adsten, and went to another ambulance service in Healey Alaska, however, I have no knowledge of what agency. It then wound up at Copper River EMS in Glennallen, Alaska. I purchased it October 2004, after they were unsuccessful in finding a local buyer, and had to get it out of the cold ASAP. They informed me that they had no place to store the car indoors, and if it had been left outside, the engine would freeze from the cold and crack. I was able to get the car shipped to Oregon, and Rick Franklin stored it until I was able to get it moved East.
The picture is of it sitting outside in Glennallen Alaska in 2004.
 

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The Marlton '79 still exists and is in the hands of a collector. The only car out of the 30 that I know for certain no longer exists is the Lord Funeral Home '77. The last owner of this car reported that it had become so rusty it was no longer salvageable. Sadly, this car was crushed at least a few years ago if not longer. There may be a few others that no longer exist as well, and the known survivors are in varying degrees of condition, many of which are very good to excellent.
 
I would like to see the one that went to Saudi Arabia.

I had searched for a picture of that one for a very long time, and have come to the conclusion that no pictures exist. Now, just when I say that, someone will post a picture, and we will all be the winners.

I would love to see pictures of all that we can find posted in this thread, even if they are prior to retirement pictures. I also remember that AMR Connecticut also owns one, but don't know where it originally served. My best guess using the www.northlandpcs.com website search feature it is one of the 18th or 19th that was delivered to the Village of Dundee NY Fire Department. Photo archive #755
 

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The AMR '78 is one of two identical delivered to the Village of Dundee, NY. The twin resides on the property Darryl and Atti have been cleaning out.

29 of the 30 downsized Superior Transport ambulances are pictured in the Northland Photo Archive Database.

www.northlandpcs.com

Of course, there has to be one that eludes us in terms of photo and that is the '77 delivered to Huntemann Ambulance in Washington, DC. If anyone has a photo of that car, we'd sure like to see it!

The '79 that went to Saudi Arabia was finished in dark teal and white (pictured below.)

Roger D. White photo
 

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Caught the AMR rig schmoozing staff at a SNF in my companies territory, December of 2009.
 
...Of course, there has to be one that eludes us in terms of photo and that is the '77 delivered to Huntemann Ambulance in Washington, DC. If anyone has a photo of that car, we'd sure like to see it!...
Tony, I pestered Mike Huntemann about that for many years. He kept saying, "Yea, yea, I'll get you a picture of it," and never did, no big surprise. He refused Roger White's request, I understand. I don't see him regularly anymore. It's a shame because it's the only Transport I remember seeing in service, but I was a kid and didn't take any pictures.

Fortunately, this one still exists. It's a '77, originally from Rock Island, IL but now residing in the care of an on-and-off PCS member here in MD.
 

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Other Downzised

This Superior was first purchased by Physician's Ambulance of Rancho Cordova, CA then sold to Professional Ambulance of Glendale, CA the following year. It is owned by Lou Farah.

The M&M was owned by AIDS ambulance of Whitier, CA then sold to Pruner Ambulance of Ventura County, CA.

The last photo is one I found in the internet, another view of the ambulance in the earlier post.
 

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There you go Kent,

KL-16 is still around to haunt you !!:thumbsup:

I remember you pulling up to Mercy San Juan ER in her and all the crews were envious !!!
 
Here's another pic of the Riyadh car, from a series of photos taken by Dr. Roger White. You can see the slight greenish color.

Also, a nice photo of three Superior Transports gathered together at the '88 PCS International Meet in Decatur, IL. The one on the right is the one I posted earlier that now resides in MD.
 

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A friend in Alabama sent me this internet image saying it was over there. Unfortunately I know nothing about it or how old the photo is. May still be there, maybe not. I'm sure someone here can enlighten us...
 

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A friend in Alabama sent me this internet image saying it was over there. Unfortunately I know nothing about it or how old the photo is. May still be there, maybe not. I'm sure someone here can enlighten us...

I know about this car and have tried to buy it. It is owned by two gentleman who are joint owners in a funeral home but I think they were splitting up but although one didn't want the car would not let other sell it so there it is but suppossed to be very decent car. I talked to the guy who wants to get rid of it last year. Wish I could remember his name, time to call him again.
 
Let's see what we can come up with on the M-M downsized cars.

The best numbers I have seen indicate that Miller-Meteor built 21 Lifeliners in 1977 and 4 in 1978. For how many of the 25 can we produce photos?

This car was delivered new by Crane Sales to the Brundidge Alabama Rescue Squad. (We believe it was dealer-traded from a dealer in Florida to Crane)

I currently own this one.
 

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Groves and Co.

Three 1977 Miller-Meteor Lifeliners were delivered to Groves & Co. Funeral Home in Flint, Michigan. I don't know if any of them survive. While they were delivered to the customer as Omaha Orange and Cotillion White examples, they left the factory all-white. Dennis Distributor added the orange at the dealership prior to delivery to the customer.
 
Some others

Here are some other photos that I have seen, but I know nothing about them.
 

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Mark Provost

This is a 1977 Miller Meteor “Lifeliner” High-top Ambulance. This was built on a Cadillac Commercial Chassis at the Miller Meteor Plant in Piqua, Ohio. This was the first of Miller Meteor’s manufactured vehicles on the downsized chassis and proved to be the downfall of the sedan based ambulance. Vans offered much more room and were less expensive to produce. Patients and operators both will attest that nothing rides quit like a Cadillac. There were 21 of these ambulances produced by Miller Meteor 1977 and only 4 in 1978. Modifications that have been made to the car are: Model 184 beacons were removed and replaced with Federal Signal Model 14’s The lower portion of the front jump seat has been removed for storage MARS 888 Beacon , red lens installed The car has been repainted its original Omaha Orange & Cotillion White. It has chestnut brown interior and has the MM standard red-brick original linoleum. History of this Vehicle: Sold by Mark Hopkins – Miller Meteor Rep in 1978 Ordered by Groves & Co. in Flint Michigan , however, by the time the car arrived, the City of Flint, Michigan had began their own transport service and the need for a private ambulance service delclined. Jim Burnett was said to have been happy with the size and performance of the 1977 Cadillacs, but his focus on the funeral home/ambulance business changed to other things. New, it was then sold to Warren DeRose with “Quick Ambulance” located in Detroint , MI ($ 26,000). He sold the car back to Mark Hopkins 3 years later with less than 10,000 miles. Hopkins whole-saled the vehicle to Fred McPeck in Denver “Peak Coachworks” for $ 8,500. The car was then sold to Cedaredge Medical Center in Colorado ($ 13,500) where it stayed for several years. It was then sold back to Peak Coachworks in Denver and Manager Leo Branstetter sold the car to a private individual ( Randy Lesher ) of Canon City CO., who intended to restore the vehicle but never did. The car once again went to Leo in Denver when I purchased it in May of 2000.
 

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This one popped up for sale on the old board in 2010, don't know anything about it other than the guy was selling it for a friend whose husband had passed away. The guy was from Wisconsin, his name was Trevor Matuszak if anyone wants to try to track him down, but he wasn't the owner. Made one post and was never heard from again. I have other pictures of the interior saved.

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