Station wagon ambulances

[Steve Loftin]

This thread will be for cars whose primary function was as an ambulance. Some fire and police department wagons as well as funeral home service cars carried folding stretchers and could be pressed into ambulance service if necessary; let's save photos of those for a different thread. Let's get started:

Myers Mortuary (Wewoka, OK)
1962 Chevrolet
The siren was bent backwards when it hit a low canopy (note the flat
mounting base, along with the damaged faceplate). You can see that the beacon dome is broken as well. The incident happened long after they exited the ambulance business (she was used for first calls into the late 1980s). This car had a three-on-the-tree transmission.

The '72 Vista Cruiser was puchased new by the City of Helena, OK after the Fossett F.H. announced it would discontinue its ambulance service. When Kenny Lanman bought the firm in the late 1970s, he again offered ambulance service. He used this car as a backup to his '69 S&S hightop. The wagon was turned back over to the city (with around 30,000 miles on it) after he bought a new Wheeled Coach/Chevy Suburban hightop in 1980.

The '70 Vista Cruiser was owned by Smith's in Sapulpa, OK. It had a #28 and two small red flashers behind the grille, in addition to the Visibar.

Mallett's in Wagoner, OK owned this '64 Chevy with a Gordon K. Allen Co. (Superior dealership in Dallas) ambulance conversion.

Luginbuel's in Vinita, OK had two of these '75 Custom Cruisers. This one had power windows and locks as well as cruise/tilt. The other one, used by their firm in nearby Pryor (Harris F.H.), had crank windows, manual locks, and no cruise/tilt.

(SL photos)

[Steve Loftin]

1965 Ford/Summers - G.W.C.F.H., Pryor, OK
1965 Ford/Gordon Allen - Ninde F.H., Jenks, OK

(SL photos)

1959 Ford/local conversion - Jim Green F.H., Pryor, OK
1964 Ford/ " - "
Note the four Carpenter Wig-Wag lights on the '59; two were blue, two red.

(JGFH photos)

[Steve Loftin]

We should probably include sedan delivery ambulances in this thread as they are a close relative of the station wagon. Stretched wagons and deliveries, however, as well as those with raised roofs, qualify as standard limousine-style ambulances and should be posted to the appropriate threads. That said...

Wilson F.H. (Pond Creek, OK)
1957 Mercury Commuter
(old WFH postcard)

Lucas F.H. (Hurst, TX)
1952 Ford Courier sedan delivery
(note the Federal BR-2 flasher at the center of the roof)

Sidmon F.H. (Kansas City, MO)
1959 Ford Country Sedan
(from a matchbook cover)

Hough F.H. (Morrisonville, IL)
1967 Buick Sport Wagon
(SL photo)

[Steve Loftin]

Allen Cook Chevrolet was a dealership in Winnsboro, TX that offered station wagon ambulance conversions for a couple of years in the 1960s. Here is one of their ads; this one, from the March, 1963 issue of Morticians of The Southwest magazine.

What interested me most about this ad was that they were also a Ferno and Federal dealer. That's really all it took to equip most funeral home ambulances of the period...a #54-L stetcher and a #11 auxiliary cot as well as red lights and siren*. Many funeral home ambulances (in this part of the country, anyway) in 1963 didn't have two-way radios. Most operators supplied their own oxygen (if they carried it) and first aid supplies.

That's the way it was...

*The 1963 Chevrolet shown (Dudley Hughes F.H., Dallas, TX) sports what was the most popular warning system in this part of the country back then; four Do-Ray lollipops, a #17 beacon, and a Q2B whistle. I don't remember seeing ANY of these cars with an upgraded electrical system! An "uptown" conversion of the time would've also had curtains and rear window insignias.

[Steve Loftin]

Here's another wagon conversion ad:

[Anthony J. Rzucidlo]

The Detroit Police Department (Michigan) provided ambulance service in Detroit from 1961 through 1973 when the present EMS operations started in 1972. Detroit utilized Dodge, Plymouth and in the end Ford station wagons for this purpose. The were equipped with two folding stretchers,blankets and pillows and that's about it. When not required for medical transportation, the "wagons" were used for patrol activities. They were painted and marked the same as regular sedan patrol cars or as they were called in Detroit "scout cars."

The then Dearborn Township Fire Department (Michigan) present day Dearborn Heights Fire back in the ealry 1960's converted a couple of Ford Fairlane station wagons into ambulances. They both had two junior becon rays mounted on the roof and the highbeam headlights were red alternating lights. The rear windows on the wagons were frosted windows.

[Steve Loftin]

Owen F.H. (Sapulpa, OK)
1956 Ford

(OFH photo)

McQuary A.S. (Oklahoma City, OK)
1947 Ford
It was common through the early 1960s for mothers and new babies to be brought home from the hospital in an ambulance. I'm guessing that not many operators were big enough to have a rig dedicated to just that service, as did this firm. A wicker bassinet, with blue and pink linens, was a common ambulance item back in the day.

(SL collection)

[Tony Karsnia]

Here's another photo taken by my dad ca. 1968 when he worked for Brenny's Granite City Ambulance Service in St. Cloud, MN while attending St. Cloud State University. This is a 1965 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser wagon.

[Russell Street]

Replace the 184 with a 176 Beacon, add red lights in the high beams, throw a Q on the roof and you've got your basic P&S rig from Akron, Ohio in the 1960's.

[Steve Loftin]

A-1 Ambulance (Waco, TX)
1970 Vista Cruiser

(SL collection)