History and Heritage:

 Ring the bell!!! Main St. Fire Engine turns 55:

 The Disneyland Resort has a very real fire department keeping it safe, but there's a smaller fire department protecting Main Street, U.S.A., at Disneyland Park. When the park first opened, Guests could take a ride down Main Street aboard a horse-drawn fire wagon, which exited service in 1960 and remains parked inside the Main Street Fire Station, next to City Hall.

 But in 1958, the last of the Main Street Vehicles debuted, and the department's firefighting equipment got a turn-of-the-20th-century makeover. The Main Street Fire Engine is based on a 1916 American LaFrance fire engine, rolling at the blazing speed of 5 miles per hour. It was designed by Imagineer and Disney Legend Bob Gurr, as were the other Main Street Vehicles, and it was built at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. When the fire engine was ready for delivery, Bob took the wheel and drove it down to Disneyland himself.

The fire engine was a favorite vehicle of Walt Disney, who frequently drove it around the park in the mornings prior to opening: his last official picture at the park was taken aborad it in 1966. In the early 1990s,the fire engine was converted to run on clean-burning natural gas.

Sweet...Dr Lee