Coachbult.com - W.S. Darley & Co.



W.S. Darley & Co. - 1918-present - Melrose Park, Illinois

W.S. Darley marketed their apparatus as Champion Fire Apparatus

Since 1908, Darley has been dedicated to serving the world’s Fire and Emergency Services. Our corporate headquarters are located in Melrose Park, Illinois, and our manufacturing, engineering and research and development operations are in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin and Toledo, Oregon.

Chief Executive Officer is Bill Darley and he is certified engineer and has been with our company for over 50 years. He is one of the most respected individuals in the fire service due to his commitment and integrity. He served as President of the Fire Apparatus Manufacturers Association and currently serves on several corporate and charity boards.

Our entire company is committed to customer satisfaction. We are dedicated to excellence and offer a diverse line of quality products and services through progressive design, manufacturing and distribution.

W. S. Darley & Co.’s involvement in the Fire Industry spans almost a century and three generations of Darleys. They not only have a rock solid reputation for building quality products, but also for building strong relationships with Fire Fighting Organizations around the world. Darley draws their strength from being a financially stable company with a unique industry position. Darley builds Fire Trucks, manufactures Champion Fire Pumps and sells Fire Fighting and Emergency Equipment through its international catalog. Nowhere else will you find a company as dedicated to the Fire Industry. All this experience comes from a company that cares – W. S. Darley & Co. is customer driven

http://www.wsdarley.com/

ad in 1953 Silver Book pp83

Many trucks released by the Willys factory as pickups or "stripped chassis" were adapted by after-market manufacturers including:

Hicks Body Company of Lebanon, Indiana
Boyer Fire Apparatus of Logansport, Indiana
American Fire Apparatus of Battle Creek, Michigan
Howe Fire Apparatus of Anderson, Indiana
General Fire Truck Co. of Detroit
W.S. Darley of Chicago
John Bean Co. of Lansing, Michigan
Central Fire Truck Corp. of St. Louis
Oren Roanoke Corp. of Roanoke, Virginia
Young Fire Equipment of Buffalo, New York

These conversions also included Forward Control fire trucks built from the cab-over-engine trucks produced by Willys from 1956-65.

W.S. Darley & Co.

This 1956 unit produced by W.S. Darley & Company of Chicago is a fairly basic conversion of a Willys pickup truck, without the more specialized body work found on Willys conversions by General Fire Truck (see below) or Howe Fire Apparatus. It has a 500 GPM pump and 150 gallon booster tank. The spare tire suggests it might have been intended for a rural department, although it does not appear to have suction hose mounted in this factory photo supplied by Steve Hagy. Steve reports that the rig was in fact delivered to A.C.F. Industries of Buffalo, New York.

For more information please read:

Matthew Lee - W.S. Darley & Co. Fire Apparatus: 1908 Through 2000 Photo Archive

Walter M.P. McCall & George H. Dammann - American Fire Engines Since 1900

Fred W. Crismon - Fire Engines

Bob Dubbert - Encyclopedia of Canadian Fire Apparatus

Donal M. Baird - A Canadian History of Fire Engines

Phil DaCosta - One Hundred Years of America's Fire Fighting Apparatus

Bill Hass - History of the American Water Towers

Hans Halberstadt - The American Fire Engine

Hans Halberstadt - Fire Engines

T.A. Jacobs - A History of Fire Engines

Matthew Lee - A Pictorial History of the Fire Engine