Two-headed fire truck - photo

[Jon]

PSA Chelnok double cabin fire engine, built for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.



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[Frank S]

Really give a new meaning to back seat drivers but at the same highly versatile when needing to maneuver through a crowd or having to reverse out of a narrow corridor

[NortonDommi]

I wonder if the steering is a simple lock/unlock or can both ends be steered? Brilliant idea though.

[Frank S]

I wonder if the steering is a simple lock/unlock or can both ends be steered? Brilliant idea though.

I would be greatly surprised if a driver on either end didn't have full control of all steering mode possibilities. to include crab and cramp modes much like the old Anthony Military forklifts were. Back in the 70's in my motor-pool I had both a 6000 lb and the 10,000 lb models these were mechanically linked power assisted systems front steer or rear steer or crab sideways and steer in opposite directions for cramped tight turns

[Turboconqueringmegaeagle]

Brilliant idea though.

A french idea as far as I am aware, on a slightly smaller but arguably much cooler scale

[Jon]

Short GIF of a 100' double-steered fire truck in action:

[mklotz]

We have a fire station near us that houses one of those dual-steered ladder trucks. Apparently the various fire crews alternate the task of grocery shopping for the station. In order to be able to respond rapidly to a call, they take their vehicle to the nearby shopping mall grocery. More than once I've turned up a lane in the parking lot only to have one of those monsters coming down the opposite way. It's a daunting experience* but the guys who handle those things are real professionals and can thread needles with their battleship-sized grocery truck. My hat is off to them.

--
* Perhaps my most daunting driving experience happened in Switzerland. The Swiss are passionately neutral but wisely maintain a modern military. I had just turned on to a small country road and was stunned to look in the rear view mirror and stare down the barrel of the huge (to me) cannon on a tank! It was following me, surprisingly quietly due to rubber tread pads. Not wanting to risk a road rage incident with an armed vehicle, I pulled over at the first opportunity and let it pass.

[Frank S]

" In order to be able to respond rapidly to a call, they take their vehicle to the nearby shopping mall grocery. "
I was standing in line at a Wallmart check out behind a lady when she saw an engine from the local FD pull past the door She exclaimed they they are wasting our tax money driving that big truck to the grocery store again. So I couldn't refuse asking her where she lived.
I live a block away she said. And did you drive your vehicle here only to buy a dozen eggs and a loaf of bread? Why yes My children are at home with a sitter and if an emergency happened I would want to get home as fast as possible. Her logic escaped me since it was probably further to her car in the parking lot that it was to her house, but I couldn't leave this alone. So the FD is 3 miles from here and if there was an emergency at your house only a block away would you rather have the sorely under paid Firefighters have to drive here in their private vehicles while they are in the middle of their 3 day on 3 day off shift receive a call that your house was on fire or your children were injured have drive their vehicles back the 3 miles to the FD gear up and drive their assigned FD vehicle back the 3 miles to render aid or fight a fire which could take up to 10 minutes response time? Or would you rather while they are out on their routine mandatory equipment check which includes having to log a few miles on the assigned vehicle stop off at the store and stock up on supplies for their dinner while performing their equipment checks, be with in 1 minute of your home in case of an emergency?
You tell me do you still think they are wasting your tax money?
Knowing that I was right and she was wrong instead of accepting my analogy she doubled down and said they could always drive one of the smaller vehicles that doesn't use so much expensive fuel polluting the environment and taking up so much room in front of the store making people have to walk around it to get to their cars what if the people had disabilities that made it difficult to walk around those big ugly things.
I gave up because you can't fix stupid

[Turboconqueringmegaeagle]

I gave up because you can't fix stupid

you are a better man than me, I wouldnt have bother in the first place!

Almost forgot about the channel tunnel service vehicles, Mercedes-Benz produced a fleet of double ended lorries to run down the centre service tunnel between the two rail tunnels, there are several variants including an ambulance and fire engine

[Jon]

One of Mercedes' most stunning accomplishments is the ability to make boxy vehicles look cool.

Here's a Rosenbauer Panther 6x6: