Does anyone here remember years ago seeing articles and pictures in a fire-related magazine (or was it in The Visiting Fireman???) of some guy's ficticious fire department called Luna Beach? His rigs were, if I remember correctly, 1/64 scale, and he scratchbuilt all of them, and even the fire stations to house them. He even scratchbuilt a fire training center for the rigs. His models were 1950's and 1960's vintage, if I remember right. This guy even created a ficticious map of the City of Luna Beach, and a city hydrant map along with it. He was a master model builder and is now deceased.

I've even Googled "Luna Beach Fire Department" but came up with nothing. Anyone else remember seeing these rigs? Is there a link to any pictures of these rigs somewhere on the 'net?

Luna Beach Fire Department was the work of LA County Fire Capt. Tom Showers...all in 1/32nd scale. While most of his work was totally scratch built, he used literally hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of the Aurora American LaFrance 900 Series Pumper kits to get his tires, wheels and rims, and numerous accessory parts. At the time, those kits sold for $2.98 each. They were first released in red; then, later on in white.

Tom's models can be found in fire museums and private collections all across the country. One of the largest private collections is in the Bob Schierle Fire Museum (in Bob's home) in Westfield, New Jersey. Bob has the only complete set of the FDNY Super Pumper System that Tom built for him when it went into service back in 1965. He built it in his workshop in California, then packed it in popcorn (those were the days prior to 'plastic peanuts'), then shipped it via the mail all the way across the country to Bob in New Jersey. Bob told me (back then) that there were a few loose pieces, but, for the most part, the whole group of models came through in pretty good shape.

There have been numerous articles written about Tom; perhaps a search on 'Tom Showers' will get you more information.

Hope this helps...

Larry Phillips
TOY TRUCKER Magazine

Location: North Dakota

The Luna Beach Fire Department was the creation of Califorina resident Tom Showers, who was involved professionally in the fire service for many years,and a well-known fire apparatus modeller. He worked mostly in 1/32nd scale, and scratchbuilt almost all of his models.

Tom organized his Luna Beach fleet and stations very prototypically, including programmed replacement of his vehicles.

He also built models outside of the Luna Beach concept, and was known to build for others. He was a very prolific and talented fire modeller.

Tom passed away a few yeara ago, and others in the hobby have been the proud recipients of his various models.

Although I never met Tom personally, I did correspond with him on occasion.

Location: Owen Sound, Ontario CANADA

Thanks for the information. Much appreciated! I will Google Tom's name.

I remember seeing photographs of those kitbashes in plastic model magazines over thirty, probably forty years ago. Really fantastic stuff. Are there any sites today which feature those models?

I Googled Tom Showers' name and didn't come up with anything.

Did some more research on Tom, and found a website called GSL 7-11, and Tom won some awards for his models: 1959 Crown pumper, 1939 ALF aerial, 1937 ALF and a 1941 ALF. No pictures, unfortunately.

Tom Showers was a good friend of mine, and the most prolific model builder I've ever known. I have about 75 models that Tom built for me and for some other collectors that grew tired of the models and sold them to me. I have nine of his Luna Beach models. He created the mythical City of Luna Beach and created a map of the city and then built model fire stations for each district (everything in 1/32nd scale) including a fire boat station, an airport station and a training facility. You could lift the roof off the stations and there was interior detail. He would build the rigs for the stations, and after a couple of years he would upgrade the apparatus just like a real department and sell the older rigs which is how I came about obtaining the Luna Beach rigs. During his career with the Los Angeles County Fire Department he was the person who designed the Paramedic squads for the department that are still used today. He had a collection of over two hundred models in his personal collection of both foriegn and U.S. rigs. After his death, a good portion of those models were donated to the Los Angeles City Fire Museum where many of them are now on display. I have tried to find the names of the people Tom built models for, but he didn't keep good records so the number of models he built will never be know for sure, but they had to number in the hundreds. He started building models as a Navy firefighter stationed at Pearl Harbor, and several of his models were destroyed during the attack of December 7th. His early models were built of all Balsa wood, including the wheels and tires. I am lucky enough to have three of his early Balsa models and they are amazing. Tom was a gentleman and was always ready to share his advice on model building. I visited him twice when he lived in California and twice when he lived his final years in Las Vegas. For someone like us visiting Tom and seeing his collection and watching him at work, was like visiting the Dali Lama!

Location: Coral Gables, Florida

I've had the honor of reconstructing three of Tom's rigs. He did a unique thing to hold them together. No super glue back then. After glueing them with what looked to me like Ambroid cement he heat suaged the joints to hold the corners of the cabs and bodies. Sometimes they didn't take too well.
He also did not prime the plastic but used Testors red directly. One of the models I had to strip as someone had done a very poor job of trying to paint over the original red with black and orange. The paint came of in big sheets. I never had to sand much to get it ready to repaint.
He also did a number of turnings in aluminum such as headlights and spot lights.
The three I rebuilt were a Young Bison for Pearl River FD, A Young Crusader with no FD reference and an HT Ahrens Fox for the Friendship Fire Company of Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Bob Milnes has the latter two and Tom Shand has the Bison.

I would love to see some photo's, These sound like they would be masterpieces to behold.

Tom also did drawings for a number of the models he built. I purchased some a couple of years ago on E-Bay. Tom usually "signed" his drawings using a very clever umbrella signature although sometimes he used "TS". Check E-Bay, they may still be available.

If I can post pictures I will try and resurrect some before and after shots of the 3 I rebuilt.

I had the great honor to have two Tom Showers models rebuilt by Charlie Rowley - it doesn't get much better than that!

Location: Coral Gables, Florida