Anyone have any idea what company the Athearn Ford F-850 is modeled after? The Ford C pumpers are KMEs, the Telesqurts are Pierce's and the rescues are Gerstenslagers. Is this '68 maybe a Central? What other companies might this one be made by?

Any word on if the Ford C rescues will be released in 1/50 to match the pumper and telesqrt?

I will do some digging with my contacts. But here is my guess: Towers. Why? The telesqurt came form the midwest. I think Athearn may have used the same source for the Ford photos. Towers was well known for their bumper pumpers and they were based in Illinois.

Towers would be fine with me, as they're here in the St. Louis area, and there used to be several Towers rigs around, mainly in the rural areas. Their pumpers that had side-mounted pump panels had a very distinct shape to them that no other builder had. Because of this you could identify it as a Towers rig from a mile away.

Another possible canidate for the builder could be Alexis. Which is another apparatus builder from Illinois.

The soon-to-be-released Athearn Ford F-850 pumper is a Towers.

I was just on the "Model Railroader" magazine website and there is an announcement about the release of the Athearn Ford F-850 pumpers and 3 pictures of the orange pumper. You can click on the pictures to enlarge them, and the bottom picture shows the back of the truck. Not too impressive is the hose in the hosebed, which was left painted silver . And in between the 2 lower tailboard compartment doors is the distinctive shape of the Towers logo.

All-in-all, though, this truck, like the Ford C's before it, is a very impressive rig! I will definately be buying a few of these. A June release is expected.

The Athearn website says that these rigs are due out in early July.

They are making one in LIME LIME GLORIOUS LIME!!!!!