At the turn of the Century steam pump fire engines were made mainly by American La France in North America, Merryweather and Shand Mason Co in Britain, Thirion in France and Braun, Busch, Krauss, Metz, Magirus and Moltrecht in Germany. One of the first self propelled fire engine - the Braun appeared inEurope in 1890 - built on the general lines of the Merryweather and Shand Mason - really a horse drawn steamer with chain drive to the larger rear wheels. Then came the W.C.F.Busch of Hamburg - Bautzen who specialised in all forms of pumps, stationary and mobile, powered by steam, petrol or electricity. Busch produced the steam self propelled fire engine which had twin rods connecting the front axle to the ashpan of the boiler.
The motive power unit, the pumping engine, the water tanks, petrol tank and coal bunker of the Busch have a capacity for a one hour journey.The 70 litre boiler has 7.2 sq.m. heating surface, producing a maximum working pressure of 10 atmospheres. The pumping engine consists of a double acting twin cylinder and control gear. Within the optimum working pressure of 8-10 atmospheres, the pump output is 2100 litres/minute. To propel the vehicle, which has a total weight of 5.3 tonnes, a 2 cylinder engine drives the rear whells by chain through a central differential gearbox. The maximum road speed is 30 km/h.
Such a vehicle would be manned by a crew of 6 including the stoker and an engine driver.
The surprising thing about the steam fire engines is that so few of them were self propelled, although they were the backbone of the largest fire brigades. One reason is that they were operated alongside horse drawn steam dire engines, and another, is that the steam pumper was not maintained ready to pump out at a minutes notice. In an emergency starting with cold water, a working pressure of 4 atmospheres would be raised in 10 minutes.
This is an imposing engine, and careful study of the model reveals its effective intricacy and true complexity. This model is of the Busch fire engine kept at the Swiss Fire Brigade Museum in Basel.

The (Y43-1) 1905 Busch Self-propelled Fire Engine joined the range in 1991.
The Busch is generally accepted to be one of the most accurate and detailed models ever produced by Lesney. With a minimal amount of plastic used and the wheels being inticate diecast metal castings helped to make this the success it has been.

The model was released as a Special Edition.
It came packed in a special box and the baseplate is marked made in China.

The production run was 34,198.

Livery: (Tampo)
Feuer Wehr Basel shield on both sides of front seat.

Variations/Rarities: The rare pre-production version had copper plating to the boiler collars and pipework but the regular issue had brass plated collars and pipes.

There were no further issues of the Y43-1 released although the casting has been reissued in the Yesteryear Collectibles Range.

Interesting Facts: This Special Limited Edition model of a self propelled steam fire engine is a replica of the vehicle in the Feuerwehr Museum at Basel in Switzerland, which also has a working fire station.

Scale: 1:43

1905 Busch Self-propelled Fire Engine

It came packed in a special box marked with YS-43