Nee - nur ... nee - nur ...

[spikey]

In 1968 I was conveyed to hospital in a fine old Daimler ambulance which when necessary rang its bell by way of warning to pedestrians and other road users.  The recollection of this prompts two questions.  When did the nee-nurr sounders start taking over from the bells?  And when did the flashing blue lights come in?  I don't remember them when they still used bells.

[The Johnster]

Nee nurs seemed to arrive about '69 or '70, or perhaps that was my awareness of their replacing the sirens on the cars on American cop shows.  My last clear memory of the bells was October 66, when my high school was alongside the main road to Merthyr on the day of the Aberfan disaster, but if you had a ride in a daimler in '68 they were obviously still around then. 

 

They did seem to arrive with the blue flashers, though.

 

Somebody who knows what they are talking about will no doubt be along in a minute; paging Brian Rolley, paging Brian Rolley...

[spikey]

Cheers Johnster.  I suspect you might be right about the blue lights coming in with the two-tones, though I'm still wondering what if anything the Old Bill used on their cars at night apart from the bell.  Maybe they just flashed headlights?

 

I suspect that the Daimler ambulance in which I was conveyed in 1968 was at the very end of its working life, so maybe the bell was an anachronism then.

 

[StuAllen]

Found this… https://www.northamptongeneral.nhs.uk/About/OurHistory/History-of-Ambulance.pdf 

 

According to this the  introduction came about due to the opening on the M1 not long after 1959, looking at images of 60’s ambulances you can see the bell, horn and blue light, at the start of the 70s and the transit van based ambulances you can see they stopped having the bell.

[tigerburnie]

There were flashing blue lights in the late 1960's in Leicester as I recall being pulled over for speeding one New Years Eve on my way to Hinckley, that cost me £20 too.

[Colin_McLeod]

Perhaps the style of the ambulance warnings mirrored that of the fire service.

 

Before the horse drawn fire engines they used donkeys.

 

" Hee Haw  Hee Haw  Hee Haw"

[spikey]

2 minutes ago, Colin_McLeod said:

" Hee Haw  Hee Haw  Hee Haw"

 

Ah yes.  The old ones are the best, as I never tire of reminding the lady wife ...

[Michael Hodgson]

8 hours ago, spikey said:

I suspect you might be right about the blue lights coming in with the two-tones, though I'm still wondering what if anything the Old Bill used on their cars at night apart from the bell.  Maybe they just flashed headlights?

 

Cars ?   I thought an emergency just meant Sergeant Dixon was expected to pedal faster ?

[John M Upton]

The Sweeney in the mid seventies depicted their well known Ford Consul and the lesser known dark blue Mk3 Cortina as having bells when in a pursuit although I suspect as per The Bill twenty years later, any sound effects emitted by the vehicles was actually dubbed on in post production.

Edited August 29, 2021 by John M Upton

[Johann Marsbar]

I do remember hearing bells being used on an unmarked car in Central London sometime during the mid 1980's - it took me by surprise (and made me think of "The Blue Lamp") as I thought sirens had replaced bells years before that.   Only other time was one of the Green Goddesses based in Ipswich during the Firemans strike in the late 1970's (1978?) which seemed to only have bells and no siren - though I can't remember whether it had blue lights or not.

[NHY 581]

The use of two tones was certainly the subject of debate at Westminster 1969 suggesting a recent introduction and use.

 

This excerpt from Hansard records the Q&A. 

 

Emergency Vehicles (Two-tone Horns)

HC Deb 09 June 1969 vol 784 cc936-7936§38. Mr. Ronald Bell 

asked the Minister of Transport whether he will alter the regulations governing the use of horns by motor vehicles so as to prohibit the use of two-tone horns by the police, fire and ambulance services and restore the use of bells by drivers in the emergency services.

937Mr. Bob Brown 

"No, Sir. Experience has shown that in modern traffic a two-tone horn is more effective than a bell in clearing the way for emergency vehicles.

§Mr. Bell 

Must we always copy the worst features of other countries? Is the hon. Gentleman really satisfied with this competition in noise he has described? Would it not be better if his Ministry were to press forward far more vigorously in reducing general noise of urban traffic so that some less strident signal would be adequate for emergency vehicles?

Mr. Brown 

The hon. and learned Gentleman must realise that the advent of the trafficator has meant that people do not need to have their windows wound down so often in order to give hand signals. In addition, more motorists are listening to radios, which makes it much more difficult to hear warning signals"

 

A certain irony that the question was raised by the Rt Hon Bell..............

 

 

 

From my own experience, the Pandas retained two tones for quite a while after the introduction of the later wail, yelp, etc  warnings on other police vehicles ( early 2000s ish I seem to recall)  

 

If the two tones developed a fault, you made progress in a somewhat wheezy, breathless fashion, much to the amusement of colleagues and public alike. 

 

Late ninties and some Pandas in residential areas didn't have two tones with their drivers relying on the vehicle horn to alert other road users.  Only those allocated to us in the city centre having two tones. That particular 'initiative' didn't last long. 

 

 

Rob

 

 

 

 

Edited August 30, 2021 by NHY 581

[kevinlms]

A late fire truck driving club member was telling me that in Australia the bells were discontinued, not long after a multiple fatality accident, where 2 fire trucks collided on their way to a call out. They couldn't hear the other one above their own ringing, because of the identical tones.

 

They collided on a merge. Probably in the bad old days, where sometimes at least they hung on to the side when travelling.

Not sure when, but I would expect late 60s, early 70s.

 

Too bad on MPs not liking the noise.

[spikey]

20 minutes ago, NHY 581 said:

... the advent of the trafficator has meant that people do not need to have their windows wound down so often in order to give hand signals. In addition, more motorists are listening to radios, which makes it much more difficult to hear warning signals" ...

There you go.  Proof that it's all been going to the dogs since the late 60s.

 

Pah!  Listening to radios indeed.  Whatever next?

 

Anyhow, ref two-tones failing, a pal of mine who was a copper in Lancashire at the time of the miners' strike swears blind that he and a load of his mates were sent from Warrington to some big pit or other in a police bus which had only the normal horn, so in order to pass the time en route, one side of the bus did "nee" and the other side did "nur" when required.

 

 

[spikey]

6 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

Too bad on MPs not liking the noise.

 

Some time in the late 1960s, a new fire station was opened in Grimsby.  Its location meant that on most of the shouts, appliances would exit the station and go straight up the road into the centre of town past a house which was occupied by a rather superior old lady woman.  Before long, a letter appeared in the local evening paper complaining of the dreadful noise emanating from fire appliances at all times of the day and night including Sundays.

 

Can't remember now the wording of the fire brigade's famous response in the following edition, but the gist of it was that they regretted the disturbance but felt that it was necessary.  However, if the complainant would like to let them know her address, they'd be happy to note it and ensure that if she ever called them out, they drove there without the sirens ...

 

[kevinlms]

4 minutes ago, spikey said:

 

However, if the complainant would like to let them know her address, they'd be happy to note it and ensure that if she ever called them out, they drove there without the sirens ...

 

At the preferred nominated time of day, but never on a Sunday!

[John M Upton]

Our local rural Policeman back in the days when such things still existed (early 1980's) had a fully marked up Austin Metro, totally unsuitable for the rural country lanes and farm tracks of the South Downs of course that just had the single blue flashing light in the centre of the roof but no siren.

 

I last saw it about 1985, it had notched up over a 150,000 miles....

[Fat Controller]

10 hours ago, John M Upton said:

The Sweeney in the mid seventies depicted their well known Ford Consul and the lesser known dark blue Mk3 Cortina as having bells when in a pursuit although I suspect as per The Bill twenty years later, any sound effects emitted by the vehicles was actually dubbed on in post production.

I hope they credited the 'Foley Ringer'.

[Colin]

I think the blue light may have started to appear on police cars in the early 1960s - for evidence, check out the Triang Minic Motorways police Jag from around 1963 which had a working blue light on the roof.

[spikey]

2 hours ago, Fat Controller said:

I hope they credited the 'Foley Ringer'.

 

Gosh.  Nice one!

[kevinlms]

2 hours ago, John M Upton said:

Our local rural Policeman back in the days when such things still existed (early 1980's) had a fully marked up Austin Metro, totally unsuitable for the rural country lanes and farm tracks of the South Downs of course that just had the single blue flashing light in the centre of the roof but no siren.

 

I last saw it about 1985, it had notched up over a 150,000 miles....

Don't forget Heartbeat, with the blue & black Ford Anglia's. They both had blue lights on them.

[ikks]

22 hours ago, spikey said:

 

Ah yes.  The old ones are the best, as I never tire of reminding the lady wife ...

Brave brave man!!

[ikks]

5 hours ago, spikey said:

 

Some time in the late 1960s, a new fire station was opened in Grimsby.  Its location meant that on most of the shouts, appliances would exit the station and go straight up the road into the centre of town past a house which was occupied by a rather superior old lady woman.  Before long, a letter appeared in the local evening paper complaining of the dreadful noise emanating from fire appliances at all times of the day and night including Sundays.

 

Can't remember now the wording of the fire brigade's famous response in the following edition, but the gist of it was that they regretted the disturbance but felt that it was necessary.  However, if the complainant would like to let them know her address, they'd be happy to note it and ensure that if she ever called them out, they drove there without the sirens ...

 

Edited August 30, 2021 by ikks
stuffed up

[ikks]

8 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

I do remember hearing bells being used on an unmarked car in Central London sometime during the mid 1980's - it took me by surprise (and made me think of "The Blue Lamp") as I thought sirens had replaced bells years before that.   Only other time was one of the Green Goddesses based in Ipswich during the Firemans strike in the late 1970's (1978?) which seemed to only have bells and no siren - though I can't remember whether it had blue lights or not.

Reminds me of the old story about the old chap who died of a heart attack one Sunday morning, when asked by the vicar at the funeral, what she thought the reason might be. His wife answered, well vicar, every Sunday morning we used to love each other in time to the church bells but last Sunday morning the bloody fire engine went past our house................Sorry

Mike

Edited August 30, 2021 by ikks
missed a bit

[Classsix T]

Any excuse for this classic...

 

 

C6T.