In 1904, brothers William and Gustav A. Schacht ran a small shop making farm wagons and buggies in Cincinnati, OH, when they decided to attach a two-cylinder, 10-horsepower gasoline motor to one of their two-pasenger, high-wheeled buggies, powering the rear wheels via chain drive. The Schacht high-wheeler automobile soon developed a loyal following among early automobile buyers in southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, and southeastern Indiana, and the Schacht Manufacturing Company was founded in 1904 to make these "horseless carriages". As of 1911, the Schacht factory was at Sanford and Cumberland Avenues in Cincinnati.
Unusual for an automobile of this early era, the Schacht featured a steering wheel, instead of a tiller. It also featured a brass radiator at the front of the buggy. The entire carriage of the buggy was suspended on a pair of semi-elliptic multi-leaf springs, which attached at the front and rear axle beams. The high wheels, although appearing fragile, actually gave the Schacht greater maneuvarability than many competitors, over the bumpy and muddy roads of that era. However, the solid rubber tires and rigid wooden wheels made for one very rough ride.
1905 Schacht high-wheeler (Ed Hass photo)
In 1904, Schacht offered only the two-cylinder, 10-horsepower model. In 1905, this model was still available, but a 4-cylinder, 30-horsepower model was also available. In 1906, the horsepower of the 4-cylinder model increased from 30 to 40.
1906 Schacht high-wheeler for sale by M.G. Kirby: two-cylinder motor, two-passenger, water-cooled
Profile of a 1906 Schacht high-wheeler, from Hemmings Motor News of Bennington, VT
In 1907, Schacht designated its 10-horsepower, two-cylinder model as Schacht Model H. The 4-cylinder, 40-horsepower Model was dubbed Model B.
In 1908, fledgling Schacht was hit with a double whammy, when Henry Ford introduced the most popular car of the day, his Model T. And that same year, several auto makers (Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Buick, etc.) consolidated into General Motors. Schacht scrambled unsuccessfully to compete against these two new automotive powerhouses. Worse, wealthy Michigan lumber barons (with trunkfuls of money to invest) were bankrolling GM and Ford, and the Schacht brothers had no such financing to help them compete. Ironically, one of the finest examples of a Schacht of this era (a 1909), is now in the Henry Ford Museum!
I own a 1907 Schacht High Wheeler, unrestored, which was bought new by 2 brothers who were doctors and used it to make house calls into the teens, it was parked and stored by the family for 3 generations. I bought it at the estate auction and have it stored. I haven't the funds to delve into a full restorations, but am also researching the company and gathering what information I can to help when I do the restoration. Currently I am a member of the Horseless Carriage Club and know a few owners. I have been in contact with the Cincinnati Historical, where a 1910 restored Schacht is on display at the restored Union Station railroad terminal; their 1910 Schacht was donated by a family out of Dayton, when the owner passed away a few years back.
I have included a copy of an early family photo of my 1907 Schacht taken by the original owner's family, was taken about 1915, I had borrowed it to make copies for myself, and it shows the immaculate detail and information about what is now my car.
Doug Gaier, Piqua, Ohio
In 1908, Schacht improved its two-cylinder motor, increasing its horsepower from 10 to 12. Designated Model K, this improved version replaced the 2-cylinder, 10-horsepower Model H. The 4-cylinder, 40-hosepower Model B was apparently discontinued. Perhaps it was just too expensive to field two models against Ford and GM.
Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) in Hershey, PA, owns a 1908 Schacht that was donated to their auto museum.
In 1909, the two-cylinder Model K underwent two more improvements, the first increasing horsepower from 12 to 18, and the second further increasing the horsepower to 20.
In 1910, the horsepower of the two-cylinder Schacht increased again, this time to 24. The 1910 edition was called Model R, and the 1911 edition, also at 24 horsepower, was dubbed Model D. Also in 1911, the 4-cylinder, 40-horsepower touring car was back, now designated Model AA.
In 1911, the first-ever "Indy 500" 500-mile automobile race was held at Indianapolis, IN, less than a day's drive from the Schacht factory in Cincinnati, OH. The very next year, 1912, Schacht fielded a race car, wearing the number 18, at the 1912 Indy race. Powered by a 4-cylinder Wisconsin motor, the Schacht was driven by Bill Endicott.
At the first Indy 500 in 1911, driving Car 42 (a Cole), Endicott had been the 37th-fastest qualifier, and was flagged out in the first lap, finishing 26th. But behind the wheel of the Schacht in 1912, Endicott qualified 15th at an average 80.570 miles per hour He drove the Schacht all 200 laps (2-1/2 miles per lap) over the rugged board track, to finish a very respectable fifth place, winning a $2,500 purse. The 1912 Indy 500 winner, Gil Anderson in a Wisconsin-powered Stutz, had qualified only a fraction faster than the Schacht, at 80.930 MPH. The fastest qualifier of the day was 88.450 MPH by David Bruce-Brown, in a National.
In those days, with the fragility of automobiles in general and tires in particular, simply completing the 500-mile race was a significant achievement. So for Schacht to have started the race 15th and finished in 5th place out of a starting field of 33 cars (ten of which failed to complete the race at all), was a major victory for the small, relatively-unknown company. This racing victory failed to translate into increased car sales. Still, it says a lot about the quality of the Schacht, that Bill Endicott ran his third and final Indy 500 in 1913, at the wheel of Car 33 (a Case), starting 9th (with a qualifying speed of 85.700 MPH). Endicott broke the drive-shaft of the Case on the second lap, to finish 27th in 1913. Out of three Indy 500 races, Endicott's only success was in the Schacht; 1911 and 1913 were dismal failures for him.
In 1912, investing their own money in trying to expand from a local to a national brand, nearly bankrupted the Schacht brothers. Also, in 1912, the two-cylinder model was at long last discontinued. A new 4-cylinder model, called the JM, initially boasted 45 horsepower, but by the end of 1912, the horsepower was upped to 50. The 4-cylinder, 40-horsepower model now came in two flavors, called Models FL and GF.
Schacht dropped its 4-cylinder, 40-horsepower touring car in 1913, to concentrate on the new 4-cylinder, 50-horsepower model. Three versions were offered in 1913: a touring car, a light-duty truck, and a combination pasenger car and truck. These were designated Models NS, KL, and PP. 1913 would be the final year for the Schacht automobile.
In 1914, after production of over 8,000 automobiles, Schacht switched production from cars to trucks, under a new corporate name, the G.A. Schacht Motor Truck Company. This new name suggests that brother William was no longer associated with this enterprise. Schacht's experience building for the rough and hilly terrain of the Cincinnati area, and finishing 5th on the rugged board track of the Indy 500, made Schacht ideally suited for the production of tough and rugged trucks.
Also in 1914, the old Schacht automobile designs were sold to the Willys-Overland Automobile Company, and production moved to Toronto, Ontario.
1927 Schacht Model LN, 3-1/2 ton dump truck, at Hayes Truck Museum, Woodland, CA. (Ed Hass photos)
In 1927, the truck industry in America was booming. Schacht decided to take advantage of this strong economy, and advertise nationally. Orders increased, and Schacht moved production to a new and larger factory at 8th and Evans Streets in Cincinnati. But Schacht had overestimated their success, and the advertising costs and new factory nearly bankrupted them. The R.K. LeBlond Machine Tool Company of Cincinnati, which had supplied Schacht with lathes, drill presses, and other heavy machinery to make their trucks, stepped in and helped Schacht, in return for financial control of the company. Officially, the G.A. Schacht Motor Truck Company became the LeBlond-Schacht Truck Company. But the company's letterhead continued to say G.A. Schacht, and new trucks continued to wear only the Schacht name on the radiator.
Richard Knight LeBlond had made millions of dollars in the machine tool industry, building the business from zero, and was liked and respected by all who bought machinery from him, including most of America's major automobile manufacturers. However, his son Harold R. LeBlond had grown-up wealthy, did not know what it took to be a success starting from nothing, and had a reputation as merely a rich playboy. Yet it was Harold who was put in charge of supervising the LeBlond family's investment in the Schacht Truck venture.
In 1930, LeBlond-Schacht unveiled its new small, lightweight truck, the Model 25, powered by a fast and powerful Hercules 6-cylinder YXC gasoline motor. With sporty streamlined fenders, single rear wheels, and one of the lowest centers-of-gravity of any commercial truck of the era (only 6 feet to the top of the windshield), it was ideal for a fire apparatus chassis. Peter Pirsch & Sons of Kenosha, Wisconsin, recognized the potential of the new Schacht, and built a few fire engines on the Model 25 chassis, such as the one below for Matawan Township, NJ:
But right in Cincinnati, the Ahrens-Fox Fire Engine Company used the remarkable new tough-but-sporty Schacht as the basis for launching a new line of lightweight and speedy pumpers, ladder trucks, and squad cars, which Ahrens-Fox dubbed their Model V. Over the next five years, 54 lightweight Schacht/Ahrens-Fox fire engines would be built.
Ahrens-Fox traced its roots all the way back to 1852, when an eccentric Cincinnati locksmith named Abel Shawk persuaded an even more eccentric railroad locomotive builder named Alexander "Moses" Latta to help him develop a steam-powered fire engine. Shawk and Latta then persuaded a powerful local manufacturer named Miles Greenwood to back their idea, and Greenwood helped organize the world's first fully-paid fire company to man the world's first successful steam fire engine. Latta and Shawk hired a young German-born apprentice named Chris Ahrens to help them manufacture their steam fire engines, which saw service in such major cities as Cincinnati, St. Louis, Louisville, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and Boston. In 1868, young Ahrens bought-out the Latta steam fire engine business. With the financial backing of a successful local saloon keeper, Ahrens founded C. Ahrens & Company to manufacture his greatly-improved version of the Latta steam fire engine. A few years later, with a new business partner, the corporate name changed again, to Ahrens Manufacturing Company. Ahrens would build hundreds of steam fire engines, for New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, Indianapolis, Nashville, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and scores of smaller communities.
In 1905, Chris Ahrens' sons, John P. Ahrens and G. Fred Ahrens, partnered with his sons-in-law, Charles H. Fox and George W. Krapp, and reorganized the business as Ahrens Fire Engine Company. This new company would build over 100 steam fire engines. Initially, the reorganized company faced a power struggle between the sons and the sons-in-law of Chris Ahrens. In 1910, the sons-in-law won the feud, Charles H. Fox became the corporation's president, Fred Ahrens left to start his own business, and the firm was renamed Ahrens-Fox Fire Engine Company.
Even before all of that, and before the Schacht brothers built their first car in 1904, Ahrens-Fox had dabbled in gasoline power. The world's first gasoline-powered automobiles had been developed independently in Germany in 1886, by two inventors, Daimler and Benz. A year later, in 1887, Chris Ahrens had built a fire engine that used a gasoline-powered heater to preheat the steam boiler: the first use of gasoline power in the fire service.
Then in 1902, the local fire insurance companies in Cincinnati, united into the Underwriters Salvage Corps, put in service the world's first gasoline-propelled fire engine. Mounted on a two-cylinder Winton passenger-car chassis, "Margeurite" (as this fire engine was called) had a wood body with wicker equipment lockers. Several former Cincinnati firefighters had a hand in its design, including Chris Ahrens' son-in-law, Charles H. Fox. But the fire engine was assembled at the Thomas B. Hahnauer Bicycle Company of Cincinnati. Price when new was $3500.
The primary purpose of this 1902 Winton was to carry men and small tools to a fire. These men would spread canvas "salvage covers" over furniture and other valuables at a fire scene, to reduce the amount of cash that the insurance companies would have to lay out due to smoke and water damage. In 1909, "Margeurite" was sent to the Ahrens factory to be fitted with a new all-steel body of Mr. Fox's design, probably the first time a gasoline-propelled vehicle appeared on the Ahrens-Fox factory floor.
In 1911, Ahrens-Fox introduced its first gasoline-propelled fire engine, and in 1914, started producing its own four-cylinder and six-cylinder gasoline motors. In 1916, Ahrens-Foxc built its last-ever steam fire engine, for Lansford, PA. By 1922, Ahrens-Fox was the third-largest fire engine manufacturer in the U.S., behind American-LaFrance (Elmira, NY) and Seagrave (Columbus, OH), and slightly ahead of Mack Trucks (Allentown, PA) in fire engine sales. Ahrens-Fox had the reputation as the highest-quality, and most expensive, fire engine on the market.
Then the stock-market crash of October 29, 1929, heavily upset the Ahrens-Fox Company's finances. Big cities, Ahrens-Fox's traditional market, suddenly had no money to buy new fire engines. One tactic Ahrens-Fox explored to recover from this financial blow was to supplement its line of big, heavy, powerful, and expensive fire engines, with a smaller, lighter, faster, and less-expensive fire engine that small communities could afford, and that could still live up to Ahrens-Fox's reputation for quality. When Schacht unveiled its Model 25 chassis in 1930, Ahrens-Fox had the perfect basis for this new product line.
The very first Schacht/Ahrens-Fox fire engine was a salvage car, to replace the aforementioned 1902 Winton, which had long since passed into obsolesence. It was designated Ahrens-Fox Model V-16, Registered Number 7001. This photo of it appeared on page 578 in the December, 1938 issue of Fire Engineering magazine:
Ahrens-Fox quickly adapted its 500-gallon-per-minute, midship-mounted "Rotarystile" pump, which up to then had been installed only on Ahrens-Fox's own custom fire appartus chassis, for mounting on the Schacht chassis. The first of these was Ahrens-Fox Model V, Registered Number 7002, delivered to Saddle River Township, N.J., in 1930, shown below.
Here's another early Schacht/Ahrens-Fox, 1930 Model V 500-gallon rotary pumper #7004, painted white and grey, used in White Horse, NJ:
Ahrens-Fox had a hard time selling even these low-priced pumpers on Schacht chassis, in the tight economy of the Depression Thirties. For example, below is a 1930 Schacht/Ahrens-Fox as delivered to Lavellete, NJ. Ahrens-Fox tried unsuccessfully for two years to collect the price of this pumper from Lavalette, and finally sent Ahrens-Fox mechanic Frank Griesser to reposess it. He resold it in 1933 to Lake Hopatcong, NJ, which retired and sold it in 1969.
Schacht also offered a longer version of this sleek chassis, called the Model 18, for use in school buses. In 1930, Ahrens-Fox built two service ladder trucks on the Schacht Model 18 bus chassis. The first was sold to Tisbury, MA, and the second to Falmouth, MA. Unfortunately, neither of these fire engines is known to survive today.
Two of the finest surviving examples of early Schacht/Ahrens-Foxes are in California. This one still belongs to Victorville, in southern California:
The other still belongs to Menlo Park, in northern California:
In 1931, Schacht switched from a rounded-top radiator, to a slightly more square and flat radiator shape, further reducing the Model 25's center of gravity. The 1932 Schacht/Ahrens-Fox below served over 40 years in Amherst, OH, and was restored by Pierce Manufacturing Company, a fire apparatus manufacturer in Appleton, WI.
The Amherst Ahrens-Fox now belongs to Dr. David Rish of Beverly Hills, CA:
Although the Model 25 chassis continued to offer single rear wheels, as on the Amherst fire engine above, Schacht did offer a model with dual rear wheels, known as Model 25A. Ahrens-Fox used this new chassis as the basis for a slightly-larger version of its popular Model V pumper. Designated Model R-60, it featured a larger water tank and a bigger pump. Ahrens-Fox built only two of its R-60 model on Schacht 25A chassis. The first was sold to Rockford, IL, and now belongs to Charles Dever of Evanston, IL. The second, painted Lotus Cream, still belongs to its original owner, the volunteer fire department of Colonie, NY (a suburb of Albany, New York's state capitol).
Schacht also applied this lower, flatter hood and radiator to its Model 18 school-bus chassis. In 1931, Ahrens-Fox built a service ladder truck on this type of chassis, and sold it East Greenwich, RI. It served there for 24 years, and in 1965, was sold to Dr. Bernard Kasick of South Meriden, CT. Dr. Kasick donated this fire engine to the volunteer fire department of South Meriden, for use as a parade unit. Happily, South Meriden still owns this unique fire engine.
In 1931, in an effort to promote its Model V pumper on Schacht truck chassis, Ahrens-Fox built a demonstrator engine, serial number 7024, and delivered it to their long-time New England sales agent, Harry Carlow of Taunton, MA. For nearly a year, Carlow demonstrated this pumper in small towns all over the six New England states, finally selling and delivering it to Concord, NH, in 1932. After nearly 35 years of service as Engine 4 in Concord, #7024 was sold to New Hampshire resident Hank Bergson, who as a military Captain, was soon sent to Vietnam. On his return from his active tour of duty, Hank moved himself and his fire engine to Katonah, NY. In June, 1972, at Valhalla, NY, #7024 made its first in a long series of public appearances at antique fire engine musters, alwyays wearing its polished aluminum hood plate from Concord, engraved "Engine 4." During the winter of 1972-1973, Hank repainted #7024 and completed a full restoration. Its many public displays finally ended when Bergson sold this rig in the late 1990s, about 30 years after he bought it.
For about 4 years, #7024 was privately owned in Illinois, where it was completely dismantled for a second restoration, before it was sold around 2002 or 2003 as "a Fox in a box" to current owner Chuck Buschardt, in Houston, TX. In 2004, a second 1931 Fox joined Buschardt's antique fire engine fleet: a 1931 Model M-S-4 piston pumper #1778, ex-Arlington, NY, which had not been seen in public in 34 years while in the custodianship of Fred Pommer, Oxford, CT. This one is reasonably intact but has not been started since 1970 or earlier, and is believed to have one cracked T-head cylinder jug. As of June 2004, Buschardt plans to restore both of his 1931 Ahrens-Fox pumpers.
Photos of #7024 when owned by Hank Bergson:
In 1933, the Schacht Model 25 light-duty truck gained a larger Hercules motor (the YXC-3), a higher hood and radiator, and dual rear wheels to carry heavier loads. The hood louvres (cooling slots in the hood) gave way to open hood doors, three doors on each side of the hood. All of this redesign and retooling must have been a severe strain on the depression-weakened Schacht Truck company. The redesigned Model 25 also lost its long, flared streamlined front fenders, for more conventional crown fenders. The 1934 Schacht 25/Ahrens-Fox V below served Pearl River, NY from 1934 to 1947, and then Erskine Lakes, NJ until 1959, before it went through a series of private owners. In the 1980s, it was restored by the Sullivan family of Florida, who now own it.
In 2004, a long-lost 1935 Schacht/Ahrens-Fox fire engine emerged from a 46-year sleep in a Kentucky barn, and the restoration process began. View photos of this fire engine.
In 1935, Ahrens-Fox mounted its new 500 gallon per minute centrifugal pump on a Schacht Model 25 chassis, as a demonstrator unit. It was designated Ahrens-Fox Model WC, Registered Number 9001. For the original 1935 pump test reults on this demonstrator unit, click here. In 1936, this fire engine was sold to the fire department Harrison, OH, which still owns it. For more information about this fire engine, see the Harrison Fire Department web site.
By this time, the financially-strapped Ahrens-Fox Fire Engine Company owned Schacht a pile of money for a few dozen fire engine chassis. Schacht cut-off supplying any more chassis to Ahrens-Fox until this staggering debt was paid. Having sold only 4 new fire engines in 1933, and only 8 in 1934, Ahrens-Fox was backed against a wall. Neither Schacht nor any other truck manufacturer would supply any more chassis to Ahrens-Fox because of the company's bad credit. So in 1935, Ahrens-Fox bit the bullet, and laid-out even more of its scarce cash to design and manufacture its own custom chassis for its popular line of Model V pumpers. But the new chassis had one advantage over the Schacht: being larger and tougher, Ahrens-Fox could use it not only for its 500-GPM Model V and 600-GPM Model Y, but also for two new, even-larger models of pumpers: the 750-GPM Model E, and the 1000-GPM Model F, in both rotary and centrifugal pumper versions. This new Ahrens-Fox custom chassis was available with either chrome-plated or painted (less expensive) radiator grille.
The example below is a 1939 pumper, on this new 1935-style Ahrens-Fox custom chassis. It served in Munster, IN, and is now privately owned in Maryland. For more inofrmation about this ex-Munster fire engine, see the Virginia Chapter of SPAAMFAA web site.
In 1935, Schacht acquired rival truck manufacturer Armleder, also of Cincinnati. Armleder translates lierally from German as "strong leather," so in English this would be the Rawhide Truck Company.
Born in Cincinnati in 1862, son of German immigrants, Otto Armleder started as a wagon maker, founding the Otto Armleder Carriage Company of Cincinnati. He started making gasline-powered trucks in 1912. The O. Armleder Company (later Armleder Motor Truck Company) truck factory was at 12th and Plum streets in Cincinnati.
When Otto Armleder died in 1935, his family sold the truck company to Schacht. His will he stipulated that his wealth benefit Catholic and non-secterain institutions in Hamilton County, with particular attention to children in the Over-the-Rhine section of Cincinnati where he grew up. So his family also set up the Otto Armleder Trust Fund in 1935, which has since donated many public buildings and parks to the city.
Very little is known about the Armleder company and its trucks, but the photo below shows a 1920 Armleder truck.
In the early 1990s, the Hayes Truck Museum of Woodland, CA owned a 1922 Armleder truck, but as of 2002, it is no longer listed as part of their collection. On August 17, 2002, Don Hays of the Hays truck museum reported that it was sold in the late 1990s to a private collector in New Orleans, LA.
An auction of the George Schaaf truck collection, to be held September 21, 2002 at Frankfort, IL, lists a 1922 Armleder Model 30, 2-1/2 ton dump truck, serial #10100, among the vehicles to be auctioned; this is evidently not the same Armleder truck that was in the Hays collection. The two photos below show this truck.
At least one Armleder truck saw service in the Cincinnati Fire Department: a 1913 Armleder coal truck served as Fuel 2, supplying coal to the city's fleet of horse-drawn steam fire engines. It probably did not serve long, as by 1918 almost all of Cincinnati's steamers had been replaced with Ahrens-Fox gasoline-powered pumpers.
Ace Doran Trucking Company of Cincinnati owns this 1929 Armleder truck:
In 1936, Schacht realized that Ahrens-Fox could never pay its debt for all those Schacht fire engine chassis. So in what was billed as a merger, Schacht simply bought-out the financially-shaky Ahrens-Fox Fire Engine Company, closed Ahrens-Fox's 31-year-old factory, and moved fire engine production into the Schacht Truck factory at 800 Evans Street (corner of Eighth Street). Schacht then designed a new heavy-duty truck chassis with a convex radiator grille.
This new chassis also became the basis for Ahrens-Fox's new Model S (S for Schacht) pumpers and ladder trucks.
Between 1936 and 1939, Schacht built 9 fire engine chassis for Toledo, OH, which used Ahrens-Fox fenders, windshields, and seats. Toledo fire department mechanics, assisted by Ahrens-Fox engineers, designed and built their own fire engine bodies for these nine chassis.
delivery photo of the first Toledo Schacht chassis
I wrote an article about these nine Toledo Schacht fire engines, published in Enjine! Enjine! magazine in the winter of 1989:
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But the bread-and-butter Model V continued on Ahrens-Fox's own custom chassis, developed in 1935, until yet another new style of Schacht chassis replaced the Ahrens-Fox chassis in 1939.
That new chassis, with the heart-shaped grille separate of the radiator, would be built only in 1939 and 1940, and would be the last type of Schacht truck ever made. Evidently, this final Schacht Truck model was used only on Ahrens-Fox fire engines.
The very first of these new 1939 Schacht/Ahrens-Fox pumpers was sold to Dayton, OH, and featured a canopy cab (open at the rear). This 750-gpm centrifugal pumper was Model EC, Ahrens-Fox Registered Number 9063.
The 1939 example of the final style Scahcht/Ahrens-Fox fire engine, below, still belongs to Mount Arlington, NJ. It features a Cadillac cab that was welded into the Schacht chassis and Ahrens-Fox body when new:
For more information about this fire engine, see the Mount Arlington Fire Department web site.
Here's another 1939 Schacht/Fox, with cab doors but no roof, that served Hempstead, NY.
The last-ever Schacht truck chassis, a 500-GPM centrifugal pumper, sat in the Schacht/Ahrens-Fox factory for 6 years, before it was finally sold in 1946 to Warrenton, VA, where it served for 26 years. Unlike the last 1940 Schacht/Foxes that used standard Schacht front fenders (drooping down below the front bumper), this one used the streamlined Ahrens-Fox fenders of the 1939 models, probably surplus stock that needed to be used-up.
Today, like so many Schacht/Ahrens-Fox fire engines, this last-ever Schacht truck is also now privately owned in California.
In March, 1940, production of both Ahrens-Fox fire engines and Schacht trucks ceased. Ahrens-Fox fire engine production would resume after World War II, but Schacht Truck production would not.
