shine and waving to neighbors. Stanger rescued the engine years ago. He found it in a vacant lot in Ogden, overgrown with weeds, neglected but, amazingly, fairly intact. Its history did not reflect its pivotal place in Weber firefighting, which included helping pioneer the Ogden, Roy and Riverdale fire departments as well as the We-ber one. It stayed in service until the early 70s, but then, Stanger said, department politics got a bit weird and one fire chief allegedly told someone who expressed an interest in the machine to just haul it away. That is not normal procedure. The engine ended up in a vacant lot. Stanger found it and spent a full 10 years wearing down the owner before he got a clear title so he could take the thing to his home. Then the work began. A retired firefighter's income doesn't stretch to restoring an entire fire engine. A newspaper article about the engine helped loosen a lot of local purse strings, he said. One shop did all the chrome, a piece at a time. When Stanger talked to Bob West at Tire Distribution systems he said "he used to put tires on all the county ve-hicles" and couldn't see any reason not to put new ones on this one, free. Other businesses chipped in as well: Wheelwright Lumber gave him new redwood frame pieces, Newgate Upholstering did the seats, Metal West did the running boards, Alpine Auto donated the paint. The pinstriping was done by Bruno Perry, a local auto customizer. "God's in the details. The chrome and the gold flake all make it stand out," Stanger said. The pin-striping and gold leaf took a month. Perry, who like so many donated his work, said he did so because "he's going to put it in a museum, and I just thought it was the right thing to do." The amazing thing, Stan-ger said, is how much of the engine is still original. The ladder and fire pole aren't original, but are typical of the era. "When I was sanding the pole down, I could smell the fire," he said. And the bell was missing. He found a duplicate, however. Everything else on it, even a hose nozzle, is original. It still carries an original "Mack" fire extinguisher. That leaves Stanger with the question of what to do with it now. Driving it around the neighborhood scaring the cows is fun but only goes so far. It fills up his garage. After this week's Pioneer Days parade, Stanger said, he's made arrangements to display it at Union Station, on loan to the Browning Car Museum. That's a good place for it, he said. "They'll show it and store it and polish it and they'll take care of it," he said. It will still be driven in parades and other events too. Before that, though, he gets to drive it. What's the use of having a fire engine if you can't? He took it up 1900 West to Second Street, hung a right, and up ahead saw one of the county sheriff's traffic radar signs, blinking the speeds of passing cars. "Let's see how accurate it is," Stanger said as he hit the gas, heading down the street. The sign blinked 38, then 39, then 40. Stanger, hair blowing in the wind, tapped on the 1936 speedometer, its needle pointing right at the "40," as precise as the day it was made. "It's a diamond!" he yelled. "All it needed was a little polishing." You can reach reporter Charles Trentelman at 625-4232, or by e-mailing ctrentelman@standard.net. Jerry Stanger takes a ride in "Old Pneumonia" in Harrisville. KEITH JOHNSON Standard-Examiner July 22, 2002 (Cont'd)