The Siren Board

As old as their sirens are, you would think they would test them more often. If I were them, I would at least do a short monthly test.

kswx29 wrote:As old as their sirens are, you would think they would test them more often. If I were them, I would at least do a short monthly test.

While this is true, it's not all bad. They could just not test them at all like some cities do. The dry warm weather here preserves the sirens quite well, so not too much is going to happen as far as rust and corrosion. Look at that lion they have by the field. I bet that thing is 90 or so years old, and still looks and probably operates just fine. Additionally, they have 8 sirens. If one fails, it's not any big deal at all. Half of the sirens could fail and it wouldn't be a big deal.

I guess that is true. Also, not testing the sirens every week, like some cities will make it more likely (so ive heard) that residents will take the sirens seriously when they sound.

I was walking to class today and I was thinking how it would have been a nice day to record sirens, as there was no wind. Literally 10 seconds later I heard two of our 6 sirens [Whelen 2902's] on campus scream to life in attack. We have been having some problems with our new infallible Whelen 2902 siren additions. They like to activate at inconvenient times, namely, between classes, or during basketball games, etc. The old mechanicals remain off for these little episodes. I think that our system is run off of two controllers. As usual, no one seemed to really care, though it was kind of amusing to see everyone simultaneously pull out their phone as they received their "oops we screwed up" text message.


http://today.ttu.edu/2010/02/texas-tech ... lfunction/

Very nice work! Abernathy has some serious overkill. That's the best location to catch a test, I'd say! There's not enough good SD-10 recordings. Most of them are muffled or issues with the camera or wind! Hearing that towns system would be gold!

I spotted a clean xT22 in old downtown Big Spring yesterday... It's on top of the municipal building (Convention Center?) between 3rd & 4th Streets (aka Business 20). It's not visible from Interstate 20. I sometimes like to cruise through business routes in small towns, as you never know what cool stuff you might find! My dream would be to find an old TV repair shop where they never threw anything out since 1939.

I was going to take a picture of the siren, but the local police happened to be right behind me, and I didn't think it would be smart for a Californian with gauged earrings in a Toyota 4x4 to go snapping pictures of a little town's public buildings. Maybe I'll get a shot of it on my way to Los Angeles next week, if I can. Has anyone else noticed this one? (please excuse if it was covered in another post that I was too lazy to find )

Charles

Good find, Charles!

I have never been to Big Spring (and it's only around 80-100 miles from me), but I plan to make it down there someday just for the hell of it to see what it is like. I'm hoping since they have a 2T22 they'll have other old sirens, hopefully a variety. I'm wanting get down there and snap a few pictures here and there someday pretty quick (hopefully I can find more sirens...).

P.S., I hope all things work out well on your house!

I was able to go back through Big Spring on Business 20 Saturday afternoon... That building which supports the siren is quite a piece of architecture! I bet that's the pride & joy of the town. (I also trust that they don't have earthquakes there, LOL). Here are a couple pics of the siren:

Charles

Sorry for poor quality on this one... It's a zoom photo, as I couldn't get any closer without the siren disappearing over the horizon of the walls of the building.

Well now that I have a few towns documented but not uploaded, I suppose I should get them on here. School and almost full-time employment keep me pretty busy these days.

Tahoka, TX

Tahoka is south of Lubbock about 30 miles, and is located on US 87. They have a decent system of Model 7's and an M-10.

Number of sirens: 4
Types: FS7, FS7T, SM10

Siren 1: Federal 7T/5BT [Avenue S & North 2nd Street/Alley]



Siren 2: Sterling M-10 [Avenue K & North 1st Street]



Siren 3: Federal Model 7 [Avenue K & South 6th Street]



Siren 4: Federal Model 7 [ US 380 & Avenue E/Alley Lintegard Electric]

A few more towns on US 84 North of Lubbock.

Anton, TX
Number of Sirens: 2
Types: FS 2T22, S 3V8S
Notes: I find the Sentry to be a little oddly placed.

Siren 1: Federal 2T22 [Main & E. 4th St.]


Siren 2: Sentry 3V8-Skirted [Coke Ave. & E. 9th]


System Map:



Littlefield, TX "Leftfield"
Number of Sirens: 4
Types: FSTbolt, FSSTH10
Notes: It would seem that one T-bolt has been disconnected. The RCM panel was missing the door, so I wonder if something happened to the siren ant it got "stuck" on and had to be manually disconnected. Note the fantastic ghetto-rigging of fire hose for the "elbow joint" From this style of installation, I wouldn't be surprised if West Shore did the work. Many of the sirens that they installed in Texas have black flexible tubing going from the blower to the stand pipe.

Siren 1: Federal STH-10 [City Hall, E. 6th St. & Phelps Ave.]


City Hall Pic:


Siren 2: Federal Thunderbolt 1000/T [1st St. & Barton Ave.]


Siren 3: Federal Thunderbolt 1000/T [S. Phelps Ave. & E. 23rd]


Siren 4: Federal Thunderbolt 1000/T [FM 54 & Seldon Ave.]


System Map:



Amherst, TX
Number of Sirens: 3
Siren Types: FSSD10, DRL2, FS2001SRNB
Notes: This little town surprised me a little bit. They look to have recently installed the 2001. I was expecting that the SD-10 was going to be the only siren around town, but I found the 2001, ventured a little further, and found the Darley 2 as well.

Siren 1: Federal SD-10 [City Hall, FM 37 & Bulldog Dr.]


Siren 2: Federal 2001-SRNB [5th St. & Washington Ave]


Siren 2: Darley 2HP Siren [FM 37 & 1st St.]


System Map:



**Sudan will eventually be merged into this thread. For now, check out the "Overkill: We Has It" thread.


Muleshoe, TX
Number of Sirens: 4
Siren Types: FS2001DC, FSSTH-10, SM10
Notes: I think the Muleshoe had a system of something else before this Federal System. There are several suspicious looking poles around town that have the "ladder" bar type things going up them in alleys, but nothing on top but a little platform. It would be interesting to call Muleshoe and see what happened to them, if they had them at all. The VFD still has a Sterling M-10, as many do around the Panhandle.

Siren 1: Sterling M-10 [@VFD, US HWY 84 & E. 5th St.]


Siren 2: Federal STH-10 [E. Birch & Dallas Ave.]


Siren 3: Federal 2001DC [@High School, W Ave. G & W. 3rd St.]


Siren 4: Federal 2001DC [@Waterpark, W. Ave. D & W. 17th St.]


System Map: