Sirens from Canada to USA?

[Mac]

So I may have a line on a siren in Canada, I believe Ontario, and I have a few questions.

1, if I end up buying this siren, does anyone have any experience transporting sirens from Canada to the USA? Is there any law or something that could make this a potential problem?

2, I'm pretty far from Canada and would be shipping this thing- would that make any differences to the above question?

3, all I know until tomorrow is that it is a "3 phase 550v beast" ...Anyone have a clue what it could be? Mobil-Directo or what? I'm unfamiliar with common Canadian sirens (or uncommon for that matter).

[Crazywarriorman]

Ohh man! You may be getting a CLM siren. Those things are about as rare as an ACA Hurricane 130. No one knows what they sound like or what the insides look like, except Siren_dude. Congrats!

[Travis]

Physically taking the siren across the border should be no problem. CBP might possibly be interested in what it is you have, but otherwise no worries. If you think shipping would work better, then you can go that route, as it is quite simple. I don't know what happens as far as importing goods, but exporting mail usually just requires a CBP Declaration form. The form has basic information such as the contents and value of the item. I would assume Canada would have a very similar form.

[System 7000]

If it is a 550 V three-phase siren, then it could well be a CLM siren, as I know for sure that the CLM was 550 V three-phase. It could also be a Mobil-Directo, as I would imagine that it was built to the same requirements as the CLM and therefore also ran on 550 V three-phase power, but I don't know for sure.

Here are some tags from a CLM siren, and a photo of the siren (credit to Eric Green's civildefensemuseum.com for these images):







Whatever it is, I hope that you manage to get it safely, and I will look forward to finding out more about it. Also, congratulations on your 200th post.

Regards,
Jerry.

[holler]

Are you sure the seller will ship it to you?

[Mac]

No really not sure yet. Was just hoping to get info on how hard it was to even get them into the country. I dont even know what the siren is yet.

Thank you Jerry
Where are those pictures from too?

[Siren_Dude]

If its 550V 3 phase it could be a CLM, Mobil Directo or some type of Canadian carter. I?ve talked to people about freight and it?s fairly expensive. The one I tried with was 150 pounds, if it?s any of those 3, mainly CLM or Directo it will be a fortune to ship. They weigh 500 pounds or more and not a lot of companies will do personal fright. You will pay up to double or even triple for what you paid for the siren in shipping. If you could get the guy to drive the siren to the nearest drop off, it would be cheaper, but it would be a lot of work for seller who would probably want it to be picked up.

Keep us posted!

[500AT]

Federal Engineering, did manufacture special order Model 5 and 7 sirens with motors that ran on 550 volts, at three-phase current during World War II and into the 1950s. Later on, they produced the same sirens, but used 600 volt, single phase current motors for special industrial applications. I've only seen one of each, and sadly the three-phase model had its motor replaced with a 240 volt unit. Mind you, there was nothing wrong with original motor, just that the fire department preferred to run their sirens at 240 volts, as it would have been too expensive to overhaul the electric connection on top of the building.

[Siren_Dude]

Federal Engineering, did manufacture special order Model 5 and 7 sirens with motors that ran on 550 volts, at three-phase current during World War II and into the 1950s.

Never knew that, thanks for the information.

[System 7000]

Thank you Jerry
Where are those pictures from too?

As I mentioned in my earlier post, the photos are from Eric Green's civildefensemuseum.com, specifically the page on Canadian sirens.

I don't know where those particular images were taken. Eric says that they were from an auction a few years ago, but I don't think that anyone here knows what happened to the sirens. I think that there were also some Mobil-Directos as well (Image 1, Image 2). I assume that they were government surplus equipment.

Again, good luck with your purchase.

Regards,
Jerry.