Tue Dec 20, 2011 9:32 pm
I'm not accusing anyone of being a liar. The 550s may have been around before I was old enough to drive (I'm 47 now) and taken down sometime in the early 1980s. And if Adam took some pictures "of the few remaining SD-10s" then it had to have been back in the very early 1980s, and I don't think he was siren buffing around here back then. I can assure you that they were taken down about 30 years ago! Maybe you're getting mixed up with St. Louis' STL-10s, that he had some pictures of those?!
Maybe Adam took pictures of 550s over on the Illinois side of the St. Louis metro area. That's possible because I'm not real familiar with who has what over that way. I know of some sirens over there in the various cities and towns but not like I do on the Missouri side of the metro area.
And if there were some 550s in St. Louis County then I'd love to see the pictures and where they (the sirens) were located. Not because I want someone to prove that they did exist, but because I'm genuinely interested in knowing where they were at. Maybe some of the western St. Louis County municipalities had them and I didn't know that because I never made it out that way a lot growing up. I can assure you that they did not exist in the City of St. Louis! They had sixty-plus STL-10s that were put in place in the late 1950s. And before that there were some Chrysler sirens.
I grew up in southern St. Louis County, where there were some T-Bolts. There was also a red Model 5 located on the roof of the VA Hospital along I-255 near the JB Bridge. The siren is still up on the roof but hasn't been activated since the Whelens were installed in 1982. I had relatives that lived in northern St. Louis County and I remember seeing T-Bolts up that way as well.
If any St. Louis metro area siren buffs are reading this and are familiar with the area of Webster Groves, I can tell you that there was an SD-10 located on Murdoch Avenue at Big Bend Road. Another SD-10 in Webster was located in the rear of a row of houses that back up to Watson Road just east of Elm Avenue. Seemed like an odd place for a siren. I wouldn't doubt if there were 2 more SD-10s in Webster Groves back then, since their decibal rating isn't that great.
So hopefully Adam reads this and posts the pics of the 550s.