Old siren in downtown Indianapolis?

[Spotter/Chaser]

Does anyone know what the old siren was that was used in the 1960s and 70s in downtown Indianapolis? At the time, it was said to be the largest siren in the city, and I think it was located on the roof of the former L.S. Ayers store. I remember hearing it tested when I was little; it was the first warning siren I remember. It sure made what seemed like a deafening noise to my 7 or 8 year-old ears!

[Metro Siren Synths]

I dont think it was a Chrysler, possibly a Thunderbolt?

[murrfarms]

I dont think it was a Chrysler, possibly a Thunderbolt?

Yes, it was a Thunderbolt. Indy had quite a lot of Thunderbolts in the downtown area with their old system, but they were all removed sometime around 2006 when they installed a new system of 2001s. Couldn't tell you if it was a 1000 or a 1000T though, but chances are it was likely a 1000T since it seems like most of the older siren videos I've ever seen from Indianapolis (when they still had the Thunderbolts) had 1000Ts in them. Here's one that used to be on the IUPUI campus: http://youtu.be/Vm-11LJa1HU

The one atop the L.S. Ayres building originally started off as a Thunderbolt, then was replaced sometime around 2000 with a 2001-SRN. The 2001 was ultimately removed from the old water tank structure when the new system was installed, and was not directly replaced with another siren at the same location.

[woodyrr]

Could this be what you are thinking of?


Thunderbolt by woodyrr, on Flickr

[coppercarl]

Here is a map of the original Marion County System.

http://goo.gl/maps/XxG8

[Spotter/Chaser]

I don't know for sure, of course, but it sure seems that the siren I remember from the late 60s to early 70s was much lower pitched than a Thunderbolt, and much louder too. Although my memory of it has faded over the decades, it seems that it sounded more like an ASC P-50/T-135. Does anyone know when the Thunderbolt was placed there?

[Matt Hackler]

Indianapolis had Thunderbolts installed sometimes in the early 60's along with some of the Model 5's. Sometime in the early 70's they installed another round of Thunderbolts, Model 5's and the two SD-10's.

As was already mentioned that Thunderbolt was replaced. It was done sometime in the early-mid 2000's. The Thunderbolt in the picture is on a building that is now part of Circle Center Mall. the 2001 was across Meridian on the building that has the large tower on it. The 2001 was there until 07 when it was removed. It's replacement is just to the north of the statehouse on a regular pole mount.

By the time I got interested in the Indy siren system back in 04 they had removed several Thunderbolts and were using them for parts to repair others. A lot of these they had taken down from Center Township because of the extreme dense coverage they had. The Thunderbolt I have was taken down from just south of downtown and was used for parts as well.

http://www.airraidsirens.com/forums/vie ... dianapolis
You'll find in this topic a little more on the fact that there was another T-bolt in downtown. Now as far as having chrysler's or any other sirens before the T-bolts I haven't ever found anything about that. In the several meetings I had with the guy who was in charge of the siren system said that besides a few VFD sirens in the old outyling communities (before unigov) there was no sirens system in Indy. When the Tbolts were installed some of those that ended up in the outer townships were 1003's so that they could be used for fire calls.

[woodyrr]

You might message crazywarriorman here on ARS and ask him what he knows about the siren in the photo on his Photobucket page. I seem to recall that there was a caption somewhere that this siren was installed by Marion County. If it is a Marion County Indiana siren, the structure of water tower on which it is installed bears a resemblance to the structure of the water tower next to the Thunderbolt on the Ayers building.

http://s642.photobucket.com/albums/uu14 ... 00056A.jpg

[coppercarl]

You might message crazywarriorman here on ARS and ask him what he knows about the siren in the photo on his Photobucket page. I seem to recall that there was a caption somewhere that this siren was installed by Marion County. If it is a Marion County Indiana siren, the structure of water tower on which it is installed bears a resemblance to the structure of the water tower next to the Thunderbolt on the Ayers building.

http://s642.photobucket.com/albums/uu14 ... 00056A.jpg

I believe there is a Marion County IL fairly close to him.

[cmoore]

does anybody have any pictures of some of the sirens in the old system in Indy? There were some on the web a few years back but I cant find them anymore.