Very First Thunderbolt Ad

[Chem_Boffin_6589]

I'm pretty sure that this photo is one of the most viewed on this board, hence Tyler's comment (I think)

[Alburnett2T22]

I'm pretty sure that this photo is one of the most viewed on this board, hence Tyler's comment (I think)

I guess so :/
lol

[Tyler]

wow, this topic is aging already lol

Ok? What was your reasoning to bring it up again?

I thought I'd just repost the photocopied photo.

You do realize that that image is everywhere practically. I've had it saved on my computer for a while.

[SuperBanshee]

I have one of these advertisements. It ran in the American City magazine during the 1950s. Federal led a pretty strong marketing campaign to sell the Thunderbolt during its infancy.

[Tyler]

I have one of these advertisements. It ran in the American City magazine during the 1950s. Federal led a pretty strong marketing campaign to sell the Thunderbolt during its infancy.

Yep. Rising popularity then decline to end in 1993 when Federal tried their very last trick to modernize the Thunderbolt. With a new rotator, compact blower, compact RCM, and FC radio. Sadly this model failed miserably due to the rising popularity of the 2001, sealing the Thunderbolt's faith selling a booming 10 units in 1993.

[TboltTX1]

Yep. Rising popularity then decline to end in 1993 when Federal tried their very last trick to modernize the Thunderbolt. With a new rotator, compact blower, compact RCM, and FC radio. Sadly this model failed miserably due to the rising popularity of the 2001, sealing the Thunderbolt's faith selling a booming 10 units in 1993.

Interesting. Where did you hear about this model?

[holler]

It's called a gradual phaseout. Far as I know the C series was the last of the Thunderbolts, since a DC siren design was already in the works when it was introduced.

People would still buy them if they still made them, just from the reputation alone.

[MKIIProductions]

Wichita first had a bid from Federal Signal for 13 Thunderbolts to be installed from 1954 to 1956. These were all the series A1 "demo" units with the bar grille faces. There are only six that I can remember - one stands behind Jardine middle school, another on the east side of town at Kellogg and Rock road, and the last is at Douglas and Anna across from VFW post 3115. The three others have been removed from service - one at Second street and Sheridan avenue, another at 17th and Gow street, and the unit that stood atop the water plant here in town.

Thunderbolts have been proven to run for 60+ years so far. The design was fantastic, but parts failed some time or another. The sirens that we have went to "hordes" where their parts would be re-used in routine maintenance if needed, but those parts have become harder and harder to come by as the need for them increases with the age of our units. There are still parts out there, but it is time for us to move on to something new.

I just hope when our current EM director leaves the high horse that we will get a bid from a more reputable company.

[Tyler]

It's called a gradual phaseout. Far as I know the C series was the last of the Thunderbolts, since a DC siren design was already in the works when it was introduced.

People would still buy them if they still made them, just from the reputation alone.

Oh without a doubt they would sale if they still advertised them and made it know that they existed.

They already tried a modern model back in 1993, you'll probably think I'm crazy, but Jeff Morris, a retired Federal worker that served from 1954 to 2007, informed us about a model that used the direct drive rotator that we now see on modern Federal models, a smaller compact blower, compact RCM and FC radio. This model was white and was single tone only. Due to the 2001's popularity and probably poor advertising this model didn't make it and only sold about 9-10 units in total. The existence of these units is unknown and are probably gone forever.
Going back to the rotator unit, the reason the 2001's didn't use this until 2004 was because Federal clearly had a crap-ton of leftover parts from the Tbolt, so they just decided to use the old pulley mechanisms before they got to the new direct drive units to use up what they had. On a good few of 2001 SRNBs and maybe a few 130s, they have all the holes on the bottom for the Tbolt standpipe along with the bolt holes too, this is one piece of evidence if you don't believe me.

Here is an idea of what it looks like:

[Stormsetter4]

They weren't using old Thunderbolt parts for the first generation of 2001's, those were produced new and considering the hundreds that were sold, there's no way there were that many parts left over. All of the 2001's and even the 508's now have a hole on the bottom of the siren mounting plate where you can remove a small filler plug and install the unit on a Thunderbolt standpipe. From what I understand the direct drive rotator design for the SRNB, 130, and 508 was designed when the SRNB came out, not back in the 90's. Otherwise, the first generation of the 2001's would have used it.