When did Federal Signal stop production of the Thunderbeam?

[nvanw27]

Wondering when FS Stopped making the Thunderbeam siren. I am working on a CD-era map of my area and was wondering when the production was stopped, we have a beam nearby but I wanted to make sure it hadn't been installed recently. it looks old, but never hurts to check.

[Tyler]

It started around ‘82 and it went on until the 2001 came out. I want to say it was 87 when it stopped entirely.

[Travis]

So interestingly enough, and many people know this, the very first conceptual 2001 looked a LOT like an RSH-10. If these sirens [Tbeams] weren't so inefficient and had suffered fewer problems with their rotation design, I think they may have lasted awhile longer.

[fire_freak_57]

So interestingly enough, and many people know this, the very first conceptual 2001 looked a LOT like an RSH-10. If these sirens [Tbeams] weren't so inefficient and had suffered fewer problems with their rotation design, I think they may have lasted awhile longer.

Is that the prototype 2001? Or is that the Thunderbeam patent? Because what is up with that top motor design...looks...interesting.

[Brendan W]

IIRC, the last mention of the Thunderbeam was in a Federal catalog from 1995.

[Travis]

So interestingly enough, and many people know this, the very first conceptual 2001 looked a LOT like an RSH-10. If these sirens [Tbeams] weren't so inefficient and had suffered fewer problems with their rotation design, I think they may have lasted awhile longer.

Is that the prototype 2001? Or is that the Thunderbeam patent? Because what is up with that top motor design...looks...interesting.

No this patent is from 1989, and was patented the same day the original 2001 was. I wouldn't say this was a prototype at all, just a concept on an improved TBeam. You can see that it uses the stator and rotor from the 2001 (Model 3) and the rotational drive from the RSH-10. There is another one from that same filing without the rotating deflector, and just has a cone in the bottom. Basically a hornless omni.

[Synther]

While we're on the topic, Federal also patented a literal "Round Back" 2001-DC.


Here's a picture of the other RSH-10 variant discussed earlier in this thread:


(Im sorry for the large pictures)

[LukeH]

Did any of them make it into production?

[Tyler]

IIRC, the last mention of the Thunderbeam was in a Federal catalog from 1995.

That doesn't really make sense though, because they never had it listed or mentioned on their websites at the time, and the 2001 was already 7 years into production.