Lansing's old siren system - In the graveyard

[Greenrid]

My goodness did this take forever to make with the download speeds.

If you've been following the recent events for the Lansing siren system, All of the older sirens (excluding the STH-10) have been removed. All the Thunderbolts and the 2T22 have been, very fortunately, taken to West Shore Services siren graveyard! Just yesterday I took a trip to their graveyard yesterday to see the Lansing system in their (probably) final resting place. I did see the whole graveyard as well!

You can't really get a sense of where everything is without a picture, so here's an aerial view of WSS to show where most of the remains are for them. The red circles are where they are located. The 2T22 is to the far left of the photo, just in a different section that's in front of their main shed.

The remain map

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I was unfortunately too excited to take the pictures (and too focused on it) to remember most of the locations, but I did remember a few of them. If you want to take a trip there for yourself, the locations are written on the bottom of the rotators for each bolt! In the pictures, Almost (keyword: almost) all of the blowers and heads have a mark starting with L- and then the number. That number will match you up with the blower or head for that specific bolt!

And here's some very good news for some of the sirens: The 2T22 is getting a new home with an enthusiast in North Carolina (not Trains&sirens1), the sick Thunderbolt that was on U.S 27 was already bought and is getting a new home in Florida, and another one of them is being bought by a worker at WSS!

There was also something that was pretty confusing for all of Lansing's thunderbolts. All of the tags actually said that their type was a 1000, and not a 1000T. I'm wondering that either all of the choppers were swapped sometime after they were installed, or the rotators where spare parts from other Thunderbolts.

here's the pictures that you've been waiting for (and the specific info for them, too!)

Known locations & pairs

This is head for I believe the Thunderbolt that was near the US National Guard Recruit center. The blower location is unknown, but it is in the graveyard.

L-07

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I believe this is the head for the Thunderbolt that was next to the Lansing Fire Station #04 on E Miller rd., originally from Oakland county, MI.

L-06

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And this is the blower for the head above. Don't quote me on this exact bolt' location, as I'm not sure if it is this one. I'm only working off of one picture with the location of the Sheridan bolt sharpied onto the bottom of the head (I originally thought the Sheridan bolt was this one, and the one I currently labeled was the one at the Harley Franks Head Start. This could still be right!)

The blower for L-06.

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Brendan opened the blower for me so I could see inside it. Here's an interesting fact: Almost all of the Thunderbolts actually have a pressure sensor in their relief valve! You can see the wires coming out of it.

The inside of the blower. The tag here also says the type is a 1000.

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This Thunderbolt head was on the corner of W Sheridan and Dewitt Rd, originally from Fraser, MI. This was the one that has a reverse wired blower. This also was the head that was claimed.

L-04

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Here's the blower for the head above. The head is sitting right next to the blower. Brendan told me he also fixed the wiring so the blower wasn't reversed wired anymore. I'm pretty darn sure that this location is correct.

The blower for L-04

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This is the head from the Thunderbolt that was located at the Foster Community Center on Michigan Ave. I actually didn't have any idea just how beat up this one was. you can see the rotator cover was jammed open. You can kind of see the main gear inside for it, and it looks very rusted.

L-02. Looks like they repainted it a lot in its years.

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This is the blower for the head above. The black splotch on the blower is actually a rusted bolt from the blower cover. I didn't see inside of it, but now I kinda regret not...

The blower for L-02

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The location for this one is currently unknown. I have the serial number for it to see if I can find the location by one of you!

L-01. The one that's circled is the one I'm talking about!

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This is the blower for the head above. I can't really tell where this may have been located by the paint chipping. (if the pairing labels went in order of removal, this might be the one that was next the Willow Elementary school, but I highly doubt it)

The blower closest to me is for L-01.

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There is another Thunderbolt head in the lot that I know the location of, but I forgot to take a direct picture of it. It was the head located next to the Dwight Rich school of the Arts building. It was the one that has a black chopper cap on it! The blower pair label and location in the lot is currently unknown.


Mystery horns and blowers

Since I only know a few locations right now, I have a lot of photos that have Heads and blowers that have an unknown pair or their original location. I marked all of the blowers and heads that aren't known with a red dot, and all of the ones that are known with a green dot. Excuse my horrible PC drawing skills!

Aww man, this photo again? The Thunderbolt with a green dot is L-01.

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The other photos don't really show just how small the area is with Lansings Thunderbolts, but this does!

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Yet another picture that shows how small this area is.

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Those pipes closest to me are the standpipes for all of Lansing's Thunderbolts!

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The 2T22

The 2T22 in the picture below is the 2T22 that came from Lansing as well. The reason why it's over here as to next to the other Thunderbolts is because it's getting a new home in North Carolina, as I stated at the top of this post. Unfortunately, nobody wanted to open it up to figure out why it was seized because of how much work it would be. We'll just have to wait and see if the new owner will make a video or an update for us saying why it seized!

(picture is in the next post below)

[Greenrid]

I had to put the photo here because of the photo limit.

The 2T22. the horns are actually pretty dented in some areas.

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Anyways, If I missed any info or made a mistake, please let me know!

I'm also not too certain if the photos are visible to other people due to them being a .jpg image.

I will be making a full tour for WSS, but I'm too lazy to after taking almost 2 hours to write this whole post.

[SpanishFriedEggs]

what year would the L-06 unit be from? if its from sometime on or before 1977 then it very likely could be from Oakland County.

[Greenrid]

what year would the L-06 unit be from? if its from sometime on or before 1977 then it very likely could be from Oakland County.

I'm not entirely sure, but I do know it was post 1965. All blower covers before 1965 never had a vent on them, when Federal Signal changed to the 4M blower in 1965, they added a vent to the blower (Lansing's OG Thunderbolts were the only exception)

The more that I think about it, the Thunderbolt that used to be in Fulton Park was installed in May of 1977. This means that there is a chance that L-06 may be this one, since the blower cover must of had a vent on it!

[SpanishFriedEggs]

Thanks for the information, I hope that these sirens don't get scrapped anytime soon, since their yard is getting kinda full.

[Greenrid]

Thanks for the information, I hope that these sirens don't get scrapped anytime soon, since their yard is getting kinda full.

Thankfully, West Shore Services themselves don't scrap the sirens, at least not yet. They let the people who go there take parts from the sirens, so they get repurposed instead of being scrapped. That's a lot of money that would go to waste if you scrapped them, many of the parts that they have aren't made anymore!

[SpanishFriedEggs]

that's good to hear, WSS has purged their yard in the passed, that's why I was getting kinda paranoid lol.

[gator-airraid]

what year would the L-06 unit be from? if its from sometime on or before 1977 then it very likely could be from Oakland County.

Most of the ID Tags off the Lansing batch are very hard to read due to sloppy paint jobs and lack of care over the years. One of the ID Tags off that batch was T-4400D (Not L-06). It has a 1000T stamped on the tag too.

Pairing up the information from another post about Thunderbolt serial numbers and their years, I’m 99% sure the unit (and some others from Lansing possibly including L-06) were manufactured in 1977.