Looking for St. Louis (Mo.) area siren enthusiasts

[FedTB]

Thanks for jumpin' on the bandwagon, vortexofmisery.

It would be nice if Jefferson County could have a countywide siren system, but evidentally the terrain is not siren friendly, according to the JCEMA. A few cities have their own systems, and unfortunately Arnold installed ATI's. Low bid, to them, was the best bid. I read the minutes of their board meetings around the time they were in the hunt to replace their Whelen 3016's.

Granite City used to have T-Bolts.

Too bad about the state of disrepair of the O'Fallon T-Bolts. Sounds like their siren maintenance program, if you can even call it that, didn't even exist! I did hear something recently that they're looking into a new siren system.

I never knew that Fairview Heights used to have a system of T-Bolts. Back in the late 1970's-early 1980's I did see some 612's over there.

Columbia still has the 3 sirens you mentioned.

Nice to hear that Cahokia finally has a system.

[FedTB]

I forgot to add that the problem in Jefferson County, according to the director of their EMA, is money for a siren system. Then how about a bond issue? Not too hard if you have a campaign to educate the public on why a county-wide siren system is needed. It's too populated of a county not to have a siren system.

And please don't go with ATI's!!!

[FedTB]

Adam, do you know if O'Fallon, Illinois went with ASC T-128's or T-135's? Or both? How many? And did they take down the T-Bolts and Allertronic? I would think so if they went with a new siren system.

[Adam Pollak]

Jeff, I was just searching through O'Fallon's city meeting minutes and stuff to see if there was any mention of what sirens might have been installed. Wireless USA is the company they were working with, which is an American Signal vendor and they mentioned the ability to silent test the new sirens, so I am guessing they went with more Alertronics, unless they also meant low growl and rotation testing of T-128s. The siren at Central School (T-Bolt) has had problems with it and has probably already been replaced by now. I haven't been over there for a while, cause I have so many far out areas in central IL to cover, but it's worth seeing what is new. As a side thing, if Shiloh has more than one siren location (which I'm sure they do) I want to go get pics of their system. Before I had my car here, I actually used to take a bus to the Metro Link station, take the Metro Link to the Fairview Heights station and then take different bus routes to a city and when have around a 20-mile day of walking to find sirens. Not the most efficient way, but you do get to see a lot and get in shape. As a side note, there is a Model 5 at the French Village VFD (which can be clearly seen from the Fairview Heights Metro Link/Metro Bus station), which I believe may be within Fairview Heights city limits now.

[FedTB]

I read those same minutes, too, and was wondering what the city went with, as those minutes were from 2005. I thought I read somewhere recently where someone thought O'Fallon purchased T-128's and T-135's. I just thought that was a little odd.

I've seen the French Village Model 5. It's been quite awhile since I've been over that way.

I gotta admit, you are a very dedicated siren enthusiast, with the Metro train rides, bus transfers, walking, etc.!

[500AT]

I can remembering seeing two Federal 500ATs and one 550AT in St. Louis, when I went to visit my cousin there in 1971.

[Adam Pollak]

That is one you are definitely going to need to elaborate on =)

[FedTB]

I don't know of any 500AT's or 550AT's that were in the City of St. Louis. Maybe you saw them out in St. Louis County, but I don't recall any out there, either. It's possible, though. The old St. Louis County CD system had a few different types of Federal sirens mixed in: T-Bolt 1000's, 2T22's and SD-10's for sure. I was only 7 years old in 1971 and the only siren I was really familiar with back then, though I didn't know the name of it, was the T-Bolt 1000 at my school.

[500AT]

This was out in St. Louis County. I can remember taking I-55 north from US-60. We drove for a few hours, and I fell asleep in the back seat, but woke up at my cousin's house. Nonetheless, we drove State Route 100 through Ballwin the next day, and it seems that the sirens were out in that area. I can remember we drove on Manchester Ave into St. Louis.

The Model 550AT was by itself, but the two 500s were a few miles apart. At that age, I really didn't know the difference between siren models, but I recognized the Federal 500 when I saw, because I had seen one much earlier in my life. Likewise, the 550 looked like two 500s, but were back-to-back.

[FedTB]

Alright, thanks for the info!

So it sounds like the old St. Louis County CD system also had some 500's and 550AT's. I'd love to be able to talk to a St. Louis County EMA siren tech and see if any more information could be obtained about the old system. I know there used to be a T-Bolt on Manchester Road near Barrett Station Road up until about 15 or so years ago. That's a little ways before Ballwin, if you were heading west on Manchester Road (a.k.a. Hwy. 100).