Forgotten New York City Sirens

[500AT]

While surfing the Web, I came across these sirens in New York City. Both look like Federal units, but are somewhat different.

a view down Wall Street to Trinity Church, which has been there since 1846; most of the buildings in the picture are, in fact, still there. What isn't there anymore is the humongous air-raid siren on the bishop crook lamppost. In those days, if the Russians were coming, we'd have a fairly good idea when they'd get here. Now, our enemies strike without warning.

This one was spotted at the Sutter Avenue el station at Livonia Avenue.

What sirens, if any, does New York City have in operation today?

[Cyrun]

The second siren look's like a H.O.R.. I wonder if that things still there.

[JasonC]

Yup, those are all old H.O.R. sirens. NYC has no sirens, (there is a 40V2T on a synagogue though) though there are a few forgotten sirens still waitng to be found.

[AllSafe]

Yup, those are all old H.O.R. sirens. NYC has no sirens, (there is a 40V2T on a synagogue though) though there are a few forgotten sirens still waitng to be found.

Isn't that the same "synagogue siren" I read about on the old board which sounds every time they have a service? I think it's rather silly to have a siren on top of a church or synagogue for this purpose, especially one that powerful.

[Jim_Ferer]

Yup, those are all old H.O.R. sirens. NYC has no sirens, (there is a 40V2T on a synagogue though) though there are a few forgotten sirens still waitng to be found.

Isn't that the same "synagogue siren" I read about on the old board which sounds every time they have a service? I think it's rather silly to have a siren on top of a church or synagogue for this purpose, especially one that powerful.

It sounds at the official time for sundown on the Sabbath.

[slant-40]

NYC had HOR sirens exclusively - in three sizes: 3hp, 5hp and 10hp. The 3hp was a knock-off of the Federal Model 2; the 10hp looked so much like the Federal 7.5hp model that it was very hard to tell them apart. The one that looked different was the 5hp model you see in the two photos. The second photo shows what was probably the very last one standing - at the Sutter Avenue elevated station along Brooklyn's "L" line. This siren remained in place until the year 2005!

There were also larger (and omni-directional) HOR Sirex-class sirens which could be found mounted atop school buildings throughout the city. The 3s, 5s and 10s were mostly mounted on lamp-posts, poles, elevated stations and many firehouses.

[CosmicCharms5T]

H.O.R. ( Hear Our Roar) siren company was an exclusive siren Co. to the New York City area. They were located in Staten Island. Over 300 HOR sirens were installed in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx & Staten Island... None exist today as the city took them all down in the late 1980's when Civil Defense was disbanded. A few made it to long Island in the 1940's for Volunteer Fire Departments. One that is still active every day at noon and for fire calls is located in Roslyn, Long Island NY. Here is a video below of a 7 1/2 HP HOR

http://www.longislandfirealarm.com/Rosl ... pe%205.wmv

[500AT]

How long was H.O.R. in the siren business? What caused their demise?

[CosmicCharms5T]

How long was H.O.R. in the siren business? What caused their demise?

With the end of the Civil Defense era there was no more high demand for siren's anymore. Federal Sign & Signal was the top seller and made it through the down crunch of warning signal sales. So companies like HOR, SIRENO, Gamewell, STERLING all went out of business.

[500 AT fan]

Sterling turned into Sentry, and ASC is still in buisness.

I honestly don't get why sirens aren't used in major citys like New York anymore... Chicago still has a couple, I think. Of course, They're home to Federal Signal co.

And, of course, Wisconsin's still got most of it's sirens intact. ....