CTsirenhunter intro/sirens in Hartford County, CT

[CTsirenhunter]

The master box returns! I took a closer, better picture this time, and today I also explained how it worked to my favorite teacher, although I kind of forgot why the exterior pull thingy had been removed.


Also...

Hartford's alarm system was closed circuit to the alarm office. I can't answer for sure but I believe the alarm system was repeated to the other stations at one time. Now when a master box comes in, if you listen carefully you can hear the printer for the system printing out the box information behind the dispatcher.

Are you saying the master boxes still work? That would be cool!

[CTsirenhunter]

Excellent news, fellow CT siren hunters!

I have found another Hartford Thunderbolt!

It is mounted on top of a fire station that's located at the corner of Sigourney Street and Niles Street, which is conveniently located just off of good old Asylum Avenue. Presumably, if one visited the station and asked to see the siren, they would allow you up on the roof to take some real close up pics (there seems to be easy and secure roof access!) This maybe my first up-close Thunderbolt ever!

More updates coming soon!

[CTsirenhunter]

Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for...



















It's what I call the Median Thunderbolt because it's in the middle of a divided street. The last picture gives a bit of a location reference. Seeing this thing so close for the first time...just amazing. I feel like a real siren hunter now!

[CTsirenhunter]

Ok, I don't mean to go back to being the "jerk" you all thought I once was, but how come I posted pictures of a Thunderbolt in Hartford, something I know you've all been interested in, and yet I was completely ignored?!

Anyway, moving on...

So yesterday, I was on a hike with my mom and my girlfriend and we were up on hill above Collinsville, CT. Noon came around, and I heard church bells ringing. I was musing on that aloud, prompting my girlfriend to ask why the bells were ringing when it wasn't Sunday (don't worry, she's very smart, it's just that she's not Christian so she's not used to churches, and her common sense is very different from my common sense...) and I explained the concept of a noon whistle and whatnot. Of course, I mentioned that I hoped Collinsville's Model 2 would sound. Sure enough, a minute later, it did. It was a single blast that sounded low, more like a growl...

Later on, we went down to the town and I photographed the siren some more. A man loading car batteries into a pickup truck right in front of me could only say that the siren belonged or used to belong to the fire department, which is just up the road in a newer station with seemingly no sirens. He obviously didn't know anything else. I'm not sure who would...or who's in charge of sounding the siren at noon!

[sirenmike1]

NICE PICS ON THE WESTBOURNE ST. T-BOLD ON THE DIVIDER, AND NICE ENTHUSIASM, "CTSirenSirenhunter."

YOU ACTUALLY BEAT ME TO THE BUNCH...I HAVE FOUR (4) HARTFORD T'BOLTS PHOTOGRAPHED, ALL WITHIN ABOUT A MILE OF EACH OTHER, BUT THEY'RE STILL ON MY FILM SPOOL AND NOT YET DEVELOPED...WESTBOURNE, ALBANY AVE., SIGOURNEY/NILES FIRE STATION, AND CORNER OF FERN ST./SHERMAN ST. ACROSS FROM THE UCONN LAW SCHOOL.

PLEASE SEE IF YOU CAN CATCH THE ONE ON FERN ST. (PARTIALLY HIDDEN BY TALL TREES) AND POST HERE BEFORE I GET A CHANCE.

[CTsirenhunter]

Thanks for all your compliments. Are you aware of the Elmwood "Leaning Thunderbolt"? I haven't see that one in person but hope to catch it sometime.

I accept your challenge on the Fern St. Tbolt! I plan to group in it with my plans to catch the Sigourney/Niles fire station...I may even ask them if I can go up on the roof to see it! I'm going to let Albany Ave. slide for a little while...Westbourne was close enough to that one to satisfy my interest in that section of the city for now.

Again, thanks for noticing my post.

[CTsirenhunter]

Forgetting about the grander mission of Hartford Tbolts for the moment, I have made some critical discoveries in Canton and Avon.

-Avon has a fire station on Huckleberry Hill Road that has a stainless steel/unpainted silver Model 5 nicely ensconced in its own cupola.

-Canton's main fire station just outside of Collinsville actually does have a Model 2. Its pole is kind of in some trees so it's hard to see and I only noticed it today. The siren itself doesn't look to be in such great condition: it was probably once green or gray but now has noticeable rust patches.

So to sum up...Canton has a fading yellow 2 in Collinsville, a rusty 2 at the main station just outside Collinsville, and a beautiful red 5 at the station on Canton Springs Rd., around the town's commercial center. Avon has seemingly no siren at their main station in Avon Park South, a red STH-10 at the station by the high school, a silver 5 at the Huckleberry Hill Rd. station, and a greenish-grayish 2 by the Nod Brook Mall on US Rt. 44.

[CTsirenhunter]

So, my uncle was sitting with me and my cousin in a car directly facing the West Simsbury fire station, and somehow, he registers what he's looking at (a Whelen WPS 2740, of course) and says "Look, a siren!". He then proceeded to tell me about the one he hears at work in Torrington, saying that he's heard it sound for calls and at noon. Knowing where his office is (east of actual Torrington), I have determined that he is hearing the Model 2 at the Torringford Volunteer Fire Department, which I have been passing every few years for years now. Here's a picture from their website.



In addition, they have an entire gallery about the installation of their siren: http://www.torringfordfd.org/gallery/th ... p?album=14

Also, I heard one of my town's sirens sound a single blast the other day...and not at noon...more like 6:20 PM or some random time like that. What does that mean?

[3t22]

So, my uncle was sitting with me and my cousin in a car directly facing the West Simsbury fire station, and somehow, he registers what he's looking at (a Whelen WPS 2740, of course) and says "Look, a siren!". He then proceeded to tell me about the one he hears at work in Torrington, saying that he's heard it sound for calls and at noon. Knowing where his office is (east of actual Torrington), I have determined that he is hearing the Model 2 at the Torringford Volunteer Fire Department, which I have been passing every few years for years now. Here's a picture from their website.



In addition, they have an entire gallery about the installation of their siren: http://www.torringfordfd.org/gallery/th ... p?album=14

That 2 is actually a 2T in this pic you can clearly see the ports



and I thought the only working 2T int he state was mine.

[CTsirenhunter]

On the way out to Lakeside (a middle-of-nowhere sort of place in Litchfield County near Bantam Lake), I passed the Torringford FD and its yellow 2T, but I couldn't get a good picture from the car. Didn't see any other sirens until Bantam, which has a red STH-10 down a side street where I couldn't even dream of getting a picture.

We also passed through Litchfield coming in and going back (we actually stopped there on the way back with the intention of having dinner, but my inability to register quickly enough the presence of fish and chips on the menu of The Village Restaurant kind of ruined that plan...) but I did NOT see that STH-10 that is, according to the Siren Archive, right on the town green.