Sirens in Iowa

[Busgeek71]

I noticed in Iowa a lot of towns had 2t22s and T-Bolt 1003s, plus model 5s. Didn't see anything else. anyone know of any systems out there that aren't Federal?

[500 AT fan]

From what I've heard, Macon City used to have some VERY old ACA sirens with Federal 500AT rotors in them. All broke and were superseded in 2004/5.


Never been to Iowa in person. Sorry.

[guitarguy1985]

Davenport is all Whelens. Other than that I don't know of any other cities that are strictly non-Federal. Bettendorf has a few T-128s, and Ames has a Sentry Defender and ACA Allertor, the rest is all Federal Signal. I've seen Whelens in other cities. Williamsburg has a Whelen Vortex or 4004. Bigloudnoise on here has a few videos of sirens from Iowa that aren't Federal Signal, such as an ACA Screamer and some Whelens.

[bigloudnoise]

You are correct when you say that XT22s and Model 5s are very common in Iowa. They're probably the most numerous mechanical sirens I've seen around here, especially in the smaller towns. As for Thunderbolts, I've seen only one 1003 so far (Parkersburg), but the 1000/1000T is fairly common. Perhaps the 1003 is more common in western Iowa (I live in eastern Iowa, near Cedar Rapids).

As already mentioned though, there are other models. My hometown of Vinton has three Whelen WPS-2807s, with a fourth Whelen coming soon (Sadly to replace a Federal STH-10). The DAEC nuclear plant has a whole system of 144 Whelen sirens, mostly 3016s and 4004s, with a few 2016s included here and there. I personally have not seen it, but there's a rare Whelen 4008 in the Davenport area. I've seen quite a few ASC T-128s, especially in northeastern Iowa. There's an ACA Allertor in Mason City I remember seeing one day, and I got video of a dual-tone ACA Screamer in Atkins on my YouTube account (http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=bigloudnoise).

So, there are many other models of sirens here. But yes, a majority of mechanical sirens in Iowa are Federal.

[NanSiren]

Fort Dodge is all Whelen. (Was 1000T's)
St. Ansgar (I believe) has T-128s.
Shennandoah is a mix of a 1003 (which did Hi-Lo for fire calls, first time I've heard a T-Bolt to hi-low, now used only for weather), P10/P15 and Sterling (may be others)

[Oldiesmann]

Hamilton County is a mixture of Federal and ACA/ASC, and has a huge variety of siren models...

Federal:
2001
TBolt
Model 5
STH-10
STL-10
SD-10
EOWS

ACA:
P-10/15

ASC:
T-128

[MIKEY]

While I was in Andrew Iowa, I found 2 T-bolt 1000's. both within a block of each other. the town only has a little over 500 people. there is also one unknown type of siren on the water tower.

[bigloudnoise]

I just finished uploading all of my current Iowa siren photos to my Photobucket account. Even though I don't have very many XT22 and Model 5 pictures, they are quite common here. The more common a siren is, the less likely I'll take pictures of it (Unless there's something unique or unusual about it). That's why I also don't have many 2001 pictures, they too are very common.

All of my siren photos are sorted according to the city/town in which they are located (Except for the DAEC sirens, they're sorted by county and individually labeled with the locations). There's actually quite a decent variety around here.

A lot of pictures aren't the best quality, either because they were spur-of-the-moment or because the van was still moving (It's hard to aim a camera from a moving vehicle and take good-looking pictures). But, they should all still be fairly enjoyable. There's also a lot of duplicates from the same angle and zoom depth that I'm going to be gradually weeding out over the next several days (I'm one of those people who like to take "one more picture" when possible, just to make sure I got a good shot).

http://s287.photobucket.com/albums/ll13 ... se/Sirens/

[Thunderboltlover]

From what I hear down here Theres nothing but whelens and 1 thunderbolt 1000T

[guitarguy1985]

I saw a T-121 on my way from Ames to the Quad Cities. It was on the north side of I-80, I think it must have been in West Branch, but I wouldn't put money on it. Somewhere in that area though.