ACA Allertors in Loudoun County, Virginia

[PeachtreeSirens]

How come it surprised you that it is active as a fire siren?

I don't find fire sirens here nearly as often as I do in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and it's a treat to find an active one. Plus, seeing a 125 dBc dual-tone brute serving as a fire siren is pretty uncommon anyway...

Are you thinking of recording the siren when it sounds for a call?

That, or convincing the firemen to run it up for me. Either way, it won't happen for quite some time, unfortunately.

[Allenorgan42099]

VASirens, how did you know that the Allertors in Loudoun County used to be in service in Washington, DC, as part of DC's old system? Could you update the Philomont Allertor on Google Maps, saying that it is active as a fire siren?

[EOWS1212man]

VASirens, how did you know that the Allertors in Loudoun County used to be in service in Washington, DC, as part of DC's old system? Could you update the Philomont Allertor on Google Maps, saying that it is active as a fire siren?

I was thinking the same thing, since DC had a huge Thunderbolt system.

[PeachtreeSirens]

My info comes from this 2006 post. The whole topic is chock full of info concerning area sirens, and as my Maryland and Virginia maps imply, the data is definitely accurate.
(250th post here, by the way...)

[Allenorgan42099]

VASirens, how did you know that the Allertors in Loudoun County used to be in service in Washington, DC, as part of DC's old system? Could you update the Philomont Allertor on Google Maps, saying that it is active as a fire siren?

I was thinking the same thing, since DC had a huge Thunderbolt system.

I believe the Thunderbolts were replaced by Allertors, and the Allertors were taken down, and went into service as fire sirens.

[Rheems1]

Ahh yes one of my favorite topics!! I (for once) actually have stuff to add to this topic..so here goes:

The Allertor in Philomont:



The Modified Allertor in Middleburg (looks awful, no wonder they took it down):



and finally this gem that has been sitting on my computer since 2002 or so, a picture of the fire chief from the Lovettsville Fire Department sitting in front of their Allertor after it was taken down:




I think Purcellville used have an Allertor as well, it was gone when I visited though... same goes for Neersville.

[Allenorgan42099]

Ahh yes one of my favorite topics!! I (for once) actually have stuff to add to this topic..so here goes:

The Allertor in Philomont:



The Modified Allertor in Middleburg (looks awful, no wonder they took it down):



and finally this gem that has been sitting on my computer since 2002 or so, a picture of the fire chief from the Lovettsville Fire Department sitting in front of their Allertor after it was taken down:




I think Purcellville used have an Allertor as well, it was gone when I visited though... same goes for Neersville.

Where was the Allertor in Purcellville? Was it mounted on a roof, a pole, or on the water tower? I knew Neersville had one, but it was replaced by a Model 3. Purcellville had an old Fedelcode Model 5/7 that was taken down years ago and has an old mystery siren in downtown.

[Rheems1]

If I recall correctly, the Fedelcode was mounted on a tower behind the fire company..... I believe the Allertor was mounted on a pole next to the tower at 1 time. As for the mystery siren downtown that is Darley 3V8 siren.. it is mounted on a building that looks like a department store of some kind. I had assumed it was used by the Purcellville Rescue Squad but that is just a guess on my part.

[Allenorgan42099]

If I recall correctly, the Fedelcode was mounted on a tower behind the fire company..... I believe the Allertor was mounted on a pole next to the tower at 1 time. As for the mystery siren downtown that is Darley 3V8 siren.. it is mounted on a building that looks like a department store of some kind. I had assumed it was used by the Purcellville Rescue Squad but that is just a guess on my part.

You are correct about the Fedelcode. When was the Allertor taken down? I don't ever remember seeing it. I think the 3V8 is a Sterling, not a Darley. Do you have pictures of any other Loudoun sirens? Why was the Middleburg Allertor modified. There is also a Sentry in Middleburg, behind the town office.

[Rheems1]

Well, it wasn't actually modified per say... the fiberglass horn piece fell off and they didn't know where to get another one and weren't all that woried about it anyway. So they just left the motor and chopper assembly up and let it sound off, it looked pretty poor when I was there (as you can see) so I am not overly surprised they took it down. The chief gave me the impression he didn't like it very much also... I don't recall the last time I saw the Purcellville Allertor, and I could be mistaken and have them confused with Lovettsville... I seem to mix them up in my head for some reason.