The Siren Board

I'll tell you one thing, ever since we heard about this and confirmed it, we have made a heck of a lot of hype lol.

Thunderbolt10031 wrote:I'll tell you one thing, ever since we heard about this and confirmed it, we have made a heck of a lot of hype lol.

Just goes to show how good of a
Siren the bolts are. :TBolt: I can tell you I certainly love my ol gals! (Model 5 and my thunderbolt.) oh and just for the record... My thunderbolt served 2 terms. One of which was on the coast and being beaten by salt air, humidity and rain. I can still plug her in and get her to run. (Yes I had to remove a few panels to do it.) I don't know if the new ones will be that tough but I can tell you my poor model 5 didn't like the salt air so much... And it's heavier!

In 1980, Federal introduced the Thunderbolt Series B: an attempt to modernize the aging Thunderbolt siren design. The primary objective was to lower build costs along with tackling some of the more common complaints (broken belts). It used a direct drive rotator, compacted blower, and a C-face chopper motor in place of the usual "Model 2 in a can". Between the off-set rotator box and extra eye-bolts lining the horn, it looked somewhat ugly compared to a proper Thunderbolt.
This new Thunderbolt was rife with trouble. There were problems with the C-faced motor getting loose on the mounting plate and sticking itself out of alignment which resulted in the rotor scraping against the stator. The direct drive rotator was also disbanded when Federal cranked out the Thunderbolt Series C just a year or two later. Only the compacted blower remained on the Series C - far from the upgrade Federal was hoping for. Very few, if any, Series B Thunderbolts are left in service.

Nowadays, Federal has the 2001-130 and 508. Unless there's some gimmick or requirement another "new" Thunderbolt can fulfill, I don't see any place for such a thing in Federal's current siren lineup. Enjoy the remaining classic Thunderbolts while they last.

If Jen and Ian keep fixing them and putting them up at least we know where we can find a few! lol. There is one fully active Jailbar bolt I know of here in the PNW that still runs. There might be a few more active somewhere out here but I never found them... Anyways my point is thunderbolts don't seem to be too hard to fix and parts are still made. And it seems to me like the sirens federal signal makes BESIDES the 508 are rather less performing. But hey that's just my rambling for this morning...

SuperBanshee wrote: Very few, if any, Series B Thunderbolts are left in service.

IIRC, there are a few places that still have B-series Thunderbolts left in service. I think the ones left in service are:

• At least one in Fostoria, OH
• At least one somewhere in Illinois
• A B-series 1003 somehwere in NY (I think on Long Island)
• One or two in a town somewhere in Texas.

Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, as I most likely am.

There is a B-Series :TBolt: in Toluca, IL near some train tracks.

Found the New York Series B Thunderbolts in East Farmingdale. Here's a photo of one:



Whitewater, WI also has a Series B 1000T along with other sirens.

Chicagosiren-hunters wrote:There is a B-Series :TBolt: in Toluca, IL near some train tracks.

SuperBanshee wrote:Found the New York Series B Thunderbolts in East Farmingdale. Here's a photo of one:



Whitewater, WI also has a Series B 1000T along with other sirens.

Thanks for the info y'all! Now the only one(s) I need confirmation on are the one(s) that may be in Texas. Maybe someone should start a map of all of the B-series Thunderbolt locations (active, out of service, and removed) like the map of Alertronic sirens.

freebrickproductions wrote:

Chicagosiren-hunters wrote:There is a B-Series :TBolt: in Toluca, IL near some train tracks.

SuperBanshee wrote:Found the New York Series B Thunderbolts in East Farmingdale. Here's a photo of one:



Whitewater, WI also has a Series B 1000T along with other sirens.

Thanks for the info y'all! Now the only one(s) I need confirmation on are the one(s) that may be in Texas. Maybe someone should start a map of all of the B-series Thunderbolt locations (active, out of service, and removed) like the map of Alertronic sirens.

Heck there's one in the boneyard in Birmingham along with the infamous jail bar grille thunderbolt! Lol. I saw it when I was there and in a picture I took.


Hey let's move his over to a topic! I'll start it!

Moved to the Main forum since there is some technical duscussion in this post.

My 2-cents...someone is getting their jollies being a troll at FS. Hope I'm wrong though!