The Siren Board

rdfox wrote:Sadly, I moved out of Battle Creek over a decade ago, before I really got into the siren hobby, so I can't say that I know from personal experience where any others are. However...

A while back, someone posted a video of a test of the downtown 1000T, complete with the ham radio traffic reporting the test results. Between that and a bit of G-maps detective work, here's my listing of the sirens they called out, and a listing of where/what they are, when I was able to ID them.

General Foods Cliff Street--Post plant SD-10
Verona School Northeast Capital--Thunderbeam(!) behind the school
Washington School North Washington--Rotating ATI along Linear Park in front of school
Former Transamerica Tower, Michigan Avenue and McCamly Street--4/5 port Thunderbolt 1000T on tower roof
Urbandale School Bedford Road--4/5 port Thunderbolt 1000T on SW side of school along Oakley
Riverside School Riverside Drive--EOWS 612 SE of school just off Riverside Drive
Water tower Eldred Street--Rotating ATI SE of the McCrae Park water tanks
Bedford Fire Station #3 North Avenue Market Road--?? Not sure where this even IS...
Bedford Township Offices West Michigan--Model 3/5/7 on back side of roof
Bedford Village M-37 fire station--Model 3/5/7 on pole on back of roof
Math & Science Center--No siren evident in Google Street View or Maps
the Golf Course--Not a clue, couldn't find any signs of a siren at the nearest golf course
I-94 East Helmer Road--Rotating ATI behind eastbound I-94 rest area
Beckley Road Capital Avenue water tower--Rotating ATI just W of water tank

Of course, I'm not sure if the Math & Science Center is still at the old Springfield High School site. I think you found the Fire Station #3 one, and the two hidden almost in a tree might be the M&SC and "golf course" ones.

Thanks for the info! The only golf course siren I could think of is the nearest 612. I think for their test next month (April) I'm going to record one of the ATIs just for the heck of it.

lkreykes wrote:

rdfox wrote:Sadly, I moved out of Battle Creek over a decade ago, before I really got into the siren hobby, so I can't say that I know from personal experience where any others are. However...

A while back, someone posted a video of a test of the downtown 1000T, complete with the ham radio traffic reporting the test results. Between that and a bit of G-maps detective work, here's my listing of the sirens they called out, and a listing of where/what they are, when I was able to ID them.

General Foods Cliff Street--Post plant SD-10
Verona School Northeast Capital--Thunderbeam(!) behind the school
Washington School North Washington--Rotating ATI along Linear Park in front of school
Former Transamerica Tower, Michigan Avenue and McCamly Street--4/5 port Thunderbolt 1000T on tower roof
Urbandale School Bedford Road--4/5 port Thunderbolt 1000T on SW side of school along Oakley
Riverside School Riverside Drive--EOWS 612 SE of school just off Riverside Drive
Water tower Eldred Street--Rotating ATI SE of the McCrae Park water tanks
Bedford Fire Station #3 North Avenue Market Road--?? Not sure where this even IS...
Bedford Township Offices West Michigan--Model 3/5/7 on back side of roof
Bedford Village M-37 fire station--Model 3/5/7 on pole on back of roof
Math & Science Center--No siren evident in Google Street View or Maps
the Golf Course--Not a clue, couldn't find any signs of a siren at the nearest golf course
I-94 East Helmer Road--Rotating ATI behind eastbound I-94 rest area
Beckley Road Capital Avenue water tower--Rotating ATI just W of water tank

Of course, I'm not sure if the Math & Science Center is still at the old Springfield High School site. I think you found the Fire Station #3 one, and the two hidden almost in a tree might be the M&SC and "golf course" ones.

Thanks for the info! The only golf course siren I could think of is the nearest 612. I think for their test next month (April) I'm going to record one of the ATIs just for the heck of it.

Wow! That would be awesome, record one of the rotating ATI's! There is HARDLY ANY video's of rotating ATI's actually doing a tone besides chimes!

Exactly what I was thinking! Unfortunately I can't for their test this month next week but for April I should be able to.

lkreykes wrote:Exactly what I was thinking! Unfortunately I can't for their test this month next week but for April I should be able to.

Awe man, that is a bummer. Speaking of rotating ATI's.. where is the one in your profile picture?

Longmont, Colorado. They were replaced with HPSS32s after they had unknown issues. It seems that they pulled a "Plano," replaced the heads and kept the installation on the same controller.

DJ is correct. For some reason I find the elusive rotating ATIs somewhat interesting.

lkreykes wrote:Thanks for the info! The only golf course siren I could think of is the nearest 612. I think for their test next month (April) I'm going to record one of the ATIs just for the heck of it.

I'd think, based on the guy saying he would "split the difference" between the Golf Course and M&SC sirens, it's a golf course up towards the Springfield/Fort Custer area.

The 5/7 in Springfield could well be the Math and Science Center siren, if it's still at the old Springfield High location off 20th Street; I couldn't find anything in Google Maps, but that doesn't mean anything. (I completely and utterly failed at finding the 2001 near my mom's place on G-Maps despite having an intersection listed by the township; turns out I wasn't going far enough away from the intersection.)

I'd suspect that the easiest of the HPSS16Rs to film would be the one at McRae Park, next to Coburn School. (That's the one by the big blue water tanks by Eldridge and Foster.) It's right off of the road with no trees around it, and there's a picnic table and two basketball half-courts a couple hundred yards west of it, just south of the water tanks. (Man, it's depressing looking at my old stomping grounds there on Street View. Admittedly, I moved away from that neighborhood 24 years ago, but there were no fences around that area at *all* when I lived there, meaning that the "top of the hill" area there was sort of an extension of McRae Park and, big shock, was immensely popular as a sledding "death hill" in the area.)

On the siren topic, there's a podiatrist's office at Territorial and Pioneer, just a few blocks away from there, which was, up until the 1980-ish annexation, the Battle Creek Township (or Lakeview Township--I've heard both) VFD station. It had an omnidirectional siren of some sort mounted on it when it was a fire station, but it went away too far back for me to remember what it looked like. Today, the windows in the top of the hose-drying tower are covered over, and even the old siren mount is gone, but it's still an interesting note. (Given that the City basically abandoned the building when they took over the Township, it might actually still be in storage inside the building--you might go in and ask if anyone knows about it; I doubt that they use the hose-drying tower for *any*thing, so lord knows what old township VFD artifacts might be hiding in there!) I mention this because my house, growing up, was at 419 West Territorial, literally just three doors west of there...

The M&SC shows up on Maps as right downtown with the 4/5 port tower T-Bolt visible from there so I don't know why there would be one that close, but Maps could be wrong. I have some hunting to do, that's for sure. Also there is another T-Bolt on the very east end of Nettles St in Springfield near Upton Park

Edit- I just found another T-Bolt near the golf course in Springfield, and my map has been updated. I found the old location of Springfield HS to be 765 Upton Ave., which is directly South of the T-Bolt on Nettles St, leading me to believe that is the M&SC Siren in question. My mystery location still stands however, as there is a picture el1998p71 has on Photo bucket of a Model 5/7 in Springfield on a short, black metal tower structure that hasn't been located yet. In the video, he is saying North Avenue and Morgan Rd which is the yellow Model 5 that is hidden in a tree behind Bedford Fire Station #3.

when they resume testing in April, I'll head up there for something