The Siren Board

I wouldn't be sure of the bullet theory on that Tbolt. My guess number 1 would be an M80 or quarter stick tossed in the horn.

Would've taken a strong arm to throw that high...

The only way I could see a bullet doing that would be if the horn was made of cast metal, which it is obviously NOT. Or, if the steel had a major defect in it, also not likely. That metal is thick enough that anything short of a rifle round would just lightly dent it, and rifles punch nice, clean little holes in metal, anyway. Not big voids.

Rust is out, otherwise the whole thing would be falling apart. Even a combination of a large projectile (shotgun slug, maybe) and rust is far-fetched. There isn't even any bending that would be associated with a large projectile impact or an explosion.

Did the siren ever spend time on the ground or at a scrap yard during its life? That's the only other way I could see it getting damaged, but even then it seems it would have to be on purpose.

My money is on that chunk being removed deliberately. What for, who knows?

After thinking about it, I remember that when I was waiting for my Thunderbolt to come down off of the fire station in detroit, the other thunderbolt head they had on the trailer had a L shaped hole on it, about 1/4 inchthick, like 4 inches long one way and 5 inches the other way.
So it's possible that it rusted in that way.

I believe Thunderbolt horns were made by wrapping sections of sheet metal around a form or mandrel. You can see the seams between the sections when you look at a horn. Heck, you can see them in the horn at the top of this page here. Guess? that damage is along a seam between sections of the horn. Since it's an outward thing, something - shock wave, perhaps? - buckled the seam right there. OTOH, I have the same problem with the idea of tossing an M80 or something in the horn as everybody else does. Can't buy it being a bullet, though.

I believe Thunderbolt horns were made by wrapping sections of sheet metal around a form or mandrel. You can see the seams between the sections when you look at a horn. Heck, you can see them in the horn at the top of this page here.

If you look at a Thunderbolt horn you can see punch and scribe marks at each bend. The horn side flat patterns were marked then bent on a brake. There aren't any seams except the welded seams where the horn sides weld together. The top and bottom pieces are the same except for the horn support holes and the side pieces are the same. They only had to make two pairs of flat pieces of sheetmetal for each horn. I would like to see the weld fixture that they used to weld those horns.
I still can't figure how a hole would rust through on a horn like that. Maybe a problem with the materal? It seems like the rotator box sheetmetal would be rusted away long before a hole could rust through that thick sheetmetal of the horn like that.

Here is some pictures my girlfriend and I took today. We found the other thunderbolt 1003 thats in Grafton. It is in North Grafton. I looked at both Fire Departments with her today and they are both very small 2 bay departments that are definetly volentier operated. The one in the center of town on the previous picture has some really good elevation to it because the town center is at the highest point in town. That baby must be heard very far. I would guess a good 400 to 500 feet of elevation higher than this 1003 at the N.Grafton Station. This girl seems to show her age more than the othere one.

Nice pictures, there is one more 1003 at the south fire station.

those pics are already on here.

1000Bthunderbolt wrote:those pics are already on here.

now I`m confused, did you find 2 or 3 t-bolts in grafton?