The Siren Board

Hey guys just joined. Could anyone help me I.D. our town siren? I know its as old as the hills and some of the old timers say its from the 40s. It still goes off every morning at 7 noon and 6. I will try to get a video tomorrow of the 7 am whistle. Also since I am a member of the fire department I will get you pics of the timer and the one switch that controls it. The one switch if you go up and down once it will sound it for 45 seconds then after that you will have to do it again then it will keep sounding. ( we only do that if the county sheriff does not sound it first or if they have trouble sounding it) Also we have a second siren that I will get a pic of tomorrow. This one does not sound at 7 noon or six. Only sounds if the sheriff lets the main one go or if we sound it from the fire hall.

Hello! Welcome aboard. What town is this siren located in?

If you look at the left of the picture, I see what appears to be a old federal control box. It is probably either a Thunderbolt, 2/3t22, SD/10, 500(not likely), basically any old federal.

Welcome to the board! Never seen a control setup quite like this. Very cool. Hopefully we can identify them for ya!

Valtonus wrote:If you look at the left of the picture, I see what appears to be a old federal control box. It is probably either a Thunderbolt, 2/3t22, SD/10, 500(not likely), basically any old federal.

That's actually a CD&F radio siren controller.

Spent most of my childhood in that state! Wish I could see the siren head...

Could you get us a pic of both of the siren heads? Identifying sirens by panel help us narrow it down to the brand and a few models, but not one specific model. If you want a specific model you have to look at the head in most, but not all, cases. Like withe a whelen, a type III panel is used for 5 different models.

Hey sorry I dont know how I did that but I got the wrong picture uploaded. The box is for the new 911 system. Here are the pics, I dont know what happen to our timer but its gone now. I dont know whats in the big black box but I think it controls the 2nd siren not the one by the fire hall.

I am assuming the Darley (first picture) is the noon siren? Other than that, nice to see another one in service. (Also, I am digging the Beetle in the picture of the second siren. Looks like it needs some love...)

huskerman87 wrote:I dont know whats in the big black box but I think it controls the 2nd siren not the one by the fire hall.

I am 90% sure that the large black box contains an old mechanical timer, the same kind that Sterling originally sold to control their sirens. Given that one of the sirens in your town was made by W.S. Darley, it could be branded under that name since Darley also sold those same timers for their sirens at the time. If you want to open up that timer's enclosure to take a look at it (or take pictures), just undo the latch up at the top-center of the box and swing back the top "lid" and swing down the front panel. Both are supposed to be on hinges that allow those two panels to act as access doors for maintaining or repairing the timer mechanism, and the one latch is to keep the two access doors closed during normal operation.

Here's an example of what's inside one of those big mechanical siren timer boxes. This timer in the photo below is a larger version of the timer that is likely in that box in your photo. Yours should only have one set of those metal cam wheels and contact pads for siren switching, instead of the two sets like the timer in this photo has.