On Tuesday, I had some spare time after visiting the Heart of Dixie Railway Museum so I decided to visit the siren graveyard located at the county shop. Most of the sirens there are thunderbolts (look to be mostly C series) with a lone SD-10, and a decent amount of model 5/7's in the mix as well. The brush has grown up a whole lot since I last saw pictures of it and it is now home to a lot of copperheads and wasps according to the person that I spoke with at the county shops. I am sure that most of you guys know this, but these sirens are NOT for sale, however you can look around the yard if you speak with somebody at the facility first. Here are some of the pictures that I took while I was there:
2001 SRNB next to the facility
C series Thunterbolt 1000(t)
C series blower cover
C series Thunderbolt 1000(t) with exposed blower
C series Thunderbolt 1000(t) with blower platform
The only SD-10 at the facility
Model 5/7
Model 5/7
Old Sterling M-5/10
A row of Model 5/7's
Re: Jefferson County, AL siren graveyard update
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 5:13 pm
by bobcat418
Thunderbolt 1000(t) missing it's chopper motor
Front view of a C series Thunderbolt
Jailbar A series Thunderbolt 1000(t)
C series Thunderbolt and blower
Model 5/7 with various Thunderbolts
Top of a Model 5/7 with a Thunderbolt
Unknown series blower (most likely C series)
A pile of Thunderbolts and Thunderbolt parts
A thunderbolt 1000(t) without it's chopper and rotator motors
Sorry about how shaky the video is, I was using my 50mm F1.8 because I was trying to only use one camera for photos and videos. Overall, these sirens seem to be in pretty good shape, but I am not sure how much longer they will be here. If you want to see this facility, I would advise that you go soon, because I noticed that another Thunderbolt had been replaced on my way out. That's all for now .
Re: Jefferson County, AL siren graveyard update
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 6:22 pm
by FedTB
I don't understand why none of the sirens are for sale or just be given away, but they'll gladly be dumped there, to rot away, etc. Doesn't make sense.
Re: Jefferson County, AL siren graveyard update
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 6:37 pm
by Snowcube
FedTB wrote:I don't understand why none of the sirens are for sale or just be given away, but they'll gladly be dumped there, to rot away, etc. Doesn't make sense.
To them they are worth more in scrap than what they could make selling them to collectors.
Re: Jefferson County, AL siren graveyard update
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 7:05 pm
by bobcat418
Zarlog wrote:
FedTB wrote:I don't understand why none of the sirens are for sale or just be given away, but they'll gladly be dumped there, to rot away, etc. Doesn't make sense.
To them they are worth more in scrap than what they could make selling them to collectors.
These are actually used for spare parts in order to keep the other sirens in service. In my opinion, this is better than removing all of the other sirens once they start acting up.
Re: Jefferson County, AL siren graveyard update
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 7:37 pm
by Brendan W
Looks just like I remember it from 2 years ago!
Here's some fun facts for you all:
The thunderbolt in the 4th photo on the 2nd post is the one that was on Charles A Brown ES before it was remodeled
The Thunderbolt head in the 1st photo on the 2nd post is a B series head. It can be more clearly seen in my pictures from 7-14
The SD-10 came from a FS... I do not recall which one off hand.
The Jailbar came from Avondale ES
The yellow 5 came from Brighton's Police Station
Re: Jefferson County, AL siren graveyard update
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 10:09 pm
by GabrielFairchild
Great Pictures
Re: Jefferson County, AL siren graveyard update
Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 3:21 pm
by DJ2226
bobcat418 wrote:These are actually used for spare parts in order to keep the other sirens in service. In my opinion, this is better than removing all of the other sirens once they start acting up.
Actually I don't think this is the case anymore. The technicians who used to work on these sirens no longer maintain them; if I recall correctly they either retired over the years or were laid off. With no one to work on them a lot of their Thunderbolts fell into despair due to issues with blowers and rotators - probably minor issues like the belts. They had a rather large grant to replace most, if not all, of the older sirens in the county. The event that kicked it off was the Thunderbolt at Chalkville Elementary School, so it was the first to go and replaced with a 2001-130AC by West Shore Services. They have a maintenance agreement through them, but I'm pretty sure that won't cover the Thunderbolts, 2T22s, Vortex, etc. With that said I'm not too sure on how WSS deals with sirens down here. I don't think they'll drag them all the way up to their shop, and they don't appear to be going to this boneyard. Somebody might be able to talk to them about getting the sirens on the cheap.
Re: Jefferson County, AL siren graveyard update
Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2016 2:38 pm
by Brendan W
DJ2226 wrote:
bobcat418 wrote:These are actually used for spare parts in order to keep the other sirens in service. In my opinion, this is better than removing all of the other sirens once they start acting up.
Actually I don't think this is the case anymore. The technicians who used to work on these sirens no longer maintain them; if I recall correctly they either retired over the years or were laid off. With no one to work on them a lot of their Thunderbolts fell into despair due to issues with blowers and rotators - probably minor issues like the belts. They had a rather large grant to replace most, if not all, of the older sirens in the county. The event that kicked it off was a roof mounted Thunderbolt at Chalkville Elementary School, so it was the first to go and replaced with a 2001-130AC by West Shore Services. They have a maintenance agreement through them, but I'm pretty sure that won't cover the Thunderbolts, 2T22s, Vortex, etc. With that said I'm not too sure on how WSS deals with sirens down here. I don't think they'll drag them all the way up to their shop, and they don't appear to be going to this boneyard. Somebody might be able to talk to them about getting the sirens on the cheap.
I beg your pardon, but the Chalkville Tbolt was behind the school on a pole. It got removed because somehow the siren got knocked down. There is a post about that on here somewhere if my memory serves me right.
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