The Siren Board

I removed the village siren back in April 2022 and have had it rewound (stator windings were burnt). It has been tested and I am now working on re-locating it to a new site approx. 2 blocks from the old building.

I would like some help identifying the make and model and also the approx. year of manufacture. It has been dated to at least the early 1940's by 3 local residents that remember it sounding off as very young kids.

Attached is a picture of the siren. The tag shown currently is new from the electrical shop that rewound the stator. I have the oval tag off the siren but it is totally illegible. If anyone has a secret way to bring out the lettering I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks for any and all input on this as I am very excited to get it mounted and running at its new location, 60 feet in the air. I also attached a picture of the stainless steel shroud I made for siren.

hbrodbec wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 29, 2022 12:22 am

I removed the village siren back in April 2022 and have had it rewound (stator windings were burnt). It has been tested and I am now working on re-locating it to a new site approx. 2 blocks from the old building.

I would like some help identifying the make and model and also the approx. year of manufacture. It has been dated to at least the early 1940's by 3 local residents that remember it sounding off as very young kids.

Attached is a picture of the siren. The tag shown currently is new from the electrical shop that rewound the stator. I have the oval tag off the siren but it is totally illegible. If anyone has a secret way to bring out the lettering I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks for any and all input on this as I am very excited to get it mounted and running at its new location, 60 feet in the air. I also attached a picture of the stainless steel shroud I made for siren.

This siren looks to be a vertical Darley Champion (5 or 7.5 HP) with a heavily modified housing

SirenTube wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 29, 2022 2:59 am

hbrodbec wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 29, 2022 12:22 am

I removed the village siren back in April 2022 and have had it rewound (stator windings were burnt). It has been tested and I am now working on re-locating it to a new site approx. 2 blocks from the old building.

I would like some help identifying the make and model and also the approx. year of manufacture. It has been dated to at least the early 1940's by 3 local residents that remember it sounding off as very young kids.

Attached is a picture of the siren. The tag shown currently is new from the electrical shop that rewound the stator. I have the oval tag off the siren but it is totally illegible. If anyone has a secret way to bring out the lettering I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks for any and all input on this as I am very excited to get it mounted and running at its new location, 60 feet in the air. I also attached a picture of the stainless steel shroud I made for siren.

This siren looks to be a vertical Darley Champion (5 or 7.5 HP) with a heavily modified housing

By housing, do you mean the siren or the shroud? He made the shroud himself.

HudsonRiverSirens wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 29, 2022 11:55 am

SirenTube wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 29, 2022 2:59 am

hbrodbec wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 29, 2022 12:22 am

I removed the village siren back in April 2022 and have had it rewound (stator windings were burnt). It has been tested and I am now working on re-locating it to a new site approx. 2 blocks from the old building.

I would like some help identifying the make and model and also the approx. year of manufacture. It has been dated to at least the early 1940's by 3 local residents that remember it sounding off as very young kids.

Attached is a picture of the siren. The tag shown currently is new from the electrical shop that rewound the stator. I have the oval tag off the siren but it is totally illegible. If anyone has a secret way to bring out the lettering I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks for any and all input on this as I am very excited to get it mounted and running at its new location, 60 feet in the air. I also attached a picture of the stainless steel shroud I made for siren.

This siren looks to be a vertical Darley Champion (5 or 7.5 HP) with a heavily modified housing

By housing, do you mean the siren or the shroud? He made the shroud himself.

I meant to say shroud. My apologies. I used to think shroud and housing were the same thing lol

hbrodbec wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 29, 2022 12:22 am

I removed the village siren back in April 2022 and have had it rewound (stator windings were burnt). It has been tested and I am now working on re-locating it to a new site approx. 2 blocks from the old building.

I would like some help identifying the make and model and also the approx. year of manufacture. It has been dated to at least the early 1940's by 3 local residents that remember it sounding off as very young kids.

Attached is a picture of the siren. The tag shown currently is new from the electrical shop that rewound the stator. I have the oval tag off the siren but it is totally illegible. If anyone has a secret way to bring out the lettering I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks for any and all input on this as I am very excited to get it mounted and running at its new location, 60 feet in the air. I also attached a picture of the stainless steel shroud I made for siren.

Ah that’s where it went! One of my friends was up there recently and didn’t see it! That siren appears to be a 5HP Champion made by the W.S. Darley Corporation of Chicago, IL, here are some old pages from W.S. Darley Catalogs of your siren!

It’s awesome to see someone local to me reinstalling their siren! As others have said, this is. W.S. Darley 5 horsepower ‘Champion’ siren, which has had a misnomer of ‘3V8’ in the siren community for a while.

SirenTube wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 29, 2022 12:39 pm

HudsonRiverSirens wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 29, 2022 11:55 am

SirenTube wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 29, 2022 2:59 am

This siren looks to be a vertical Darley Champion (5 or 7.5 HP) with a heavily modified housing

By housing, do you mean the siren or the shroud? He made the shroud himself.

I meant to say shroud. My apologies. I used to think shroud and housing were the same thing lol

I think they're pretty much the same thing unless you're saying motor housing. Lol

Vintagecollections wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 29, 2022 1:32 pm

Ah that’s where it went! One of my friends was up there recently and didn’t see it! That siren appears to be a 5HP Champion made by the W.S. Darley Corporation of Chicago, IL, here are some old pages from W.S. Darley Catalogs of your siren!

Thank you for posting these, I'll have to change up my maps now!

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, the Pentwater siren is once again back online. The 70 foot pole it sits on was erected on Nov. 14th by local excavator Ken Adams family. It was placed in a 4 foot diameter culvert 10 feet in the ground with reinforcing rebar and 4 yards of concrete. It is located just behind the new village offices/police station on Hancock street about 2 blocks north of the previous location. I reconfigured the control panel eliminating all of the very old controls. It could be activated via phone, police radio and manually in addition to the daily timer that triggered it at noon each day.

At midnight December 31st we rang in the New Year with a 30 second blast and I have the timer set to activate at noon each day now for 30 seconds.

I have too many hours and dollars in it to count but the final outcome is one of the most satisfying things in my life.

I hope all you enthusiasts will come to visit Pentwater and enjoy the noon whistle once more. It was a great project and I have a few final details to finish but all in all a great success.

Sincerely,
Harry Brodbeck
[email protected]

PS - google the PW siren for the full story in Oceana Newspaper. I think the story ran in two of the local papers.

Harry B.