Richmond, MA 3T22

[Bluebird T3RE Driver]

I spent summers as a kid in Richmond, MA and got to hear this 3T22 go off for fire and EMS calls many times. It was always tested along with the rest of the county’s units Saturday’s at noon. Now it is only used for weather emergencies and they do not test their sirens anymore.

It was set, as the rest of the county’s, to do 3 cycles of long attack (10 seconds up, 10 seconds off or so) and I never heard the dampers being used.

From what I remember, it has a very fast windup and is perfectly on-pitch sounding a D5 and F5 minor third, which leads me to believe it is 3 phase. However the motor doesn’t look like a Marathon motor, I’m wondering if this is one of the early FS&S GE models?? It also appears taller than those models and the horns are a bit damaged, but it was originally dark green in color.

[Bluebird T3RE Driver]

Edit: I believe this is a 3-phase Northwestern Electric motor. Apparently GE never made the XT22 motors, and that was a rumor…