Cobb County Siren #31 - Federal Thunderbolt 1000T

County-wide test of the outdoor warning sirens in Cobb County, for the month of October. This siren, a 1950s dual tone Federal Signal Thunderbolt 1000AT (Series A1), is located at the American Legion post in Marietta, off of Gresham Road. As seen in the video, only the siren's chopper activated for the test; the blower and rotator remained stationary throughout the test. The likely cause is due to a bad time delay relay in the siren's RCM1 control cabinet, causing the other two motor starters to not pull in once the circuit for the chopper starter is closed.

You can hear several Whelen sirens in the background, as well as a faint Thunderbolt 1000T from about a mile to the north.
Sirens heard include:
-[#31]Thunderbolt 1000T at Marietta FD #6 (N)
-[#32]Whelen WPS-2810 (440Hz) in downtown Marietta (W)
-[#53]Whelen WPS-2904 (560Hz) at SPSU (S)
-[#02]Whelen Vortex R4 (440Hz) at Cobb FD #2 (WSW)
-[#42]Whelen Vortex R4 (560Hz) at Marietta FD #4 (SW)
-[#29]Whelen Vortex R4 (560Hz) at Marietta FD #5 (SE)
-[#64]Whelen Vortex R4 (465Hz) at East Cobb Middle School (E)

The sirens sound for a 3-5 minute alert signal every first Wednesday of the month at noon (weather permitting).

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Federal Signal
• Federal
• Signal
• Thunderbolt 1000T
• Thunderbolt
• 1000T
• 1000AT
• Series A1
• series
• big blower
• blower
• chopper only
• chopper
• test
• monthly
• siren test
• siren
• outdoor warning siren
• outdoor
• loud noise
• noise
• sound
• alert signal
• alert
• alarm
• air raid
• civil defense
• tornado siren
• tornado
• severe weather
• weather
• storm
• American Legion
• Marietta
• Cobb County
• Cobb
• Georgia
• GA
• murrfarms
• yt:stretch=16:9

[SSAirsoftowns]

What happened to the Cobb Co. Former Station 19 T-bolt? Has it been removed?

[murrfarms]

@SSAirsoftowns No, it's still there and still very healthy from what my friend that lives behind it (where it's pointed) told me yesterday.

[mohkfry]

Nice video. I need to find a 4/5 chopper for mine.

[murrfarms]

@mohkfry Thanks! Yeah I like the sound of these major-toned Thunderbolts, not too often you come across one (unless you live in Minneapolis lol).

[LouisvilleTorn8o]

@murrfarms The guy told me that the backwards blower thing was only possible on 3 phase blower motors, which would make sense, because single phase blower motors have starting caps. Maybe you and Jeb should mess around with a 3 phase blower motor and see what happens if you wire it backwards. The guy I talked to seems to think that it's caused by incompetence of the power company after an outage at the siren itself.

[murrfarms]

@LouisvilleTorn8o Yeah it had been acting a little goofy for a while, and the whole siren wasn't even working for a good bit of time. I thought they had it fixed but apparently not. I was so disappointed because I had previously never heard a major-toned 1000T up close before, but all I ended up hearing was a directional 2T lol.

That is a very plausible idea, and there's a possibility it could be the case. It would also account for those not being nearly as loud as normal ones.

[LouisvilleTorn8o]

@murrfarms That time delay was acting pretty funky even back in 08 or 09 when that other video was made. This siren had a ridiculously long wind-down.

A guy I know who works on Tbolts told me that there's a possibility that the slower wind-down and faster chopper spead when the blower is running could be caused by the blower running backwards, but I don't know if this is possible.

[murrfarms]

@antiwhoknows Mom said it sounded like a dying mosquito when she was on the phone before you LOL.

[antiwhoknows]

Well geez. No wonder I couldn't hear anything.

[murrfarms]

@garyhstorms10 Oh there's quite a few more left in the county, and unless they've suddenly come into a big money pot somewhere, they're going to try and fix it before they replace it, as they've done in the past. The two here are just two of four standing, and three of which are still in service in Marietta alone. There are at least 13 (maybe 14) still standing in the entire county, but three of those are for sure out of service. Two are owned by Smyrna, and the other is in Marietta.