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Northeast Ohio Thunderbolt/Older Federal CD Sirens in the Greater Cleveland area

Fri Dec 08, 2017 1:01 pm

The following topic is a list of locations of Federal Thunderbolts and other older Federal/CD sirens in the greater Cleveland area, most of which are in Cuyahoga County and are the only surviving remnants of the Cuyahoga County Civil Defense Siren System, which was removed in the 1980's with the exceptions of these sirens, which the communities they are located in either bought and are still active today, except the last one to remain in the City of Cleveland (and is obviously inactive).

The Cuyahoga County Office of Civil Defense in partnership with the Federal Civil Defense Agency (FCDA) elected to install a CD system in the City of Cleveland and the suburbs surrounding it after it was determined to be at high-risk of attack due to the Nike Missile Bases located at what is now Lakefront Airport in Edgewater (in Cleveland near Lake Erie) and the ones in Warrensville and Parma.

The sirens that were installed were Federal Enterprises Thunderbolt 1000's (and presumably later 1000T's) that were installed in 1953. They featured 6M blowers and the classic "jail-bar grille". Both units in the City of Independence, a nearby suburb, were installed in 1952 and 1953, respectively. They were purchased by the city after CCOEM (Cuyahoga County Office of Emergency Management, the successor to the CCOCD, started removing and scrapping all the sirens in the 1980's. The omni-directional sirens installed were Federal Signal Model 5AT or 7AT sirens as well as single tone Model 5A's or 7A's. Once again, Independence is the only place in Cuyahoga County that still has and uses sirens from this era as does the village of Cuyahoga Heights, and the City (of Independence) to this day takes good care of them and has no plans for a new system anytime in the near future.

This is a topic I decided to make due to the wide gap of information known previously about older sirens in the area, and since I live in the region, I have made several new discoveries and new information in the past few weeks, and this topic will continue to be updated as new information becomes available.

Now that we're done going over the history of the system, let's get into the actual locations and status of the remaining sirens themselves.

City of Cleveland: Federal Signal Thunderbolt 1000T
Status: Inactive (not used since decommission in 1980's; abandoned in place)
Location: National Foods Packaging, 8200 Madison Avenue, Cleveland, OH

City of Independence (All sirens tested 1st Saturday at noon; not weather dependent unless there's severe weather):
Federal Enterprises Thunderbolt 1000 w/"jail-bar grille" and 6M Blower (installed 1953)
Status: Active
Location: Independence Service Center; 6350 Selig Blvd., Independence, OH (best recording spot is at the practice soccer fields at the high school directly across from the Thunderbolt itself); navigating to the high school will also get you there, and parking right there is the best place to park.

Federal Enterprises Thunderbolt 1000 w/"jail-bar grille" and 6M Blower (this is the yellow one and it's not as sluggish as the white one at the service center) (installed 1953)
Status: Active
Location: Mill and Motion Inc., 5415 E Schaaf Rd., Independence, OH 44131
Best recording spot for this one is directly across the street from the building it's mounted on.

Federal Signal Model 7T (recently refurbished)
Status: Active (not sure but assuming so as it was refurbed recently)
Location: Dalebrook Estates, Dalebrook Rd, Independence, OH

Federal Signal Model 7T
Status: Active (this one has been failing sometimes but was active last time I checked)
Location: Brecksville Rd. and Kleber Ct. near the I-480 overpass

Federal Signal Model 5A/7A (single-toned)
Status: Active
Location: E. Pleasant Valley Rd.

Federal Signal Model 7T
Status: Active
Location: Brookside Rd. and Serio Rd.

Federal Signal Model 2
Status: Inactive (decommissioned)
Location: Historic Hall in Downtown Independence (old fire station)

Cuyahoga Heights:
Sirens here are also tested on the First Saturday at Noon

Federal Signal Thunderbolt 1000T?
Status: Active (per city memo published in 2015)
Location: Southerly Wastewater Treatment Plant, NEOSRD facility (Northeast OH Regional Sewer Dist.)
Security Issue: This one hasn't been recorded before as the plant is surrounded by a large perimeter fence and it is unlikely guests are allowed through the pass gate to get to where the siren is, but one could probably get a decent ambience if the plant itself isn't too loud; someone on YouTube had said they found a decent vantage point to film without worrying about getting into the facility itself; however parking is a concern as there is no parking lots nearby (it is highly likely that they don't allow any public access due to it being a wastewater treatment plant).

The memo states there are two other sirens; they are a Federal Signal 2001-SRNB (located in an industrial park) and a Fedelcode Model 5 (which is atop the Cuyahoga Heights Fire Station). The Thunderbolt and the Model 5 would have likely been used during the Civil Defense era; although the Model 5 dates back to way before that time. It is still active and I hope to record it sometime next year, as well as the NEOSRD siren, as soon as I get finished recording all of Independence's sirens as well as an ambience, which is my goal to have done by next summer. I plan to start Independence recordings by February/March 2018.

City of Lakewood:
Federal Signal EOWS (SiraTone) 612's: there are three of them I think and they are tested in Westminster Chimes on every 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Saturday at Noon, and tested in Alert on the 4th Saturday. They also have an older Modulator (either a 4016 or 5020), and all the sirens are equipped with MCP controllers in single tone. This system is set to be replaced in the near future (not sure with what but I have heard 2001-130's mentioned) as many of the sirens either have blown drivers or are failing.

Here's some history about Cuyahoga County Civil Defense, taken from the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History compiled by Case Western Reserve University. Cleveland State University also has an article on the Internet somewhere about it too I believe. The web link to the article can additionally be found here: https://case.edu/ech/articles/c/civil-d ... cleveland/.

This topic will continue to be updated as soon as I get more information, but I hope this clears up everything about the sirens in our area from this time period for now. Oh, and also here's an article from the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History project about the Nike Missile Bases which protected Greater Cleveland.
Last edited by fire_freak_57 on Mon Dec 11, 2017 1:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
sirenfreak57
Owner of a Allertor 125 Control Cabinet, EOWS Driver, and other odds and ends.
My YouTube Channel | Summit County Siren Map | Cuyahoga County Siren Map

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Re: Northeast Ohio Thunderbolt/Older Federal CD Sirens in the Greater Cleveland area

Mon Dec 11, 2017 1:20 pm

Summit County:
Summit County is directly south of Cuyahoga, and its county seat is the City of Akron. Like Cleveland, Akron too had Civil Defense planning in place during the Cold War, but Akron itself was unique in that it did not install a siren system nor has one to this day; it is simply too expensive, and the Summit County Council will not cover it because all the surrounding areas have siren systems. The only CD-era sirens in the county that we know of are:

Copley Township: Federal Signal Model 5 at the FD (painted red; use during CD era unknown)

Bath Township: Federal Signal Model 5 at the FD (inside a cupola; was restored and reinstalled inside the cupola back in 2014). It was used as a CD siren, and Bath Elementary School (which is directly across the street) did have a fallout shelter in the basement for some time. It is no longer there, but the siren is, and is still used. It is tested every Saturday at noon for tornado warning purposes.

City of Barberton: This city has a red Federal Signal Thunderbolt 1000. It has been acting up lately in the past few years, but I do know it is tested on a Saturday for about a minute or so. It was probably used for CD warning back in the day. Barberton also had some SiraTone 612's (EOWS-612's), but they were replaced by 508's several years ago after they started breaking and became to the point where they were no longer reliable. There are several still abandoned-in-place, however.

City of Hudson: There was a jet-black 3T22A at city hall. It is still there, but was replaced by three (yes, three) ATI-HPSS-32's in June or July and was disconnected once the new system was in place. The new system is tested monthly (first Saturday at noon for about 10 seconds or so I believe) and the old siren is still there, probably for backup in case the new system were to fail but is powered off for right now. It is likely the 3T22 was for CD purposes.

At this time I do not know of any other CD sirens in this county.

In Stark County there is an older Sterling M-10 in North Canton along with a couple STH-10's (word is that they - the STH-10's - were replaced by 2001-130's) and an abandoned-in-place Thunderbolt 1000T in Canton. Canton now has 2001's and Massillon has T-128's.
sirenfreak57
Owner of a Allertor 125 Control Cabinet, EOWS Driver, and other odds and ends.
My YouTube Channel | Summit County Siren Map | Cuyahoga County Siren Map

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fire_freak_57
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Re: Northeast Ohio Thunderbolt/Older Federal CD Sirens in the Greater Cleveland area

Sat Jan 27, 2018 4:13 pm

Northeast Ohio CD Systems/Area Systems in General Update/Edit: January 27, 2018

Here are some edits to be made to this thread since the last time I posted it. I was originally going to just edit the original post, but making a new one just makes it a lot easier to get necessary information. Below is a detailed list of edits (whether those are more accurate siren locations, test time changes, etc.).

Cuyahoga Southwest Siren System Change: Per the City of Independence Fire Department and the Cuyahoga Heights Fire Dept., and as of December 2017, the siren test schedule has been changed from year-round to the first Saturday of each month at 12:00 noon, from March through November (previously they tested year-round; they don’t anymore). While Independence doesn't run on a weather permitting schedule, this may vary from city to city.

Will the Test Time Change Change the SIgnals Tested in Independence? In 2015, the City of Independence changed their testing policy from their 1 minute screwy, long attack signal to a 1 minute alert followed immediately by a 1 minute 'corrected' attack signal, to meet current FEMA guidelines (at least that's how their website put it).

No. They still test in Alert and attack for one minute each as they did previously.

Siren Locations Update: The following sirens in Independence's system have been updated to reflect more accurate locations per Google Maps:

Independence Siren #5 (FS Model 5AT): This siren was previously recorded as being located on Brookside Rd., near Serio Dr. The siren is actually located on Eastview Drive near the intersections of Serio Dr. and Brookside Rd., across from the I-77 overpass (which Brookside Rd. passes underneath). Hopefully I can get out to Independence today to get pictures of the inactive Model 2 at Historic Hall as well as this 5AT, as they are the last ones I have to photograph in their system, but I may not get to this till tomorrow, if that.

I am currently working on addresses/locations that are more detailed for Cuyahoga Height's system, at which time this post will be updated to reflect that information. I have a PDF of the siren locations in Independence's system that I made which I have compiled and I will be hopefully uploading that soon.

That's all I have for now. Anyone who needs further info can feel free to message me or refer to this thread as I'll be continually updating it as I find out more.
Last edited by fire_freak_57 on Tue Jun 12, 2018 5:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
sirenfreak57
Owner of a Allertor 125 Control Cabinet, EOWS Driver, and other odds and ends.
My YouTube Channel | Summit County Siren Map | Cuyahoga County Siren Map

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Re: Northeast Ohio Thunderbolt/Older Federal CD Sirens in the Greater Cleveland area

Sun Jan 28, 2018 12:43 am

8167 Franklin Blvd is not the location of the first siren mentioned on that list but its were you can see it from. still there as of 2017
I'm Jacob Ulrich or MidMissouriSirens on youtube.

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