Topeka, KS siren system 1966

[FS T-Bolt]

Hello everyone. I've been meaning to ask this question for some time now, so here goes: Before Topeka's siren system was replaced/upgraded, were there any surviving sirens from the tornado of 1966? Were the Thunderbolts strictly 1000T's or did they have 1000's as well? Bonar Meninger's book "And Hell Followed With It" states that Topeka had 19 sirens in 1966 and most of them were Thunderbolts. He also describes the Thunderbolt as being dual-tone. At the risk of answering my own question, thanks for your time everybody!

[carexpertandy]

Well I know that some of the Thunderbolts were 1000s. You can look up videos on YouTube of them.

[Mark N]

Topeka had 6 FS 500ATs, all 10/12 port (I think), and STL-10, and a few others.

[PugetSoundStormWatch]

Topeka had 6 FS 500ATs, all 10/12 port (I think), and STL-10, and a few others.

There were at least 4 STL-10's in Topeka's old system, and around 6 or 7 RSH-10's.

[Unit of Civil Defense]

I am a survivor of that Tornado.....if you on page P37 you will see the neighborhood that I grew up in...at the top (left of center) you will see an intersection (16th and Lincoln) go back to your Right and you will see a light colored station wagon..... the house that it is parked in front of (you see what is left of the front of the house minus the second floor) that is the original house that I lived in...my folks rebuilt at the same location where my mom remains today.

I know of only 1 siren that was destroyed that night.......there could have been more. The open area in the upper Left hand corner of that same page is the old Central Park grade school that was destroyed by the tornado. It was a 3 story brick building with, what I have been told/described to me, a Thunderbolt 1000t mounted on the roof. The siren did not survive the tornado...in fact I don't think it was ever located. That siren was replaced by the Thunderbolt 1000 that still sits to the East of 15th and Lincoln at Robinson Middle school. That siren was decommissioned a few months ago.

The sirens of that era in Shawnee Co. (mid 60's - early 70's) where the mentioned Thunderbolts, some T22's,(old # 8 fire stat. on S.W 21st. as an example still there today) and what ever is on top of the V.A hospitals main bldg. on S.W Gage street....That is as I remember it.
So to answer your questions: The original sirens more than likely are the 1000T's...the reason I say that is that they where put in service aprox. all at the same time (Cold War era) and where some of the first to be replaced as time marched on. The T22's arrived in the county in the early 60's (before June 8th 1966) as the city expanded West and South. The 1000 at 15th and Lincoln was put in service late in 1966 or possibly early 1967.
There are a few of the old gaurd out there...simply because they have not been removed yet due to location (cost for removal...i.e an old high rise bldg. on S.E Quincy street with a 1000T?....the old #8 fire stat. is now an office thus the siren is now on private property)

KSWX29 (Dylan) can tell you more about what the county had/still has as far as the "old iron" goes.

[kswx29]

I want to say the 1000s came first and the 1000ts last. The only reason I say that is because all of the 1000Ts in the county were in newer areas and the 1000s were in older parts of town. The Thunderbolt in downtown is a 1000. Topeka never had a whole lot of 2t22s. There was three in the city. One in North Topeka, one off of Gage Blvd and a third on Washburn University's campus. There were also two at the Menninger Hospital grounds and a few scattered thru out the northern part of Shawnee County.

I'd say at the time of the 1966 Tornado, Topeka had a mix of Thunderbolts, STL-10s, Model 5s and possibly 500ATs. The Thunderbolt that was on Burnetts Mound was Single Tone and I don't recall seeing it in any pre-1966 pictures so I'm not sure if it was up and running when the tornado went over the mound.

Here's a map of Topeka's sirens before the 2001s started rolling in.

Blue - Thunderbolt 1000
Red - Thunderbolt 1000T
Pink - STL-10
Orange - Model 5
Light Green - 500AT
Dark Green - 2T22


North Topeka also had two Thunderbolt 1000s but I couldn't capture the entire city. Shawnee County's other towns had their own systems I believe, as Rossville and Silver Lake both have a Model 2 on their tower, and had Thunderbeams until they were replaced. As for now, there are still old sirens still up, disconnected however. The 500AT ontop the VA Hospital still sounds with the county system, but the VA owns it. Other than that about 2 or 3 STL-10s can be found as well as a hand full of Thunderbolts and Model 5s. All of the other sirens were removed and sold.

[RyanJamesDean98]

Do you have a link to that whole map?

[Mark N]

Speaking of the VA hospital 500AT, is the gear reduction box fixed yet?

[Unit of Civil Defense]

...I stand corrected...the siren at the old #8 fire station on West 21st is a STL-10 Thanks Dylan,,, I am still learning

[elc32955]

Wow, it's a small world. Family on my father's side is from Topeka, in fact I still have the special edition of the Topeka Daily Capital (now the Capital-Journal) from June 9, 1966 after Topeka took that nasty tornado right through the center of the city. My grandfather was Arthur "Scoop" Conklin, a rather famous news reporter for the Daily Capital from the 1930's until 1968. He's been dead since 1968 and you can still find references to him on the Internet, which had never been created in his lifetime. But, back on topic, I think that special edition had a picture of a T-bolt that had been hit and was hanging lopsided on a pole. I'll have to dig it out and go take a look now, it's been years since I saw it. If a tornado followed an identical path today it would be..... bad.....

Eric