Civil Defense Museum - Siren Projects - Federal 2T22 Siren Project

Siren Projects
Federal Signal 2T22 Siren Project

In the lot of siren stuff I got from Gainesville, Texas in 2005 there was a Federal Signal 2T22 siren. I ended up cleaning and repainting the siren and reselling it to a collector in California. I didn't do a full restoration with motor bearings etc. because I didn't know if the siren would be going back into serive any time soon. I had a motor shop run-test the motor and they said the bearings were quiet during the run test. Here are some photos of what was done.

The 2T22 Sitting At The City Garage Lot.

Siren Laying On The Ground At The Gainesville, Texas City Service Lot

This siren was originally in service in Gainesville Texas. Here is a photo of it on the ground at the Gainesville city garage lot. I got the 2T22 in 2005 with three Thunderbolt heads and 2 Thunderbolt blowers. I don't know when the 2T22 was taken down or how long it sat at the lot. The motor looked like it had been repainted at one time because it was a different color yellow than the rest of the siren and the paint was peeling off. The motor case was rusted where the paint had peeled away. I was a bit uneasy about this when I bought the stuff because the motor looked pretty bad with the rust on it. When I started taking the 2T22 apart I found that the rotors turned freely and would freewheel for a long time after I had spun them by hand. That was a relief. After I got the siren home I took the motor to Tolbert Electric in Garland Texas to have the motor tested and they gave the motor a clean bill of health. They said it ran great and the bearings were quiet. After bringing the motor back home I stripped the paint off and cleaned the case with naval jelly. The rust cleaned off nicely. I originally repainted it yellow but decided to restrip it and paint it light gray after priming with Rustoleum primer.

22 Horns.

Here are the 22 horns that make up the sound projecting parts of the 2T22. There are 12 horns on top and 10 on the bottom. Once the horns are removed from the siren it's pretty easy to move the siren around. You can simply roll it around on the stators. That's the 2T22 upper and lower intake sitting back there behind the horns.

Stators before paint removal.	Motor after stripping and cleaning.	Motor after painting yellow. Before restripping to repaint gray.
10 port stator after cleaning. I tried but I couldn't get all the paint off.	Stator after priming with Rustoleum Aluminum Primer.	Motor and stators after assembly ready to paint light gray.
	Here are the upper and lower air intakes after repainting. I sanded the original paint and put on three coats of the light gray.

Siren Assembly Back Together

Here's the siren assembly back together with the rotors installed. I had some problems while disassembling because of bolts that broke off in the motor. The upper stator bolts are subject to more exposure to the weather and had far more corrosion than the lower stator bolts. After I removed the stators the broken bolts unscrewed easily from the motor case much to my relief. The threads in the motor case were still in good shape and cleaned up nicely allowing easy reassembly. The problem was bad rusting under the bolt heads over the years resulting in the bolt heads snapping off when being removed.

First Coat Of Paint On Horns

Here are the horns with the first coat of paint. I gave them a quick prime after roughing them inside and out with 80 grit sandpaper to scuff up the original paint. Notice 2t22, less the lower air intake, to left in photo next to the Thunderbolt horn.

2T22 Assembled