Thread: Mech Siren Identify?

I picked up this mech siren today at a garage sale. Appears to be a Fed Q with out the housing? Couldnt find any identifiers so I am just going off the size of it. What do you think? Thanks in Advance.

It looks like a Federal C series. Bigger than the 66 and 28 series, but smaller than the Q series.

Thanks Wailer, it looks darn close to the Q in size and shape. Wish the lady would have had the rest of the parts, faceplate and cone. Got that Deep RRR growl to it. She also had a PA20 I snagged.

He's right. It is a C series, and judging by the open motor, it originally had a chrome rear housing. The underhood C4 siren had a brush cover over the rear of the motor. Now what would be fun would be in guessing which model it had been. You've got three choices for outside mount: C5G, C5L, C6. The C5G, which had the grille front, was an extremely popular model. For that matter, so were all of the C sirens with their extremely long roll and deep, mellow sound. Now that I've done this much, I'll let someone see if they can identify the other two models: C5L and C6. Federal also offered some other options. Can you name them? Shouldn't be too hard!

Thanks Skip, you guy's have your sirens down. I know enough to be dangerous Thats about it, but still learning...

Originally Posted by Hoser

Thanks Skip, you guy's have your sirens down. I know enough to be dangerous Thats about it, but still learning...

Thanks, Randy. I'd hold onto that C for a while. It may cost a bit to totally recondition, but it'd be worth it. I have a C5GB that came from Canada that is a Dorgan rebuild. Very nice. Got it and a refurbbed 888 light in exchange for an EQ2B siren.

Its a shame someone had to strip it down. Thanks Henry it doesn't get any better than the sales brochure. Skip I dont see finding the rest of it easily. Somewhere out there.......

This is my C5G partially disassembled, you would need to acquire the circled parts. John Dorgan's son has the 2 piece bases (one piece base would be a bit cheaper) and the rear chrome cover. Not sure if he has the grille or the aluminum spacer block that goes between the rear cover and motor case but maybe he could find you one. A cheaper option is to turn it into a C4, buy the C4 base, same as a model 28 base, a rear brush cover and find a grille. A coat of hammered finish gray paint and you would be good to go. The C series are one of my favorite mechanical sirens.



This is my early C5 with a one piece base for comparison.

Where I live, the city fire department had a 1953 Bickle-Seagrave open cab pumper truck that was equipped with Federal C series mechanical siren. It sounded richer and fuller than the 66 and Q series sirens and the sound carried quite well.

Tim: Is that C5G 12 or 6-volt? I love the old-style grille like that. I have a nice old 66GH that was restored by J.D. that I got from a guy in Ohio about 3 years ago. Sorta unusual. It has the old two-hole bracket like on your C5G but has the newer-style grille. Loud critter, though!

Where'd you come across the old "Catalog 300" pages? Haven't seen one of those in many years, much less the Pulsator price sheet. I was just looking at those prices, and my recollection is still working. A guy recently had a PEO on Ebay with a starting price of over $400. I thought that they only sold for about $85 and it seems I was right. I've heard of profit margin, but wow!!

Skip, I acquired that catalog over 40 years ago, if you want to view or download a copy, look in the Vintage section of Elightbars under the Catalog sticky at the top of the page. Scroll down the first page and you will see my post with links to the 1963 Federal Catalog that I scanned. This early C5 was 12 volts.

Originally Posted by Henry455

Skip, I acquired that catalog over 40 years ago, if you want to view or download a copy, look in the Vintage section of Elightbars under the Catalog sticky at the top of the page. Scroll down the first page and you will see my post with links to the 1963 Federal Catalog that I scanned. This early C5 was 12 volts.

Well, I almost didn't find your post! What memories! My first Federal catalog was from 1959, when I had written Federal when I was in junior high and was doing a "siren" project for my science class. They were nice enough to send the current Catalog 300 along with a breakdown sheet for a WL, and to top it all off, I borrowed an old WL that no longer worked from the fire dept, just for show. Now that was fun!