BIGGEST Beacon (Tripp lite) EVER ... where can I get one?

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police-jimmy

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Came across a pic on another board of the BIGGEST beacon EVER.... :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:


:hail: A tripp lite on the former Chicago PD building !!


Not there anymore, as the building was taken down, but it jumped to the #1 place on my wish list :bonk:


Any pointers as to where to find one (maybe someone in the community has it :undecided: )


Here's a pic for reference:


tripp lite huge.jpg


copcar dot com - The home of the American Police Car - Photo Archives
 
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:jawdrop: Holy crap! I never heard of that before. Now I want one! I wonder if my wife would kill me if I mounted it on top of the house?! :crazy:
 
I took one look at that thing an' I said UN-UH! DAYUM! Good luck with finding that! Would be AWESOME to have. I'd mount it on the roof for a burglary-activated light. :D They'd have no trouble finding my house if I called 911!
 
Wonder if I could mount this in the bed of my dakota....with a generator to power it of course..... :D
 
My first reaction: " :jawdrop: WUUUUUHAAAT?!?!? No. Frickin'. Way!!!"


Dude, hopefully this beacon still exists somewhere. That's gotta be the biggest rotating beacon ever manufactured! It's a RF-6 beacon on Ultra-Roids:haha:!!! I'm guessing it's a blue dome over that light since the Chicago PD did use RF-6 beacons on some of their cars during that time. Nonetheless, that's amazing!


Now, wet-sanding and polishing that huge monstrosity of a dome to crystal clear and like-new, however.... :ugh: x10.......maybe 100....
 
OK, I freaking HAVE to have one!!
 
I wonder if anyone can get in touch with somebody at the Chicago PD who may know the wereabouts of this behemoth of Tripp Lites?


Never hurts to try ;) .
 
Perhaps for helicopters? Looks like an airport beacon. Anyone know the era?
 
badge22 said:
Perhaps for helicopters? Looks like an airport beacon. Anyone know the era?
Click to expand...



© Greg Reynolds & copcar dot com


Giant Tripplite on roof of Chicago Police HQ 1963


On the roof of the 13 story CPD HQ in about 1961 as a public relations tool to help foster good community relations in the new era of "modern policing" at that time. It went on at dusk and spun until dawn every day. That lasted a few years. It was refurbished and turned back on in 1993 as a part of the CAPS program. Eventually, the old HQ was replaced and the building torn down in 2001.
 
That little bit of information convinces me that someone HAS to know something about where it ended up...hopefully in an old retired cops basement.
 
dmathieu said:
Oh Man......Now I need another shelf!
That one is now on my wish list!


Dan
Click to expand...

Was wondering when you'd join this party... :haha:
 
Lightbarnut said:
That little bit of information convinces me that someone HAS to know something about where it ended up...hopefully in an old retired cops basement.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but it would probably be hard to get out of the basement, he probably built the house around it. :haha:
 
I'm glad to see this thread bumped again. I had considered doing it awhile back but decided to wait. Someone, somewhere, MUST know what happened to this thing. I believe it is an important piece of warning light history, and at least one should be preserved in a collection or museum somewhere.
 
Nerd time.............


I've seen bigger..... They used way too small a sealed beam.... that sealed beam is roughly the height of a mans head... so it could be as small as a "par 72" or 9 inches across... they make sealed beam headlights that big.... even if it's 10 inches, the bulb is way too small, it takes up 20% of the beacon, where as a normal trilite beacon the bulb takes up almost 40% of the light.... (4.5 inch bulb in 12 inch light). My point is that beacon should only be 25 inches high, not 48...


However, if they had made the bulb the right size.... they would have needed a "par 150" bulb.....

seenbigger.jpg
 
I know there are a couple of CPD police officers on the site. Maybe one of them can chime in on what happened to it.


:-x
 
I think that fell off Jolly Green Giant's Firetruck jolly_green_giant.jpg


is it green by chance? :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes: :D :D:D:D:D:hahano: :hahano: :hahano: :hahano: :hahano:
 
JohnMarcson said:
Nerd time.............


I've seen bigger..... They used way too small a sealed beam.... that sealed beam is roughly the height of a mans head... so it could be as small as a "par 72" or 9 inches across... they make sealed beam headlights that big.... even if it's 10 inches, the bulb is way too small, it takes up 20% of the beacon, where as a normal trilite beacon the bulb takes up almost 40% of the light.... (4.5 inch bulb in 12 inch light). My point is that beacon should only be 25 inches high, not 48...


However, if they had made the bulb the right size.... they would have needed a "par 150" bulb.....
Click to expand...
Good point John! :D :bonk:
 
dmathieu said:
Oh Man......Now I need another shelf!
That one is now on my wish list!


Dan
Click to expand...

Dan, forget the shelf you need another room!! :eek:
 
Trippe (now known as Tripp-Lite) was well known for some of their unusual lights and sirens. I just mentioned on another thread about a nice set of huge Tripp-Lite beacons we had on a lightbar. These were the Model S200s and were considerably larger than the Federal 184s or Dietz 211s. They were large enough to support two large PAR46 aircraft sealed beams and could, quite literally, been seen for a long way off. I note on my other post that on an ambulance run from Lubbock to Hobbs, NM, the Hobbs P.D. could see us when we cleared the west side of Seminole, TX, which was 30 mi. east of Hobbs. Now that's bright! :p
 
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