Darley Sirens

[Melvin Potts]

I noticed pictures of some Darley sirens on the Wisconsin Sirens site.

This is another siren with which I'm unfamiliar.

I believe I've seen one or two of them, but can't remember where.

Are they still made? Would like to get more information about Darleys.

[Rheems1]

Melvin,

I can help with this one, Darley sirens are basically the same basic thing as a Federal with a Darley name on it. Most of the sirens are made under the Champion name, the guts in the siren are basically the same as a Federal... just with a different housing on it. Darley is a fire pump manufacturer but they also sell lots and lots of other fire department supplies (hose, bunker gear). If you get the Darley catalog you can buy Sentry sirens in it now.

Dave Fritz

[Whelen Rules]

I haven't got much info on them but Tullahoma previously had one installed in Downtown on a water tower during the 50s and used during the civil deffense age as a all purpous warning siren. It was then replaced by 5 ACA Alertronic 6000 sirens in 1986 for tornadoes and National emergencies, the alertronics were very effective electronic sirens for their time.For a short time they were used in conjunction with the Darley. Then in March of 1999 the ACA Alertronics were replaced with 7 Whelen Vortex sirens. All the ACA alertronic sirens have been removed and can't get a respnose as to where they are now. The Darley still remains in place though not used as it was relocated in the early 90s when the water tower it was on was destroyed to another water tower near the lions club. The Darleys were very effecitve and it was said when it was used during the 50s that everybody in town could hear the siren of course the city was very small at that time..

[Nelso90]

They mainly rebadged vehicular sirens. I own a C980 Long rolling fire truck siren. Does anyone have any idea when Darley started doing this? It would help me figure out how old this thing is!

[Daniel]

Most older Darley Champion sirens consisted of a Model 2 or a Model 5 with a slotted or louvered housing over it. Newer models were shaped like their Federal counterparts, only with more rounded covers, and one model had eight, stubby horns coming out of it. Given that the Model 5 or STH-10 guts inside had twelve ports that were not directly connected to the horns, this seemed like a strange type of housing. When the fire chief graciously tested one of these for me, it wasn't quite as loud as a Model 5 but still sounded like one. The most original Darley was a dual-headed horizontal siren with two eight-port, Model 5-sized rotors. There is one of these a few miles from me that sounds a deep, Sentry-like sound every day at noon. I actually heard it faintly one day on the Capitol Mall seven miles away in downtown Salem! I am not sure whether Darley ever modified dual-tone sirens.