Today I went and visited my old middle school. The system had a Simplex 4010, Truealarm smoke detectors, and the rectangular style electronic horn strobes. Anyway, they have been upgrading the entrances to the buildings to make them “safer” (In reality, it is a bunch of crap. All it is is a security vestibule that you must use to get into the building, which wouldn’t stop a shooter very well, not to mention that two of the walls are glass). So in the office, they moved one of the horn strobes, doing a very sloppy job reinstalling it, as the alarm was very crooked, and the wire mold was not attached to the wall very well. What I found odd was that the security room had a brand new 4099-9006 pull station, which is one of the new pulls with the visible LED. I didn’t know these were compatible with a regular 4010, but I guess I was wrong.
The middle school that is across the street from the elementary school I got those 4050-80s from completed their fire alarm upgrade. It took a long time, too.
Like my middle school, their original fire alarm system was a Gamewell FlexAlarm system from 1957, with these flush-mount Faraday horns:
Many like this were gray, others were red. The pulls were the old dual-action Gamewell “Vitaguard” pull stations that resemble small street boxes.
In 2010, they had a partial upgrade of sorts, with a new Notifier NFS2-640 fire alarm panel tied into the old Gamewell system. No new signals were installed, but a bunch of new addressable FSP-851 smoke detectors and NBG-12LX pull stations were also installed, in conjunction with the old pulls and horns.
Last year, they began to prepare to completely do away with the old system; backboxes for new alarm signals began going up, but nothing happened until a while back, when the upgrade was finally completed. A voice-evac module was installed in the NFS2-640 panel, and they also installed SpectrAlert Advance speaker/strobes in all the required areas, and the old Gamewell pulls were removed, but many of the old Faraday horns are still up for now, but disabled.
The bell system is still the same for now, with the old IBM 6" bells. None of the outdoor bells (10" IBM bells) work, but they haven’t worked for a long time.
This means it may not be long now before MY middle school gets a fire alarm upgrade! (Chances are they’ll also go with a Notifier voice-evac system.) Guess i’d better keep on top of it, so I can fish out any old alarm devices out of the dumpster (just as I did with the elementary school I mentioned)!
About a week ago, I paid my first visit to the Carl Sandburg Library in Livonia. There was only one alarm I saw, but it was worth sharing from this small library. The alarm is a rare Benjamin Electric Audibell (vibrating bell) with a 6" diameter. I believe the model was a KB-506, but I’m not entirely sure since I didn’t get close enough to the device. This was for two reasons: One, cell phone use is prohibited in the library except the lobby (I use my phone for taking pictures); and two, the bell was mounted directly above an office with windows to see out into the main library area. I was not about to risk trouble for taking a picture, and an event with several spectators in attendance was underway in a nearby room.
I feel like there was a “Fire alarms in odd places” at some point on the forum, but I think it’s long gone now. This isn’t exactly a building, but this topic will do 
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So anyways, here’s an odd system: A Simplex 4010 addressable panel installed aboard the SS William A. Irvin, a U.S. Steel Iron Ore Ship. There are TrueAlert signals installed throughout.
Note the angle of the pull station. Due to the curvature of the the hull, the pull stations and horns on exterior walls on the upper decks are pitched downward, and pulls & horns mounted on lower decks and in the cargo hold are pitched severely upward. The devices in the engine room, crew’s quarters, and bridge are all mounted relatively normal.
Yeah I think it got deleted when the forum got corrupted.
Thats so cool. Did you take any more pictures of the ship you could post in the General Section?
I hadn’t planned to post any of the pictures I took, but I picked out several good shots and put them on my website since you’re interested. You can check them out here: http://kcin556alarmwebsite.weebly.com/william-a-irvin.html
There aren’t any more fire alarm related photos in there, BTW. Other than of the panel, I didn’t take any.
I actually was interested in the ship. That thing is huge! Very good quality pictures! 
That last note was aimed at others viewing the topic, I figured you wanted to see the actual ship lol.
Huge is right! The surprising thing is that it was actually retired from service for being too small! She is right at 611’ while modern lakers are in the 1000 foot range.
She is currently a museum ship, hence the fire alarm system. Very interesting tour if anybody is in the Duluth, MN area!
The middle/high school I had my road test at in Carver MA (I’m getting my driver’s license!) has an interesting 1980s Simplex fire alarm system, from what I saw. The alarm signals I saw were Simplex 2901-9833 horns on 2903 plates. In the main lobby hall I saw a 2098-9636 photoelectric “wiffle-ball” smoke detector head on a 2098-9637 base, and the main office had a 2098-9201 photoelectric head on the same base (probably a replacement.) The pull stations were, not surprisingly, Simplex break-glass 4251-30s, with Stopper II covers (as I said, it seems 4251-30 pulls were a popular choice on Simplex systems in schools in the Eastern MA area in the 1970s and 1980s.) I didn’t see the panel or any annunciators, but the main panel was probably a Simplex 2001 (if it hasn’t been replaced yet; chances are they may have already replaced it with a 4005 or something.)
I saw a pretty unusual setup in a newer parking ramp yesterday. The alarms were SpectrAlert Advances paired with Simplex 2099 pull stations. I caught a quick glance of the panel, which was a Fire-Lite MS-4.
This system is from my great grandmother’s nursing home. Warren Haven Nursing Home in Hackettstown, NJ
The pull stations are Simplex 4099-9003 dual-action t-bars in unknown (I'm guessing Simplex) plastic pull station covers.
Link to image: Dropbox
The detectors were Simplex 4098-9714 TrueAlarm smoke detectors. Which were installed throughout the hallways and in the dorms (Or whatever you call the rooms assigned to the residents.) There were also Simplex 4098-9733C heat detectors. Which were installed in the restrooms.
Links to images: Dropbox
Dropbox
Dropbox
The notification appliances are where it gets interesting. In the hallways, there are Simplex TrueAlert strobes mounted below Simplex TrueAlert horns. I have no idea why on a brand new installation they would install strobes below horns rather than simply installing horn/strobes.
Links to images: Dropbox
Dropbox
Judging by the Simplex 4603-9101 annunciator located in the entrance of the building, the panel must be of the 4100 series. Either a 4010ES, 4100ES, or a 4100U. Has to have priority 2 capability, so it can't be a "classic" panel.
Final thoughts: I don't understand why they have horns mounted above strobes, rather than just having strobes. If their is a reason why this is done, i'm not familiar with it. It's not the first time I've ever seen that either. Once i went to some random restaurant in NYC, they had a Silent Knight system with System Sensor SpectrAlert Advance strobes mounted below SpectrAlert Advance horns. Also, I've never seen TrueAlert strobes with a fake grille before, all the TrueAlert strobes I've seen just have smooth plastic above the strobe. Also, the horns may be chimes, or multi-tone sounders, i'm not sure, never heard them sound before.
Those are actually SIGCOM’s “SENTRY” pull station covers. I’ve never seen one in person here in San Antonio because pull stations either have STI Stopper covers or no covers at all.
The grille looks weird because those are actually “QuickAlert” signals, which was the predecessor to the TrueAlert line. Notice how the TrueAlert label is missing on the upper left hand corner. In all honesty, I’m not sure if they were actually called “QuickAlert” or if that was something that the fire alarm community made up.
The weird horn/strobe setup is possibly because it is a two-stage setup. Especially considering it is a nursing home, you don’t want the horns activating and startling the patients if there is no true emergency.
It’s possible that they are chimes, but to my knowledge Simplex has never made a multi-tone True/QuickAlert appliance. They currently use Wheelock MT series horns manufactured specifically for Simplex when that need arises.
Simplex has a multi-tone horn that is quite similar in sound to the MT, except it doesn’t code. They have newer dedicated chimes/chime-strobes as well.
You beat me to the QuickAlert comment. The apartment complex I lived in for the second part of undergrad had some of those in horn, strobe, and horn/strobe. On continuous. Some units/hallways had SpectrAlert Advances replacing them, others had Genesis horns or GX-90s, the Advances and GX-90s on continuous as well. Those things were painful to hear.
I mentioned this in the other post because I’m not sure, were they actually called “QuickAlert” by Simplex or was that a name given to them by alarm collectors? I’ve heard it a lot on this board but have never actually seen any of them labelled like that.
I think it’s an official name. I found this on an eBay listing:
I found a similar listing in Ebay. When first released the product was called Quickalert. However, I found a trademark listing that indicated there was a dispute with that name. The issue was settled with the name change to Truealert. Many of the Simplex programmer software sets still use the point type Qalert for custom programming and SQalert for automatic default operation.
Recently, I went to two locations that both had rare/unusual alarm devices.
The first location is the Farmington Community Library in Farmington, built in 1975 and renovated in 1999. While most of the system has been modernized with rebranded National Time/Gentex ceiling detectors and pull stations (540 series), I was surprised to find a National Time 411F still in operation on the ground floor! What makes this find unique is that it was the only device I saw in a building with an “open-air” design and two floors. I saw no other audible devices. In addition, I discovered a very rare Detex crash bar/exit alarm original to the building in the basement. This is only my second time seeing one of these in person: The first was at Eastern Michigan University’s REC/IM building in a utility room, but unfortunately, the alarms (two of them) themselves didn’t appear to be operable anymore, as there were two Detex EAX-2500 exit alarms in very close proximity. I was unable to get a model number for the exit alarm.
The second is Yesterday’s Antiques and Collectibles in Livonia, which has a Fike-branded system with BG-12 pull stations and SpectrAlert Advance NAs. This was my first time seeing a Fike system in person.
I did indeed notice the lack of the TrueAlert logo on the notification appliances. I thought that the older model TrueAlerts didn't have the logo on them. Guess i was correct. I never heard of the "QuickAlert" name before though. And indeed, a search on Google led to nothing on them. Guessing Simplex used them for a short time before the TrueAlert design was finalized. And the two-stage explanation of the horn + strobe setup would make sense. I never thought of that before, because TrueAlerts can just do audible/selective silence, or whatever Simplex calls it. But i don't know about the older model TrueAlerts/QuickAlerts. Thanks for your input though! Greatly appreciated.
And TrueAlerts do come in chime and multi-tone models:
TrueAlert chime/strobe:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woZGwP-urCI
TrueAlert multi-tone sounder:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xov_7bnfks
I thought i’d take the time to share the smallest system i’ve ever seen installed in a building. This system is located in a fairly large grocery store near me, and consists of a single Wheelock AS installed directly above a Radionics combination fire/security alarm panel which is installed directly above a single Radionics generic T-bar. That’s the entire system. For a long time, I figured that there were more AS’s installed on the ceiling (this store has a pretty high ceiling), and that they just blended in really well, although now i’m fairly certain that the single AS is the only notification appliance in the whole store. As I stated above, this is by no means a small grocery store, and it is in fact fairly new (2008), which makes me wonder how a system this small could have been allowed in such a large building.