nee nar!

[Trickyvee]

A little boy on the bus had a toy police car and was shouting "woo woo woo". It made me realise that there is a whole generation ignorant of "nee nar"!

I can't really remember when Britain ditched the old two tone in favour of the sirens we hear now. What I do remember is one day in primary school - I would have been about 6 - hearing a loud woo woo outside the window. We all got up to look outside but couldn't see anything. It might have been a police car and yes we might have heard similar on the A-team but to hear it outside our class room was so alien that it caused quite a stir.

Then again, it might have been a car alarm, which were also becoming more popular at that time.

[sf1378]

Re: nee nar!

I remember the old sirens. I preferred them. The new ones have a problem to them - you really cannot tell which direction the sound is coming from. I wish they'd bring back the older ones - you could actually differentiate the 3 emergency services as they had slightly different tones to them.

[battyrat]

Re: nee nar!

Its very strange that I did not really notice the changeover from one siren to the other one we have now.I can remember kids including myself going nee-nar..nee-nar,lol.

[victorbrunswick]

Re: nee nar!

I like the sound of the Old School Two-Tone with air horn instead of electronics. Here in the US the Two Tone can sometimes be heard on fire vehicles but I've never heard them on police cars.

This example is in Madrid but it was the best one I could find
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPWCPjc7bBg

[Trickyvee]

Re: nee nar!

Yes the two tone seems to be more popular in main land Europe. I heard similar on ambulances in Italy. I think our fire engines are also capable of two tone but I haven't taken enough notice to be sure!

[Powdered toast man]

Re: nee nar!

The fire engines had a very resonant and powerful-sounding 2-tone air horn up until a few years ago. Used to sound great when going past at speed! I was working at a supermarket in the late 1990s and the police were still driving around in 'G' reg Vauxhall Astras back then. I was rounding up the trolleys in the supermarket car park when I heard a siren getting louder and louder and a police Astra came tearing into the car park and screeched to a stop outside the supermarkets' main entrance. The siren was still blaring away- nee naa nee naa- one PC ran into the store and the WPC that was also in the car couldn't turn off the siren! The PC came back out with a shoplifter wearing handcuffs and still the siren kept on going. The police officers threw the thief into the back of the car and they opened the bonnet. 5 minutes later the siren stopped. They had pulled the plastic tubes off the compressor that fed air to the horn trumpets! The small crowd that had gathered applauded loudly! It turned out the shoplifter had been stealing chicken breast worth a paltry £5 and pulled a Stanley knife out of his pocket when the manager caught him taking the meat.

[the fox]

The uk police and ambulances began switching from two tones to modern sirens around 1989- 1990. Before then sires were seen as "an American thing".

Due to battery power issues, The Bedford ambulances in the 80's had two tone horns which sped up and slowed down slightly with the revs of the engines/speed of the vehicle.

It was said that if you put washing up liquid in the air-horns, interesting bubble effects could be achieved.

[Austin Maxi]

Re: nee nar!

I still like the line Eric Morecambe says when he sees an ambulance rush past his bedroom window and the viewer hears the 'nee-nar' tone - "He's not going to sell much ice cream going at that speed!"

Being a fan of 'The Sweeney', when the series started out, the Flying Squad Ford Consul GT used by Regan & Carter seemed to still be kitted out with the ringing bell siren (as heard in the pre-titles sequence to the episode 'Stoppo Driver'), changed later for a 'nee-nar' tone.