While looking through photo’s of SP’s 4449 recent trip to the Seattle area, I noticed that it has an air horn mounted on the upper left side of the smoke box. What purpose does it serve? Was it installed after the locomotive was restored due to some law or regulation? Or did the SP order it that way? If the SP ordered it that way, why? Were other steam locomotives built with air horns?
All the GS-4’s had an air horn. This was one of the design improvements from the previous GS-3 model.
Quoted from Wikipedia
There were 28 GS-4’s, the first run was in 1941 and all were retired by the end of 1958. Only 1 survives today, the 4449. All the others were scrapped.
In actual service on the SP, the horn was used for crossings in the city because it was thought not to be as loud as the whistle, while the whistle was used for rural crossings. Or maybe it was the other way around…
The air horn was standard on, not only the GS engines, but on the 4300 class Mountains and cab forwards to the extent that somebody recording SP sounds in the Santa Barbara area for a commercially released 33 1/3 RPM record, had to make advance arrangements to have the steam whistle used. It was an exceptionally annoying one-tone bleat! The Milwaukee (at least on psgr engines) the NYC (on the Niagaras) and probably others were also users.
I forgot which specific model the GS steamers used, but the horn is what was nicknamed a “honker”. Most of your early diesels came with these before multi-chimers became popular. A number of steamers did get them, including SP units.
Leslie’s version was called the A-200. GG1s, and many EMD passenger units were equipped with them. The GG1s kept their honkers right up to their retirement.
Wabco made the E2. The Wabco’s “honk” sound was slightly deeper. Alco favored these but a number of EMDs and FM units were also equipped with them. Soundtraxx offers the E2 sound on one its “First Generation” series sound decoders.
I’ve always liked the sound of these classic horns. BLI/QSI did a beautiful job in the “honk” sound for their E8. IMHO, it sounds like a Leslie A200 and it’s mellower and clearer than Soundtraxx’s Wabco version. A friend of mine stated that it’s likely that the recording Soundtraxx used was that of an E2 that was slowly wearing out.
When new or properly maintained, imho, honkers sound pleasant…but when they go bad, honkers can sound worse than an irritated goose with strep throat![:O]
In a number of old tv movies from the 1940s and 50s, you can see and hear passenger trains hauled by diesels at speed often blowing that horn. If you ever look at the old Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons, the diesel trains in the desert poor old Coyote gets hit by always “honk”.
The GS4/GS5 units were delivered with Leslie A200 horns. This was confirmed by Doyle McCormack (team lead on the 4449’s restoration project).
If you want to hear the current horn (whistle?) on SP4449, go to the OMRS web page ( www.omrs-wa.org) , and go to the UP844 Special page. Find the link at the bottom of that page and click to view a 43 second 17 meg video of the SP4449/UP844 Special returning through Olympia, WA on May 22nd. Yeah, the download is a killer for those on dialup, but it’s worth it.
I remember they used the air horn rather extensively when the 4449 served as the American Freedom Train locomotive in the mid 1970s.
Milwaukee Road 261 also has an air horn and I recall reading that in actual service the air horn was used far more often than the steam whistle.
And the CP’s Royal Hudson that came through Wisconsin years ago, I think the mid to late 1970s, had one steam whistle and two air horns. One of the air horns played the opening notes to “Oh Canada!” which, if you know the tune (meaning you are Canadian or go to sports events where a Canadian team plays) is by coincidence the two longs, a short, and a long for grade crossing purposes. When the Royal Hudson left Waukesha WI late at night and was racing north through the farm fields and marshes of the Kettle Moraine, the crew was using all three whistle/horns for grade crossings! Of course they had steam to spare for the whistle, as the F7Bs that were painted to look like the passenger cars were obviously doing most of the work.
Dave Nelson
When CPR 2860 was restored in the 70s it was equipped with a Swanson (nothing to do with TV dinners) air whistle as well as the original CPR Mountain steam whistle. During 2860’s life on BC Rail, the Swanson whistle was used in urban areas and had a very distinctive low mornful sound. In person, I have only heard 2860’s Mountain whistle once when it was coming through Porteau Cove.
2860 being set up to play Oh Canada is new to me.