Air horn on the amtrak F40ph

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I am getting a LokSound decoder for my spectrum F40. To my knowlage Amtrak used a nathan 5 chime. Did amtrak also use the leslie 5 chime, or a 3 chime horn?? I am asking this, because tonys train exchange sells the loksound in 4 versoins for this type of engine, leslie 3 and 5 chime, and nathan 3 and 5 chime. The F40ph is listed only under the leslie 5 chime. Which is more appropriate for late F40 era?? Also, anyone know which horn caltrain uses??? Thanks!

2

I don’t know if this helps…

http://atsf.railfan.net/airhorns/k5la2.html

…but I will post more if I find anything.

3

Thanks. That did help. I guess amtrak never used a leslie horn… Nathan 5-chime it is. Thanks!!

4

I thought that was an interesting pic myself. You can see where the the horns were originally mounted. That is also a great point in the article about exhaust mucking up the horn. I probably would have never thought about that. I guess we all learn something new every day!!

5

Nat,

Just some additional info.

Amtrak F40s were first equipped with the 5 chime Nathan P5a. In the late 1970s Most of them were replaced with the very popular K5LA (still in use by Amtrak).

A friend of mine played Lok Sound’s K5 sound sample on his computer for me. Sweet music! Soundtraxx also offers the K5 horn sound as well.

BTW: For modelers that own the older Bachmann HO F40s equipped with the cheesy looking horns, Details West makes a very nice K5LA horn cluster specifically for the Amtrak F40PH. All 5 horns face forward which is correct for the prototype