I wonder what do you all think is the best-sounding diesel locomotive air horn nowadays.
I actually like the sound of the Nathan/Air Chime K3LA (pleasant to hear and audiable from a long distance) used by many new BNSF and UP locomotives and the Nathan/Air Chime K5LA used by many Amtrak locomotives. I do miss the sound of the Nathan P124 (second-generation casting) air horns found on the vast majority of SP locomotives, though. [:(]
I haven’t figured the horns out by specification yet, but the horn used on UP’s GEVOs is pretty neat-sounding–better than the one on all of the SD70Ms, in my opinion.
I don’t mind the K5LA horns used by Amtrak–Chessie used them, too, no bells reversed, for a while.
The horn I miss the most, though, is the three-chile horn used on commuter cab cars formerly operated by the Chicago & North Western. It sounded a very mellow (fairly soft), pleasant chord. I have no idea what the horn was, and those cab cars have been pretty widely dispersed to anywhere but around here.
K5LA definitely… Stand far enough away in the right weather and it’ll sound almost like a steam whistle. P&W’s 3-chimes on the B39/40’s are nice too…
Nathan P3 (P124 as mentioned above) was the best sounding to me.
Whatever is on BN’s original sd70mac’s.
I guess the K5LA would have to be my favorite air horn, but oh how my ears pine to hear a CB&Q O5A/B whistle in person. Think the folks over at Colorado Rail Museum would notice if I piped a couple hundred pounds of steam pressure up to the whistle on 5629?
By the bye,
Does anyone know of any .wav files around the net of an O5 whistling? I heard one once on a fellow railfans record “Sunday Only,” but have yet to find any .wav files. Would love to hear that every time I fired up my version of everyone’s favorite OS out of Washington. It would at least make Re-boots after crashes (not that that ever happens on the aforemention OS! [;)][}:)][:p])a little more tolerable! [8D]
DMIR’s Nathan P-5’s.
I too know little to nothing about horns, but I live close enough to the NS mainline through town to realize that NS doesn’t standardize their horns. Some of the older GP’s they have running around have a unique sound to them. It’s fun to listen to the differences.
I think my hometown railroad, the New Haven, had a unique set of air horns mounted on their passenger locomotives. (If you see the movie SUPERMAN with Christopher Reeve, there is a New Haven commuter train with the same horns running over an NYPD detective.) Maybe someone out there can ID what those horns were- but they were my favorite.
Erik
I like what’s on the SD70ACe’s and GEVO’s.
They all sound good to me, but I like the melodious quality of CN’s horns as compared to what most CSX locomotives are using.
The Adirondack uses the Hancock air whistle in some places - very pleasant.
But, like I said, they are all music to my ears.
Personally I like the K5L mostly on either a selected few Amtrak P42’s and ex-CR B40’s but I do like the K5LA that would be Number 2 behind the K5L.
David,
You are right, the KL5A does sound like a Steam Whistle on a cool night from a distance. I heard it last night on a locomotive passing through the area.
The Amtrak choice of horns is the most pleasing, for an air horn.
Andrew Falconer
I like the Leslie RS3Ls on the ex-Conrail units and the Nathan K5LAs and K5LAR24s used on Amtrak and CSX. My favorite horn would be a K5LA with a 2 stage automatic valve on a P42.
Best sounding? From what I’ve heard, I’d think the idea was to be as irritating and obnoxious as possible so as to maximize the would-be victim’s attention. Certainly sirens on emergency vehicles nowadays seem to follow that design philosophy.
Just attention getters.
Whenever I think of diesel horns and city slickers I think of “My Cousin Vinnie”. Vinnie (Joe Pesci), who plays the lawyer, gets sent to the town’s jail several times for contempt. The movie goes out of its way to show him being awakened every morning at 5 a.m. by a freight train blowing its horn as it goes through a crossing. As a result he arrives dead tired for the proceedings. Later in the movie, he gets sent to a crowded and noisy jail and sleeps soundly, even though the other inmates are extremely noisy. He sleeps because he’s used to that kind of racket. One of the better movies I’ve ever seen.
These are “Hancock” air whistles. I lived in New York City as a kid near a commuter stop and remember hearing what I always thought was a “steamer” sound . Seaboard Airline and Atlantic Coast Line also used these on some of their units.
Unfortunately, some years back a government regulatory agency (the FRA?) deemed that the whistles no longer met the modern warning device safety standards (weren’t loud enough).
I very much like the K5LA. I first heard it in 1980 on Amtrak SDP40f #611, which was one one of the very few SDPs to receive this horn before being retired. To me it reminded me of a steam whistle.
It’s ironic that so many in the public today “cry” that train horns are too loud! CSX even installed choke fittings on some K5s
Inspite of this, scores of people are still killed by trains…which strangely, are the easiest vehicles on the planet to avoid getting hit by! Then the victim or his/her relatives want to sue the railroad anyway! I say…make the horns even louder![:-^]
I will have to say the K5LAs as well. [:D]
These are “Hancock” air whistles. I lived in New York City as a kid near a commuter stop and remember hearing what I always thought was a “steamer” sound . Seaboard Airline and Atlantic Coast Line also used these on some of their units.
Interesting. I guess the difference between an air horn and an air whistle is that one is a closed cylinder with a shaped opening, and the other has an open bell end.
I never had a problem hearing NH trains approaching, but I was younger then.
I wonder what it is about the FRA regulation that dictates that horns or whistles have to be unpleasant sounding to get attention. I guess it has something to do with human psychology- the more unpleasant the noise, the closer the attention.
I also wonder if there were noise complaints filed over steam whistles “back in the day”. . . and if citizens made any moves to pass laws restricting their use.
Erik