A few nights ago I was running a few sound equipped passenger trains and the thought occurred to me that I don’t have a sound function for a cab signal whistle.
Sometimes when I’d watch passenger trains departing stations in the way too distant past, I’d frequently hear the high pitched, single note “wheeeeet—wheeeeet” when the conductor was signaling a highball to the engineman. It would be a neat feature to duplicate on my own passenger operation. The signal line was the smaller of the two air hoses on the ends of passenger equipment.
Manufacturers are offering us chicken coop, barn yard, lumber camp and Turkish bazaar sounds so why not a useful, and maybe forgotten, feature like the cab signal whistle.
That’s not a bad idea. Toss it in there next to the “All Aboard”. The only thing I see off is that it’s not as iconic as the “All aboard” is. I only know the signal cause the cord still hangs in most museums, but I’ve never even heard one on video.
Soundtraxx Tsunami offers a peanut whistle on their shay and small engine decoders. Does it sound like that? (Possibly their medium and heavy as well, but I doubt it)
Well, the “All Aboard” would be more appropriate coming from the conductor farther back in the train rather than from the engine cab. That is a useful sound-byte though.
Don, the whistle is not too loud and it is in the engine cab but you can hear it from outside especially if the cab windows are open. It sounds more like a police whistle than a steam whistle.
Tom, I don’t think I’d want to order dinner in the diner if I heard animal sounds coming from the kitchen !
I imagine it would be fresh, though. Come to think of it, perhaps modeling some of the trains of undeveloped countries just may include animal sounds emanating from the cars!
I remember the communication whistle being an important part of passenger operation and the rule book has the signal codes for such things as “Increase Steam Heat” or “Stop at next open station.” Prior to radio it was about the only way for a conductor to pass instructions to the engine crew. I remember once on the B&O that the engineer repeated each signal note with a corresponding blast from his road horn so the conductor knew the message was being acknowledged.
The communicating signal could be a little tricky to use. The car discharge valve had to be held open for maybe 2 or 3 seconds and then left closed for maybe 5 or 6 seconds to give the whistle in the cab time to sound before making the next blast. The further back in the train the signal was given from, the longer the wait between blasts. It took a little practice and experience to get it right, but the signal line, along with a back-up hose made it pretty easy to back up a passenger train.
On steam engines the resevoir, valve, and whistle were often located on the outside of the rear wall of the cab under the roof overhang on the engineer’s side.
years ago there was an LP record of Pennsylvania Railroad steam locomotive sounds that I seem to recall included, on one cut, that high pitched cab whistle. So an authentic sound might be out there for sampling. I cannot tell you who made this recording – I think it came in a rather fancy Pennsy maroon box, not just an LP sleeve, but one thing I do recall is that there was a spoken introduction by the then-president of the PRR. “This is Allen J. Greenough, President of the Pennsylvania railroad …”