Anyone who could tell me what type whistle(s) is/are correct for this engine? Do you know if a correct or nearly correct one is included in either the Tsunami Medium Steam or Heavy Steam decoder? I just bought a BLI stealth version Hudson NIB, but the upgrade kit for it is probably not available. Thanks.
Hal
Hopefully I can get you that requested information in short order, Hal. I’ll be curious if the J3a whistles were different than the J1s.
Tom
Thanks Tom. If I could reach BLI parts, I might be able to get the Paragon 2 with the Dreyfuss sound, but they don’t answer phones and email answers seem glacially slow.
Hal
I haven’t gotten a response yet, Hal. Hopefully someone knows the answer to your query.
Tom
Hi, Hal
I’ll have to dig some more in my old issues of the NYCHS Headlight. I’m sure I saw an article about NYC’s whistles in there somewhere.
For now I have some information for you. Hudsons used a Nathan six chime stepped top whistle sounding the notes C#, D#, F, G, A# and C#. These were operated by a Viloco air relay so the engineer could not “quill” the whistle, ditto for Niagaras and Mohawks.
The Mohawks used a six chime whistle made in the NYC shops. I don’t know the note combination but articles I’ve read say they even sounded nicer than the Hudson whistle.
The Niagara, of course, was equipped with a Leslie Tyfon A-200 (I think*) and a 3 chime Hancock long bell whistle sounding notes A, C and E. Engine crews were encouraged to use the horn because it was more economical as a whistle would waste a lot of steam.
Hope this helps you out in your search for a sound decoder.
Ed
Thanks for the info, Ed. I believe the Tsunami Medium Steam has a Nathan 6-chime, so will probably use it. Of course, don’t have a way to verify the pitches until I get it. I assume the Dreyfuss would have the same whistle as unshrouded Hudson’s.
Hal
Ed, I was wrong. The Tsunami Medium Steam has two versions of a Nathan 5 chime and a USRA 6 chime. The Heavy Steam also has the USRA 6 chime. The Light Steam has a Reading 6 chime. Do you know if the USRA 6 chime is the same or similar to the Nathan? That would be great because I have a Heavy on tap.
Hal
Hi, Hal
I have a Tsunami heavy installed in a N&W Y-3. When I get a chance I’ll toggle through the whistles and see how close the USRA 6 chime is to the Nathan (as installed on the BLI Hudsons.) It’s too bad some manufacturers ignore things like whistle types. I have two B&O EM-1s and the three whistle choices provided by Bachmann/Soundtraxx are all wrong [:(]. It would be like having a VW beep-beep horn on a Cadillac Fleetwood!
I used a Titan in my EM-1, but don’t remember how I arrived at the whistle. I don’t like the way the Tsunami sounds at speeds above about 30 mph when set to “articulated”; too stacatto. Soundtraxx agrees, but sez they have no plan to fix it. But the Titan is a pain to set for smooth crawl speed. Win some, lose some.
Hal
Hal,
I was shopping around for a sound decoder for a C.U.T. P-1a and stumbled on QSIs sound sample page and found quite a few whistle samples here including the NYC six chime; Mohawk, the Hancock and one labeled Hudson which sounds a bit mellower than the 6 chime. Maybe you can get some ideas here, at least.
These are probably the files that are loaded on Broadway Limited’s stuff…
http://qsisolutions.com/sounds/whistles.html
Have fun…