A while back on one of the forums I mentioned reading that railroaders on some roads refer to diesel electric locomotives as “motors”; how dare they?!
Every railfan knows that a “motor” is an electric locomotive that gets its power from overhead catenary or third rail…the nerve of some people…
I have always used the term ‘horn’ for the flared tubes with vibrating diaphragms that make what I like to call a 'blaaattt!" That would be on all diesels and on at least one 4-8-4 back in the day…the S1-b Niagara.
The sound-emitting devices atop boilers, regardless of how sonorous/not they sounded, and which emitted steam in doing so, were all whistles. Also on the Niagaras. [8D]
Here in the middle of nowhere, we don’t have any catenary. The term used by 2 generations of railroad engineers and various acquaintences of theirs called the locomotives “motors”. B of LF&E was the place I heard “locomotives” or occupation: “Locomotive Engineer”, but… well, you know the rest.
I’m pretty sure SP used “Blaaaat” horns on the GS locomotives, and possibly some cab forwards.
I’ve used the term once or thrice.
Then there’s MU’ing locomotives and “lashups.”
[:)]Does anyone remember the little air whistle on the caboose that was used when backing back to the main yard after the switching duty was done in another distant switch yard. The little whistle was on a hose that was connected to the brake air line and tied on to the step railing. There was no wye to turn around and head back. The switchmans eyes got a little big when the train got close to a busy street , as the whistle had a weak toot toot. Just thinking of days gone by.
Cannonball
You will find these on the monkey tails on the rear of passenger trains, to be used when backing as when coming into Denver or New Orleans. Those on the SUperliners are loong monkey tails.
Did early diesels have a different-sounding horn? I vaguely remember reading back in the 1950’s that because people did not like the sound of the horns, they would be replaced with horns that sounded more like steam whistles. I do remember that they sounded a lot like loud farts back then. Does anyone else remember this?
Paul, the horror that I remember was the peanut whistles on Georgia RR diesels when I lived in Decatur. After having heard the mellow whistles of J’s while living in Bristol, it was nerve-wrcking.was
On my carrier and I suspect many others, the caboose ‘whistle’ was a dual function air valve permanetly attached to the caboose railings on each end of the caboose - 1. make the whistling sound for road crossings and other signalling purposes. 2. as a air brake valve to apply the brakes on a shoving movement.
Those two functions were also performed by a ‘back up hose’ which was frequently attached to the rear car of passenger trains. On my carrier the ‘Observation Cars’ as a part of their equipment on the ‘observation end’ of the car had built in ‘back up hose’ controls to both sound the whistle and make brake applications as necessary during back up moves. B&O backed most of their trains into the station at Washington DC.
You’ll see “back-up hoses” on many Amtrak trains.
We use them - every now and then we have to do longer back-up moves (ie, outside the yards).
One thing about the valve on the back-up hoses - with today’s pressure maintaining locomotive brake valves, the only way to effect any sort of stop is to dump the train. Trying to simply reduce the pressure in the brake line won’t do a thing for you - even if the valve is open all the way…
I believe ‘pressure maintaining’ can be cut in and cut out by the engineer on the locomotive. Cut it out when move is to be controlled by the back up valve and cut it back in when the engineer again has full control of the movement.
Agree noted that many time with the eastbound evening GARR passenger train going past agony spot. ( That’s Agnes Scott college in Decatur for the unknowing ). The only way to describe the horn was it was a poor imitation of the American Flyer attempt to imitate a Nathan Air Chime horn in their “S” guage trains.
The term for whistle many years ago was “steam trumpet”. The passed on tradition among railroaders is the term whistle, although the FRA gives instructions to the use of the locomotive horn. So, when approaching a crossing be sure to blow the horn when you note the trackside whistle post.
At the Fox River Trolley Museum, we have an ex-IC transfer caboose that is so equipped. We don’t have to to use a hose type as Amtrak.
Also, many observation cars had a brake valve, a signal valve and whistle valve behind a panel near the door. Memories of the B&O’s Cincinnatian backing across Spring Grove Ave after leaving Winton Place when the conducter would sid down just before the train made its stop, waited for the switch to reverse, and the signal to clear and then start backing. Conducter would have the back-up whistle screaming as we approached the crossing. It was an efficient and quick operation.
Paul, I knew that institution as “Agony Gooch” back in the early fifties. There were some nice girls there–and some married seminary students.
Yep, the New Haven RR was a big user of Hancock Air Whistles (an on-line customer of theirs, I believe). The NH applied them to:
29 x RDC-1
2 x RDC-2
6 x RDC-3
3 x RDC-4
1 x DL-109
60 x FL9
30 x GP9
15 x H16-44
15 x RS-11
20 x SW1200
100 x 4400-class MU’s
10 x EP-5
9 x FCD Railbus
Total: 300 Hancock Air Whistles
Plus, the NH applied old steam whistles to new diesel switchers:
65 x S-1
22 x S-2
21 x HH’s
10 x DEY-2
Whistles were applied to all NH electric motors other than the EF-4, EF-3 and EP-4 (that’s 163 electrics w/ the EP-5’s).
Having one man in control of the air and the other in control of the shoving sounds like a recipe for disaster. No thanks. Give me car counts and let me have my air.
A friend nearly discovered the hard way about dumping the air vs a reduction. As Zug says, good car counts and you’re in business. Dumping the air is for emergencies.
We’d always test the back-up hose by cutting out the brake stand and doing a reduction. Then, during one event, we discovered that it was possible to have the valve on the back-up hose fully open (having been slowly opened) and still not effect a reduction… It wasn’t ugly, but it got real close…
I have a Penn Central Western Region employee timetable dated 1969 which includes 2-3 pages of Special Instructions related to passenger equipment back-up moves into Chicago Union Station. There are provisions for a number of safety stops included.