I posted this in the electronics section first but it may be more appropriate here:
Hi everyone! This may not be the right section to ask this, but it is DCC related because it involves setting CV48.
I am installing a Loksound Select sound decoder in a Canadian Pacific SW9 which has a single so called “blat” horn. Can anyone tell me what the closest horn available on the Loksound Select would be. Here are the available choices:
Nathan K5LA; K3; M5; P3; P5A
Leslie S-2B; A200; S3; S5; M3
Wabco A2; E2
Holden K5H
The decoder came with a melodious multi chime horn as the default. I think the engine nearly jumped off the tracks with the sound it made!
I was able to find a reference to Holden air horns being used by CP on the Tsunami web site but there were no specific details.
Thanks
Dave
(Do I get in trouble for posting the same question in two different sections?!?)
http://atsf.railfan.net/airhorns/index.html and can suggest only the Leslie A-200 or the Wabco A2 as nearly all of the others are multi-chime. These Leslie and Wabco models are single chime blat horns.
The numbers in the Nathan and Holden models are the number of bells or chimes.
Thank you for the information and link. I had posted this question in the Electronics and DCC section as well and I got the same recommendations, although the other poster also suggested the Wabco E2 as a possibility.
You have saved me some time on the programming track changing CV48 13 times to hear all the horns.
It seems to me that early on in the conversion to diesels the Canadian gov’t mandated that all Canadian railroads had to use a three-chime airhorn…the idea being that by all engines having the same sound, people would more easily recognize the sound than if different railroads had different sounding horns??
The single horns seem to be in the minority but there are a few examples with them. Most of the switchers where the horns are visible sport multi horn systems. Unfortunately many of the photos do not show the horns because they were taken from ground level.
Anyhow, thanks for making me look! If I don’t like the sound of the single horn ‘blat’ apparently I can install multi horns without offending the rivet counting gods too much.[}:)][swg][(-D]
Of course, which horn to use may depend on what time you’re modelling too. Single-chime “BLAT” airhorns were the first airhorns, and many (if not all?) early diesels came with them. In some cases, the railroad later changed out the blat horn for a multi-chime horn. So a diesel built in 1952 might have a different horn by say the mid-sixties.
Plus, of course, the fact that a model engine has a particular type of horn doesn’t mean the real one had that type. Many manufacturers put a single-chime horn on all their first generation diesels, even if they’re wearing a later paint scheme from a time when the single-chime horn had been replaced with a multi-chime one.
Thanks for the observation about horn change-outs. I am loosely modeling the late 50’s but I am in love with the CP script logo which didn’t come into prominant use until the early 60’s (if I understand correctly) so there will be lots of artistic license in that regard. In fact, the SW9 has the script lettering with the single chime air horn so if and when the horn breaks off (it is already half way there) I will happily install a multi chime horn. Then I can reprogram the decoder with something that sounds a bit more melodious. I won’t lose any sleep if it isn’t quite right.