just so no one gets the wrong idea here, the train horns that truckers are putting on their rigs are sold in truckstops everywhere. i have yet to meet more than 2 truckers that have an actual horn from a train on their rig. if you want to find out where many real train horns end up for sale, just check ebay.
it’s getting pretty bad when someone would stoop so low as to steam any little thing off of a steam loco just to sell it to some rabid railfan. but people will buy anything without ever thinking of where it might have come from.
I probably mentioned them here, but by now they’re either on someone’s shelf as part of their collection, or in a truck (or other vehicle) somewhere.
There’s a video of YouTube from several years ago with a fire truck equipped with a train horn, and I’ve got a picture of a NYC rescue truck clearly equipped with a train horn…
A few years before I entered West Virginia University (50’s) one of the fraternities (not mine) went to the B&O yard in Grafon and stole a bello from one of the locomotives. The railroad understandably was mad and sent their police to the university but could not locate the bell. By the time I enrolled all was forgiven and the frat had the bell on a cart and used it at games etc.
Down in Alabama (Coal Fields West of Birmingham…The Coal Truck drivers seemed to favor the Diesel Locomotive Air Horns, instead of the conventional (small) ones.
Close to an unsuspecting motorist, and give them a ‘Blast’. One can just imagine the reaction of the occupant of an auto along side, or in front of the ‘Coal Bucket’… West Virginia seemed to have similar issues with the Diesel Air Horns on Coal Trucks. I think that in some jurisdictions they have been ‘outlawed’ on road vehicles(?)