Union Pacific AC4400 Horn Type?

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

I’m planning to install LokSound 3.5 sound decoders in three Athearn HO Union Pacific diesel locomotives:

AC4400 road number 6200
AC4400 road number 5978
AC4400 road number 5817

I have a choice of decoders with sounds for a Nathan 3 chime air horn, Nathan 5 chime air horn, Leslie 3 chime air horn, or a Leslie 5 chime air horn. Does anyone know which type of horn was used in each engine or where to find out?

Thank you in advance,

Rich

2

You can go to Rail-Videos.net and look at the UP videos there. Those of us that are horn nuts can at times distinguish what type of horn a unit has by listening to the sound. Unfortunately, sometimes these vids don’t feature the “exact” unit we want to see or hear.

Then, often, when we see a photo of the unit, it’s usually at an angle where it’s hard to tell how many bells (trumpets) the horn has. So the next best thing to do is “guesstimate” by listening to another unit within the same numerical family.

In a nutshell, it’s a bit of a pickle as UP uses both Leslie and Nathans, but has been favoring Nathan “K” series 3 chimers (K3LA and K3HA) on modern units from the 1990s.

On many of the newer units UP has also been ordering Nathan K5LLA (yuck!) and K5HL horns.

Hope this is helpful [8)]