I noticed that my newly acquired Athearn Genesis Western Pacific FP7A (#805) came with both a five chime set of horns on the right hand side of the roof and what appears to be a single rear-facing horn on the left. I assume this is prototypical for the locomotive and wondering why WP did this. Are there any WP experts out there who know why the railroad outfitted this loco with this combination?.
Photos suggest the horn configuration on the Genesis model was adopted in the late 1960s, and before that the typical arrangement of two single-chime horns was used. WP used the five-chime horns on most of its hood units, so perhaps the change was to provide a more consistent sound for approaching trains? Interestingly enough, I’ve never seen that combination of horns on a freight F unit, only the two single-chime horns. I model the post-zephyr era, so don’t really pay much attention to the passenger Fs. Maybe an earlier era WP fan will know for sure.
Most of the pictures I’ve seen of the WP FP7’s in the 1960’s show the combination of 5 chime forward and single chime, backwards. I’d check historical photo’s from websites like Fallen Flags and others to get an idea if/when there was a change over. The Intermountain FP7’s look like an as delivered configuration with the two single chime horns.
Horns seemed to vary depending on railroads but the overall trend seems to be from single chimes in the earler days to multiple chime horns in the 1960’s and going forward. For example, the D&RGW had two single chime horns on all of their F units as delivered up until about 1952, when they began taking delivery of “phase II” F units (the #57xx series) with a single 3 chime horn - similar to the one on the famous Rio Grande Zephyr F9A #5771. My guess is that multiple chime horns were better at getting the attention of drivers or pedestrians trackside or at grade crossings. Having watched my Rio Grande Odyssey DVD and heard the single chime “blat” horns, I’d agree.