Thread: Train horns (as used on real trains apparently)

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

An old interstater mate acquired a whistle from a NSW steam loco. He had a mate at Eveleigh workshops. Hooked it into his Mercedes prime mover air supply with a lanyard valve. His favourite trick was when going through a town early am that no longer had a railway line to give the traditional loco whistles. I wonder how many people sat up suddenly in bed startled by the ghost train.

A neat trick in principle but steam gives a varying tone with the volume of condensate in the steam. When our local woollen mill was still going 20 years ago they had a steam whistle for the workers. After it closed down some worthy tried it on compressed air for some town anniversary and all it said was BAAAA

Originally Posted by bee utey

A neat trick in principle but steam gives a varying tone with the volume of condensate in the steam. When our local woollen mill was still going 20 years ago they had a steam whistle for the workers. After it closed down some worthy tried it on compressed air for some town anniversary and all it said was BAAAA

There must be whistles and whistles because this one worked just like a train.

You can blow a train whistle with a lungful of air if you know how and its not too big a whistle. Steam does give a much nicer sound though. You need an initial high pressure and volume to get it to resonate. Maybe the woollen mill's whistle was cracked when it was removed?

Ever since I saw this clip I have wanted to get on a mountain out the back of Mount Hotham & let rip with this


[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiWNw0A1Ijg"]YouTube- Bigger than a Train Horn![/nomedia]

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

An old interstater mate acquired a whistle from a NSW steam loco. He had a mate at Eveleigh workshops. Hooked it into his Mercedes prime mover air supply with a lanyard valve. His favourite trick was when going through a town early am that no longer had a railway line to give the traditional loco whistles. I wonder how many people sat up suddenly in bed startled by the ghost train.

Spoke to him last night. He still has the whistle. He took it off the Benz when he traded it on a Scania to run Brisbane-Darwin for Brambles. The whistle went on the Scania and was kept when he left road transport about 1982 and bought a pub. Now long retired. He said he did a better installation on the Scania using a much bigger air line. He said it works better with high flow. The Scania had a much greater capacity compressor than the old Benz with its air/hydraulic brakes.

Some people must be addicted to these things
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9KKaj26Lsw&feature=channel"]YouTube- Way bigger than a train horn[/nomedia]