PRR Whistle

[zwbob]

Hi Everyone, I'm just visiting from the CTT (classic toy trains) forum. I have a Lionel PRR Mikado with a peculliar sounding whistle. It sounds more like a horn. Do any of you know if this is what a PRR Mike sounded like? Here is a link to a video I made of it so you can hear what I'm talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdOsYpu2IUE

Bob

[rogruth]

I don't remember ever hearing anything like that on a PRR steam engine.[That was forty years ago at least.]

[Anonymous]

I would have to agree with rogruth.  In 1948, while still on the extra board, I worked at Atlanta, Illinois, where I covered for the towermen when they were on vacation.  The PRR from Peoria, Illinois, to Terre Haute, Indiana, crossed the GM&O at Atlanta, and the trains were fairly long.  I don't recall what they used as power, but they were probably Mikes.

What I do remember was the goshawful whistle those engines had - very high pitched, sort of a scream.  I questioned the old timers about the sound and got the reply 'Oh, they've got peanut whistles'.

In the late thirties, the Alton ran an English engine from St.Louis to Chicago.  My family gathered by the track at the time it was supposed to pass.  A train approached with a fairly melodious whistle and a lady said, "There it comes, what a lovely sound'.  But it was an Alton engine with a whistle similar to the IC but just slightly higher in pitch.

The next train had the English engine, 'Coronation Scot' runs in my mind but I could be wrong.  If you have ever watched an old English movie, you've heard the sound, a very high pitched scream.  The PRR engines on the PRR branch out of Peoria sounded very much the same.

The only other time I was near Pennsy tracks was in the late seventies, Chicago to NYC, but Diesels ruled the road by that time.

Art 

 

 

[feltonhill]

I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but the loco in the video looks nothing like any L1 I remember, nor does it sound like one.  The PRR L1 whistle was what is commonly called a banshee or screamer whistle.  On a good day it may actually sound like a very high pitched single-note peanut whistle.  On a bad, and more typical day, it was more like a toneless screech.  However, if heard from over a half-mile away in the middle of the night, from your bedroom window (like mine), it was a eerie, high-pitched wail,  and if punctuated by proper artistry, would make your hair stand on end (or make you dive under the covers.)  What you have in no way resembles a PRR L1.  I remember them well from the late 1940's even if I was only a pre-schooler.  BTW my bedroom window was only about a block from the York-Columbia, PA line, and the "midnight freight" was always something to hear - L1 on front, H9 pusher on the rear up to Stony Brook.

[tpatrick]

I'm not sure I can make this work as a link, but try this: http://www.trainweb.org/wnyrhs/ This the home of the Western New York Railway Historical Society. The have custody of the last Pennsy Decapod. You will find good quality recording of it's whistle, which you can blow as often as you like. I kinda like it! 

[feltonhill]

The recording on the 4483 website was made by John Prophet as noted and is an I1, according to liner notes on the album (came out as an LP, now a CD set by Semaphore).

However, late in steam, most of the I1 banshee whistles were replaced by passenger whistles, similar to the K4 and M1.  If you listen carefully to the recording, at the beginning you can hear the three notes, although the condition of the whistle leaves a lot to be desired.  Then one of the chambers overblows to a much higher note, producing that hair-raising wail at the end.  However, this recording is definitely not the PRR banshee whistle.  Photo of PRR freight whistle is accurate, recorded sound isn't.

[Anonymous]

The 4483 'whistle you can blow' doesn't sound like the PRR Illinois branch line whistle that I remember. 

'Remembering' is a funny thing, though.  When comparing notes about our childhood with my siblings (not many are left, unfortunately), we must have had different parents or were raised in different places.

Art 

[prrbaldwin]

Hi Guys! I've gotten more than a few friendly suggestions that I change the sound clip of our PRR Banshee Whistle. I now have a correct sound clip of the Banshee blown at our 2004 Williamsville, NY. Horn and Whistle Blow. The 3 Chime Pennsy Whistle recording made by John Prophet is still a great sound! Sincerely, Scott H. - WNYRHS.

[Anonymous]

Well, I'm close to 60 years older than I was when in Atlanta, Illinois; the new whistle on the website is not what I remember.  Close, but no seegar.  Again, I reiterate that memory is a fragile thing.

It just doesn't sound screechy enough.  I would say it should be up at least an octave.  This one is around the E flat above middle c; in cycles per second, sounds about 300.

I remember something approaching a female type scream, around 600 to 1000 cps.  Just my 2 cents.  Males get hard of hearing in that part of the spectrum.

Art 

[Trace Fork]

This is a pretty good recording of a PRR banshee whistle.

http://www.columbusrailroads.com/audio/PRR%20H10s%20Sandusky%20Al%20Shade%201957.mp3

Hearing that in the dark of night in the hollows of western Pennsylvania would certainly make the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

This is a three chime from a Pennsy T-1.  These replaced many of the banshee whistles in later years.

http://www.steam-whistles.com/sounds/PA_T_1_Whistle_on_6325.mp3  Nice!

Jim J.

[Deggesty]

That banshee reminded me of the Georgia RR peanut whistles which I heard when I lived about a mile from the Georgia, in Decatur, Ga.; I always cringed when I heard one. The T-1 reminded of the N&W whistles that I heard occasionally when I was in college, in Bristol, Tenn; they were delightful to hear.

[Anonymous]

 Trace Fork (Jim J.) first recording of the shrieking peanut whistlesounded like the PRR whistle I remember from the late forties.  That sound really would get your attention!

I think the second one sounds more like a whistle I'd want on my own engine.

Nice recordings, Jim. 

Art 

[rogruth]

 The "banshee" whistle above sounds close but a little "breathless",like Lauren Bacall telling Bogie how to call her.Maybe the engineneer was playing around or it has a slight leak.