I asked this question of the Santa Fe Historical and Modeling Society and no one seemed to know the answer. I was hoping some one here might know. When Santa Fe purchased thier Y3's from N&W, did they leave the whistles on them, or did they install thier own whistles, such as was used on the 4-8-4's and 2-10-2's? I bought a 2-8-8-2 with sound and the whistle sounds great, but it is definately an N&W whistle. Thank you very much.
Dick
Texas Chief
Hi Dick
I dont know about the Santa Fe. But when the PRR got their Y3s they didnt change a thing. They just slapped some letters and ran them. They kept one for parts and put the others in service but they never strayed far from N&W rails.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
Thanks for the reply Pete. It would seem that you're the only one who knows what I'm talking about. But still, that's one more than the Society could come up with. Thanks again.
According to the book "USRA 2-8-8-2 Series" by NJ International, published around 1980, the N&W Y-3s were "pressed into pusher service over Raton Pass as soon as they arrived on Santa Fe property." That suggests, but does not state that the whistles were unchanged.
The book goes on that during their service life on Santa Fe the 1790 class received few changes, "these being the removal of the brakesman dog house from the tender, and the installation of the usual ATSF front number plate on the boiler front." The 1944 photo of 1791's fireman's side SEEMS to show the single chime hooter that is on the N&W originals.
This is hardly definitive info I realize but it suggests to me that the whistles were left as is. Which makes sense if they were regarded as primarily helper engines (although that 1944 shot shows 1791 in Kansas City!)
Dave Nelson
Dave, that's good enough for me. I too, have several pics of these engines and I never noticed till now that they all do have the same whistle as the N&W version. P2K's whistle sounds great and I guess I was sort of hoping that I could leave it and still be prototypical. Thank you all very much.
Glad to help. Years ago an LP of train songs was released that included several O Winston Link recordings -- I think they might have been recordings that were not otherwise used on the OWL LPs.
One of them is an N&W 2-8-8-2 running through a mountain town at night. The engineer was making that single note hooting whistle really talk -- a haunting sound. If the P2K sound comes anywhere close I'd leave it alone regardless of what the ATSF did!