Greetings, gents -
Can anyone of you experts identify the horn-type on this NYC SW7?
I picked up a Paragon 2 BLI SW7 recently and it has three horn choices. The 1st and 3rd are monotonal and the middle one is tritonal. My guess is that the tritonal horn would have been used with an EMD E- or F-unit??? I'd like to choose the proper one for an NYC SW7.
Thanks for the help.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
From the picture, it appears to be a standard single note 'blat' horn. Both Nathon and Leslie provided thousands of these to all of the builders. In fact most of the early F and E Units came with a pair of these on the roof. Later, 3 and 5 chime horns became popular.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Jim is right about the popular Leslie A-200 which the GG1, SP Daylights and even the NYC Niagaras used. It sounds a Low D. For switchers, or sometimes in combination with the A-200, Leslie made a smaller A-125 horn sounding an A#. That is probably the A-125 in the photo. Smaller yet was the A-75 used as back-up horns on B units or sometimes mounted on cabooses. The designation number being the diameter of the diaphragm in millimeters. The A-200 has a bell that is almost 25" long and would be pretty easy to spot if mounted on a switcher.
A short primer here:
http://trn.trains.com/railroads/abcs-of-railroading/2006/05/introducing-the-horn-section
Toward the mid 1950s Nathan came along with the "Airchime" horns which began using tuned chords that were more specific to certain railroads and locomotives. Some railroads used a Nathan MS-1 on switchers which sounded a C# note.
This is only the "tip of the iceberg" as it were, there's lots of variation and arrangements of horns over the years. Sometimes you can find three or four different horn types on the same class of locomotives in the span of only a few years.
Prime and Westinghouse also had a line of air horns but were generally not that common.
NYC had a few E7s with Hancock air whistles installed, too. These just weren't loud enough.
Have Fun, Ed
The NYC SW7s I remember had horns that sounded like a rolling "billy goat" sound more then your standard "blat". 8880,8887,8888,8889,8808 8812 and 8919 spent most of their lives in Columbus,Oh.8887/8888 was usually mu'd together.
Come to think on it I don't recall not seeing those engines in McKinley Ave yard or on the service tracks.8880 usually worked the South Columbus industrial switch job on the old T&OC.
Just for kicks.NYC GP7s horns sound like somebody was pulling the tail of a poor cat. There was no mistaking a NYC GP7 horn with a C&O,N&W or PRR Geep horn.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Thanks for the info, fellas. Someone on another forum thought it looked like a Wabco A-2:
http://atsf.railfan.net/airhorns/a2.html
Does that seem like a reasonable match? It is one of the 3 horn choices with the Paragon2 sound decoder - albeit a 1/2 step higher than the sound sample on the link above.
Tom,I don't think anybody makes the correct horn sound for NYC's SW7 since they sound like a rolling billygoat voice. Oddly I can make a simliar horn sound for those SW7s. You see 8880 and 8888 was my favorite NYC SW7s and naturally I painted two Athearn SW7s for those two switchers when they was released.
I listen to the sound bites and not sure which one I would use as a stand in.