Mounting locomotive horns on my truck?

[edblysard]

First let me tell you that the horns you hear at the crossing are not running full blast, and these things are loud, very loud.

Unless you have a way to regulate the air, a 3 chime horn at street level blown at full volume will cause damage to anyone near or in front of it, and I doubt you want to go to the expense of mounting a horn, compressor and valve, plus a limiting regulator.

We have a jerk down here who has mounted a 3 chime in his pick up, he delights in driving through parking lots and sounding the horn whenever he gets the chance, and I have personally seen his scare a lady so badly she had a wreck.

She was backing out of a parking slot; he was traveling down the lane, then stopped, and waited until she was most of the way out of the slot and blasted her with it full bore….she was so scared she floored the gas and slammed into the cars across and behind her, destroyed her car and heavily damaged two others…he thought it was hilarious until the cops showed up, they ticketed him for excessive noise and aggressive driving, and on the accident report, they listed his horn and his actions as the cause of the accident.

I am pretty sure his insurance company found nothing funny about it at all.

Trust me, train air horns make the ones on 18 wheelers sound like bicycle horns, and I stress again, they can cause physical damage at full volume and at street level.

As advised, email J.C Whitney for their catalog and look at the quieter and cheaper alternatives, and think before using it.

No one expects a sound like that behind them on the freeway, and scared people do stupid things.

[Semper Vaporo]

YEAH!  J.C.Whitney... That was the place.

They have lots of various add on horns and stuff.

http://www.jcwhitney.com/horns/c2545j1s17.jcwx

and the "Big Railroad Sounds" device:

http://www.jcwhitney.com/garage-pro-railroad-horn/p2009067.jcwx?filterid=c2545u0j1

a bit different than what I had, but basically the same thing.

 

I also notice a bell;

http://www.jcwhitney.com/90db-electric-ding-dong-city-bells/p2010181.jcwx?filterid=u0

 

 

[BaltACD]

Semper Vaporo

 I had a small electronic device on my car at one time.  I got it a Chicago Mailorder house, Whitmans? Whitakers?... don't remember the name anymore.  They mainly sold car parts.

 

 

I suspect your supplier was J C Whitney

http://www.jcwhitney.com

[The Butler]

Acela026

...is most likely against some local regulations we have where I live. (Surprise!)

What I want to know is if there is a way I could do it digitally.  Any ideas?

There is enough room under the hood for me to mount a sizable speaker of some sort (yes, heavy duty speakers, I know computer speakers won't work ) 

Another cool thing to do would be mounting a bell in the bed. (The mechanical ones they have on diesels, I have no interest in the steam ones you have to manually ring)  A) Would this be a better option, and B) does anybody know of a source where I could get one of these bells?

Thanks for all your help and ideas, I realize that this is probably just a dream.....

Acela

I believe most states have laws against installing whistles, sirens, and bells on road going vehicles.

As for tractor trailer trucks having train horns, those can be bought at truck stops as kits.  I have seen five chime "train horns" for sale at the bigger truck stops.

[Semper Vaporo]

 I had a small electronic device on my car at one time.  I got it a Chicago Mailorder house, Whitmans? Whitakers?... don't remember the name anymore.  They mainly sold car parts.

The device ran off the car cigarette ligher socket for power.  Had a smallish speaker in a "water proof" plastic housing, about 4 or 5 inch diameter and 2 inches deep, that was to be mounted behind the grille.  There were 4 buttons for different "authentic" (ha ha ha, that term still breaks me up!) Railroad sounds.  A "bell", a "steam whistle", a Diesel horn, and a "chugging engine",

The bell was not too bad, but I could not tell if it was supposed to be an engine bell or a grade crossing bell.  The Steam whistle was just two short, "lifeless" blasts of a general steam whistle.  The Diesel horn was more like a cross between a French horn and an Oboe, again rather "lifeless".  The chugging engine I was never able to determine if it was supposed to be a steam locomotive or a poorly running Diesel.

All the sounds only played a fixed time period; holding down the button made no difference, it just played once.  The steam whistle was about 2 seconds, but the others were closer to 4 or 5 seconds.

I did have fun with it!

One time while being directed to a parking space at a fair I accidently hit the chugging engine sound and the teenager directing me commented that my car sure needed some work.

Another time, I was at a grade crossing on a city street and a young couple with a child were standing at the tracks.  The Father figure was pointing up and down the tracks as though teaching the child about safety at RR tracks.  I slowed as I crossed and hit the Whistle button!  The Man stood up straight so fast I though he'd throw his back out.  His head swiveled back and forth looking both directions in rapid succession.  In the rear view mirror I could see his wife laughing hard and pointing at my car while slapping the man on his arm.  Poor guy, as a STEAM railfan myself, I really do feel bad about it, but it was very funny!

Alas the device did not last more than a couple of years.  I was on a long trip during "road repair" season and every other 10 miles of Interstate were down to just one lane in each direction.  I kept my finger on the whistle button pressing it often to warn the workers I was "comin' through".  They often looked up and smiled at me.  Then I noticed nobody looking any more and I noticed a rather foul burnt resistor smell in the car.  Yeah, it had burnt up the output stage of the unit.  I tried repairing it, but then found the speaker was no longer an integral unit... heat and shock had pretty much destroyed the plastic case and the speaker cone was in shreds.

I have seen videos of people that have put Diesel horns on their car.  Search YouTube and you will find many.  There used to be a couple of websites devoted to the "hobby" of putting them on cars... a Google search should find something about them.

I have also seen steam whistles on cars, run by either compressed air or the exhaust (exhaust whistles used to be quite common on cars back in the early days of the automobile).  I tried putting a 5 pipe aluminium whistle on my little 4 cylinder exhaust and it sounded terrible with the pulsing.

You can buy dual and triple horn compressed air horns at Wal*Mart and other such big stores as well as automotive places (AutoZone, etc.) that come with a small motor driven air compressor (no storage tank is needed).  These don't sound too bad, but are nowhere near as loud as a real RR Diesel horn.

There apparently is a black market amongst truckers who want a RR Diesel horn on their semi's.

I have two large locomotive bells that I bought via antique dealers. Neither has any sort of pedigree so they are not worth much more than the scrap value of the metal.  One is cast iron (painted gold) and one is polished brass.  The brass one has an "air ringer" mechanism.  I attach a bicycle pump to it and one strong pump will ring it maybe 3 or 4 times.  LOUD! (and lovely!)

If I owned a Hummer, I most certainly would mount one of the bells on it.  Sure wold be nice to have a real "Hummer Dinger".

Sorta like this;

You are not alone in your dream... good luck with it!

[Acela026]

...is most likely against some local regulations we have where I live. (Surprise!)

What I want to know is if there is a way I could do it digitally.  Any ideas?

There is enough room under the hood for me to mount a sizable speaker of some sort (yes, heavy duty speakers, I know computer speakers won't work ) 

Another cool thing to do would be mounting a bell in the bed. (The mechanical ones they have on diesels, I have no interest in the steam ones you have to manually ring)  A) Would this be a better option, and B) does anybody know of a source where I could get one of these bells?

Thanks for all your help and ideas, I realize that this is probably just a dream.....

Acela