Locomotive Horns - makes and variants

[Evertrainz]

10 hours ago, daveyb said:

After a brief internet search I couldn't find anything about the Hyson company (or the Desilux of London company).  Were they a licensee of the Airchime name from the Nathan company, and its predecessors, in the US and Canada? 

Hyson is a Nathan UK licensee - as for Desilux I believe they were manufactured by ‘Secomak Air Products’ 

[Right Away]

Well “back in the day” now, but who can still remember the melodious chime air whistles originally fitted to the Southern multiple units?

They could appear to some, in the early-mid Sixties, rather more attuned (pun...possibly!) to the electric train;  “hee-haw” replacements, heralding the newer forms of traction.

[Evertrainz]

Like MidlandRed has pointed out - the later Class 25s (25/2 and /3) had different horns from the rest. It seems that they were fitted with cheaper BR-manufactured (?) horns since they didn't want to spend all that money on licensed, more 'premium' horns such as the Desilux and Hyson pairs for such a common locomotive. You can actually see the different horn covering rings on these late 25s compared to 25/1, I'm surprised nobody has picked up on that.

Here's some audio of ex-loco horns, probably off a Pacer: https://youtu.be/Ggdz9om8U7g

And a flickr phot showing these same type of horns on 25232: https://flic.kr/p/2i6VQME

 

 

Supposedly a bunch of pacer units are being withdrawn so if anyone wants to grab a pair from a local scrapyard you could claim that you technically have a pair of 25 horns  . Pacers entered as 25s were exiting, so to speak, so I don't doubt that BR salvaged some horns to re-use on the pacers. However, I don't know quite enough about fluid physics and dynamics to know why the 25s horns had that distinctive sound, that you wouldn't have heard on a pacer. Maybe different operating pressures, or a different horn valve.

 

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by Evertrainz

[Ben B]

I love the distinctive horn-sound made by the W&M Railbus- very noisy and stands out.  When the KWVR was still running theirs, on a clear day you could hear it right up the valley

[Marc_the_proto]

On 26/08/2020 at 18:30, Evertrainz said:

I've been doing some research (if it shall be called that) on locomotive horns on the early diesels and electrics, and have been able to pin down three main horn types.

- Desilux pair:   Class 14, 16, 20 through 28;   33 through 46; 50; LMS pioneer diesels

- Westinghouse pair: Class 15, 31, 86

- Hyson Airchime: Class 17; 47; 87, 89 through modern stuff

 

- Trico Folberth raspberry horns: Class 55 Deltic and a lot of Southern region stock (73, 74, units)

 

Class 31 had the Westinghouse, but I have heard audio showing with what sounds like the Hyson airchime. 

 

Notably, even though most had the Desilux, the mounting location and air pressure made a huge difference between the same horn pairs. You can hear the slight difference between the nose-mounted 37 horn's sound (like a 40), and a roof-horn 37 (sounds like a class 20 and often squeaky). Class 47 horn is far more "spoony" than a later gen. EMU or pacer even though both have the same Hyson horns.

The Western/52s are a good example of a 'squeakin' horn. Class 25 horns sometimes had a weird sort of pitch bendy- sound (see this vs this  ). 

I'll add that all first gen. DMUs and early AC EMUs had the Desilux horns, and apparently the GWR diesel railbus as well. I can't imagine the looks at the level crossing when they were expecting a fast Warship to hurtle down, just to be met with the tiny diesel railcar with boisterous horns 

 

This does give a good idea of the majority of the fleet; but what type of horns were fitted to the rarer/less-tended-to locomotives, like the one-offs? What horns did the early AC electrics have? HS4000, Falcon, Lion? Apparently the Deltic horns were originally fitted with something other than their raspy (horrid) horns that they maintained for most of their life; any clues? 

 

Obviously a trivial topic for most modelers since this stuff is left up to the sound guys, but as someone interested in sounds as much as visuals, I am quite curious.

Could you maybe give me an answer to what keys that the class 91/DVT/90's use for the chord horn?

[slilley]

On 01/09/2020 at 06:39, Right Away said:

Well “back in the day” now, but who can still remember the melodious chime air whistles originally fitted to the Southern multiple units?

They could appear to some, in the early-mid Sixties, rather more attuned (pun...possibly!) to the electric train;  “hee-haw” replacements, heralding the newer forms of traction.

The three Co-Co electric locos had whistles until very close to their withdrawal.The same for the Class 71s. They never lost their whistles.

[keefer]

sorry if it has been mentioned but what did these whistles sound like? - anything like the whistles on LT stock?

Presumably more shrill than those on a steam loco, as they always seemed to be rather small/thin (usually mounted at the top or side of the driver's cab window)

[Nearholmer]

Goodness only knows how to describe sound in words, but I remember the Class 71 whistles sounding somewhat ghostly, not the little ‘pheep’ of LT ones, but that was at speed, coming through the little tunnels at the country end of Tonbridge station.

 

im sure we’ve done this topic before and someone found a video of a preserved one doing the noise.