It occurs to me that I've never heard the different whistles from any of the low-water alarms that were manufactured during the 'golden age of steam'. I have not yet found anything on YouTube, or know of anything on video, that has the sounds, and don't see it referenced in the 'whistle enthusiast' sites I've seen so far.

Do those of you operating engines with these systems test them regularly or have any material with sound files? Are there any discussions of the specific sound differences between the more common designs?

One to avoid is a loud boom. Not certain about the rest. Probably a shrill annoying tone would encourage somebody to take fast action.

I heard one being tested one time. It was very loud and shrill to the point that most of the crew in the cab exited immediately. I also seem to recall the cab filling with steam from the whistle. Let's put it this way. It's certainly going to get your attention and the sound is such that you'd be motivated to make it stop as quickly as possible.

When I was at TVRM, we did intentionally set off the low water alarm on the 4501 once. As our enginemen were all quite competent, no one had ever heard it go off and many of us were unaware that the locomotive even had a low water alarm. The pitch of the whistle was a real attention getter.

A point was also made that one should not depend on the low water alarm for safe operation, since the other locomotive (610) did NOT have a low water alarm. When I first started there, it didn't even have a water gauge for the tender-you had to climb up on the tank, open the filler hatch and look at the water level to estimate the load.

About 25 years ago I visited Greenfield Village, when the sternwheeler was still operating. The water column was fitted with a lower water alarm. It was just a little peanut whistle. It sounded when the water column was blown down. I asked the fireman about it. I guess there was a float in the water column.

We routinely test the Nathan low-water alarm when firing up PM 1225. Don't ask me to explain the sequence for turning the valves for filling and draining the expansion tube. The whistle makes a flat, breathy tweet.

One of our favorite stories is about how the old PM night hostlers used to rely on the low-water alarms to interrupt their card games when it was time to go out and run an injector in the roundhouse.

Aarne Frobom
Steam Railroading Institute

So a water alarm is typically set 2-3 inches above the crown sheet? So you'd have 15minutes or so in a "worst case" scenario, provided the locomotive is sitting, to get an injector on when you hear the alarm.

Longer? A dead still engine with a banked fire, the water does not move very fast.

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The low water alarm should get tested as part of the daily inspection. A lever on the Nathan low water alarm will activate it manually.

To borrow a quote from Art Carney, "it sounds like pigs being murdered."

Dennis Storzek and I are both IRM old timers (54 years in my case). But another observation about IRM is that the "steam" and "trolley" operations aren't in competition with each other. The way IRM has long marketed itself is that it charges a single admission to the museum grounds, which covers all of the train rides the museum is offering that day - there are no separate fares for "steam" or "trolleys". The admission charges can vary depending on the equipment being operated on "regular" vs "special" days. But there is no separate charge for "trolley" vs "steam" rides

Think you pressed the wrong button

As stated by others, it should be tested as part of a daily. Years ago I heard an O. Winston Link recording of I think it was an N&W K departing a station stop and as the engine passed the low water alarm was clearly going off. And no it wasn't the cab signal whistle. Having heard both, the two can NEVER be confused. I wish I could remember which OWL record it's on but I don't. OWL also recorded a cab signal on the Sounds of 1401 while its whistle was on 4501 for recording purposes.

Randy

I think that was Sounds of Steam Railroading, Volume 2, the Fading Giant. For the LP folks, it was track 1 on side 2, for CD folks, track 6. I always assumed (and we know what that means) that the whistle was a shop whistle. This was a K1 moving within the roundhouse to turntable.

When I was in 611 cab on the test run in 1982, they tripped the low water alarm to test it, and it was indeed a very loud, high pitched whistle. Did not make me think of this whistle on the recording. Not questioning you, but I listened to those records the whole time growing up, so perhaps it was the low water alarm, certainly the place for it to happen.

Best
Ken Miller