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Have the Whistles Changed at Strasburg?
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Author:  J3a-614 [ Mon Nov 15, 2021 1:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Have the Whistles Changed at Strasburg?
Maybe it's nothing, but sometimes these things mushroom.

Basically, we have a couple of people complaining about the whistles at the Strasburg Rail Road.

What makes this interesting is that these aren't people who just moved in. They've been there for years, and had no complaints before--but now they say something's different.

The railroad claims there haven't really been changes.

Does anybody have an idea of what's going on?

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/ ... wNFXcJxIw8
Author:  Earl Knoob [ Mon Nov 15, 2021 2:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Have the Whistles Changed at Strasburg?
Sounds like someone installed a Pennsy banshee hooter on #89.

That is a rather obnoxious sounding whistle.
Author:  wesp [ Mon Nov 15, 2021 2:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Have the Whistles Changed at Strasburg?
I can think of two things after visiting for the Sleepy Hollow train.

The trains run at 6:45 and 8:00'ish.

I noticed a shrill whistle on 89 when we rode the Sleepy Hollow train in October.

Wesley
Author:  G. W. Laepple [ Mon Nov 15, 2021 3:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Have the Whistles Changed at Strasburg?
As a volunteer at the Railroad Museum of PA across the street, I am intrigued by how well the PRR banshee whistle carries, even into the restoration shop behind the museum. None of the other whistles I've enjoyed hearing for the past six years are audible inside. I just hope the crew in 89's cab has their hearing protection in place!
Author:  BM765 [ Mon Nov 15, 2021 3:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Have the Whistles Changed at Strasburg?
Slow news day I guess. It sounds like there has only been one complaint and that individual can't tell the difference between a train whistle and their dog. The chairman of Paradise Township says he's noticed the difference but has no problem with it.

It's also a little odd to me that Strasburg acts like they are perplexed by what is being heard and almost seems willing to throw 611 under the bus as the only out of the ordinary item. Clearly it's the banshee being worn by 89 that is being heard. I believe I read it was installed this summer for the first time in 5 years. Even as a railfan I find banshee whistles to get a little obnoxious fairly quickly.
Author:  Richard Glueck [ Mon Nov 15, 2021 4:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Have the Whistles Changed at Strasburg?
Sounds like Decapod to me, and most welcome.
Author:  superheater [ Mon Nov 15, 2021 9:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Have the Whistles Changed at Strasburg?
J3a-614 wrote:
Maybe it's nothing, but sometimes these things mushroom.

Basically, we have a couple of people complaining about the whistles at the Strasburg Rail Road.

What makes this interesting is that these aren't people who just moved in. They've been there for years, and had no complaints before--but now they say something's different.

The railroad claims there haven't really been changes.

Does anybody have an idea of what's going on?

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/ ... wNFXcJxIw8


I'll take a stab at this. While it's possible that Danay's 58 year old father is in some form of ill health and she lives with him to provide care; it's far more like that we have an entitled 29 year old woman whose extended adolescence renders her incapable of understanding her discomforts are her problem.

I honestly haven't seen a story this stupid since the Reading and Northern started making use of its then recently acquired purchase of the former Conrail/LV/CNJ line running through Mountaintop, PA about 20 or 25 years ago and began running trains on the line. One of the local rags ran a story about somebody who had recently purchased a home near Penobscot and actually admitted they knew there was a railroad nearby, but they didn't actually expect trains to run.

"Expect a train, on any track, at any time, from either direction".
Author:  superheater [ Mon Nov 15, 2021 9:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Have the Whistles Changed at Strasburg?
"Even as a railfan I find banshee whistles to get a little obnoxious fairly quickly."

Warning devices are most effective when they are irritating enough to provoke action.
Author:  Jennie K [ Mon Nov 15, 2021 11:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Have the Whistles Changed at Strasburg?
Richard Glueck wrote:
Sounds like Decapod to me, and most welcome.


I second that....
Author:  EJ Berry [ Tue Nov 16, 2021 1:17 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Have the Whistles Changed at Strasburg?
Camelback 0-4-0 CF&I 4 (RDG 1187) had a very high-pitched single note whistle. Strasburg put a 6-note passenger chime on it.

On the first Ramble RDG 2124 had a single note whistle lower pitched than 1187 but still soprano, probably from donor 2-8-0 2024 in 1947. Then it got a proper 6-note passenger chime. [2124 was rebuilt from I-10 2-8-0 2024, the only T-1 to share the last two digits with the donor engine.]

The Reading 6-note passenger chime has a shrill component making it a good warning device as well. I always thought 1223 and 7002's PRR chimes and 611's steamboat whistle are too melodious. The PRR banshee whistle is not melodious at all.

Phil Mulligan
Author:  Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Tue Nov 16, 2021 10:17 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Have the Whistles Changed at Strasburg?
EJ Berry wrote:
Camelback 0-4-0 CF&I 4 (RDG 1187) had a very high-pitched single note whistle. Strasburg put a 6-note passenger chime on it.


Never heard that. The only recordings I have encountered of 4's BRIEF time in Strasburg operation all feature a high-pitched whistle not unlike the PRR "banchee" (alleged PRR working men's universal misspelling). The Reading passenger whistle went on 90 soon after 90 arrived, supposedly.

Quote:
On the first Ramble RDG 2124 had a single note whistle lower pitched than 1187 but still soprano, probably from donor 2-8-0 2024 in 1947. Then it got a proper 6-note passenger chime.


Please explain how a passenger whistle on a freight "hogger" is "proper." >;-)

Quote:
The Reading 6-note passenger chime has a shrill component making it a good warning device as well. I always thought 1223 and 7002's PRR chimes and 611's steamboat whistle are too melodious. The PRR banshee whistle is not melodious at all.


My personal understanding of the issue with PRR passenger steam whistles is that PRR shop forces made modifications to the original PRR passenger whistle design, "boring" a hole in the top of one of the chambers under the top cap to elongate one of the chime chambers and dramatically lowering the triad chord. This was the sound heard in most later PRR recordings of K4s's on the New York & Long Branch, and on Strasburg's use of the 1223 and "7002." Most of the runs made with 1361 in 1986-87 featured a "stock" PRR passenger whistle, but at least one run did feature a lower-pitched ("NY&LB/Strasburg" sound) whistle. The experts who attested such to me have all passed away and their whistles scattered to auction bidders, so I have no proof of the allegation, but anyone listening to recordings of PRR steam then and later can plainly hear two different variations thereof.

As someone used to both shrill British/European whistles and PRR "Banchees," I can say that the PRR version is magnitudes louder dynamically (being a physically larger whistle) and more "annoying," but as noted that was kind of the whole point!
Author:  Nova55 [ Tue Nov 16, 2021 10:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Have the Whistles Changed at Strasburg?
I can understand why people took notice of this one. That whistle sounds like a cat screaming. Sorry Pennsy guys, I love single chimes, but that whistle sounds like crap!

I am all for ignoring most complaints about horns/whistles, but when they sound really bad...that's a different matter.
Author:  PRR8063 [ Tue Nov 16, 2021 12:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Have the Whistles Changed at Strasburg?
Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:
EJ Berry wrote:
Camelback 0-4-0 CF&I 4 (RDG 1187) had a very high-pitched single note whistle. Strasburg put a 6-note passenger chime on it.

Never heard that. The only recordings I have encountered of 4's BRIEF time in Strasburg operation all feature a high-pitched whistle not unlike the PRR "banchee" (alleged PRR working men's universal misspelling). The Reading passenger whistle went on 90 soon after 90 arrived, supposedly.

I've always been curious as to what whistle 90 would have worn during her "in-service" days at the Great Western - I'm assuming she still had it when she arrived at Strasburg. I wonder if they still have it.
Author:  bbunge [ Tue Nov 16, 2021 12:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Have the Whistles Changed at Strasburg?
I find the Banshee's somewhat haunting, so an interesting choice for around Halloween.

One has to wonder about the local's reaction if they tried out a Mockingbird whistle as CASS did over Halloween. Link to video below on Facebook might nor might not work for you.

https://fb.watch/9jCcsHlX6S/

Bob
Author:  Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Tue Nov 16, 2021 1:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Have the Whistles Changed at Strasburg?
PRR8063 wrote:
I've always been curious as to what whistle 90 would have worn during her "in-service" days at the Great Western - I'm assuming she still had it when she arrived at Strasburg. I wonder if they still have it.


NOT a safe assumption at all. A LOT of steam locomotives in the "last days of steam" left town for the new owners--be they scrappers or new owners--without various "replaceable" elements, such as whistles and bells. There were often removed, bartered for, stolen, or retained by locals, especially regarding a "local" short line or shop operation like the GW or Cass or logging/mining operations. Several noted whistles off preserved locos have supposedly eventually surfaced in the ownership of their former engineers or the like.

In all the photos I can find of GW 90 in its last revenue days in Colorado, she's sporting what sure looks like a step-top three- or five-chime popularized by Star and made by a few others and shop-built by a few bigger RRs:

https://www.railarchive.net/randomsteam/gw90.htm

In an earlier, pre-rebuild life, she apparently sported a flat-topped whistle mounted vertically, as in this 1925 photo:
https://www.steamlocomotive.com/whyte/2 ... -weber.jpg
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