I heard from the a photographer on the website http://www.railpictures.net/ That #17 was eqiuped with N&W's #611 & #1218 whistle's for the event. Is that true? If yes, does anybody have any recordings of this happing. I would love to hear their whistle from this event then just having to depend on old video recordings of them when they were in steam

The freight whistle is from 2173, the passenger whistle is N&W, specific locomotive unknown. I believe the owner is on this board, so perhaps either he or Gary Gray can confirm. AFAIK, the whistles were not from 611 and 1218.

Oh I see. Are the whistles of #611 & #1218 in operating condition or do they need some maintance for their whistles to work on other steam engines

The whistles on 611 & 1218 during the excursion era were privately owned and went back to the owners after the end of the program. Rick Rader made a dummy whistle for 1218 several years ago. Larry Evans owns the two whistles that were used last weekend.

Some video: http://www.youtube.com/user/roanokenrhs

So say if #611 & #1218 one day come back into excursion service, will they use the whistles that they used during their first excursion carrer during the 80's and early 90's. Plus are both whistle original to both engines or where they from a different long ago steam engine that was scraped? Plus the video you gave me does not work anymore

Matt, Where the whistles come from is about the least important consideration on whether 611 or 1218 would ever run again. As for the provenance of the whistles used on the old NS Steam Program, who knows? (The video link works fine for me by the way)

On the posted video, the whistle sounds much "bigger" than the locomotive. Too funny. Nice event.

Wesley

Wesley, Close your eyes, listen, and remember......

Wanna build your own whistle?

http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/listdocs ... rd=whistle

Wesp, we've fooled quite a few people into thinking that locomotive is bigger than she really is when its pulling up the grades. Its always fun to see the look on someone's face that's expecting to see a 2-8-0 come out from around the corner, and have their jaws drop when they see our little 0-4-0 humming right along.

Robert,

That whistle on that engine reminds me of all the bluster the exhaust on a Shay makes at 5-10 mph going up Cass as if it were a rod engine doing 40-50 mph. I think I can I think I can...

Thanks for the virtual chuckle and surprise.

Wesley

Mr. Sadler spent a lot of time last weekend trying to impersonate 611 and 1218 on Christiansburg mountain. It's amazing how much a 10 lb brake reduction can help the exhaust volumn.

As for making your own whistles, it is much easier said than done. Larry Evans and Rick Rader have been working on replica N&W whistles for several years. The base casting is rather complex internally, and for a long time no one could be found who could reproduce the core box. Larry recently found a foundry that could do the work properly (I think it is the same guys who do work for Strasburg) and several base castings were made. In the whistle blow video segment, the whistle to the far right is a replica N&W shop whistle, and the one next to it is a replica of the N&W "experimental" passenger whistle, which used a Hancock style bell on a standard Hooter base. I think it sounds better than a Hancock on the lower boiler pressure. The down side is due to the complexity of the castings, a replica whistle costs about as much as an original one. The only economic advantage is that you will have something that Jerry Jacobson can't outbid you on on Ebay.