Found these through a link on another message, wondered if anyone had seen one in person, or better yet heard one. Sure beats paying $3,000 on ebay if in fact they are quality pieces with good sound quality.
http://www.multipowerinternational.com/specials.html

New 3 and 5 chime whistles

> Found these through a link on another
> message, wondered if anyone had seen one in
> person, or better yet heard one. Sure beats
> paying $3,000 on ebay if in fact they are
> quality pieces with good sound quality.
>
What I have seen in person from these suppliers are cast iron whistles, not the brass/bronze they are showing here. The cast iron whistles (five-chime step-tops) were considerably rough, with basic machining needed to make the whistles "presentable" and an adapter constructed to fit a lever instead of the mount for the air-actuated valve. If that experience says anything, I strongly suspect that these bronze whistles will need a good machining/finishing job to make them shiny/pretty. Of course you could leave it rough-looking and deter the thieves; it'll sound the same!

Having said that, IF they are selling these whistles in that condition at that price, even I as a pauper trying to pay for an upcoming wedding would be interested in pouncing on one or more of them. I guarantee you that some hustlers are going to be selling these very knockoffs on eBay for thousands of dollars--it happened with the iron versions.

The only qualm I have about these whistles is that they were made in a Communist country, probably produced in conditions you don't want to know about. On the other hand, I doubt you could get even ONE casting in bronze in North America for what they're asking for the whole package, and it's not like there's a way to purchase a comparable whistle that supports an American manufacturer (as opposed to a collector who bought it for $15 in the scrap yard 50 years ago).

LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net

The sad state of affairs today is that we are importing MANY items from China (still Red China to Alex and me). I have been selling piping, valves and fittings for many years. It is very difficult to get USA made products. Products from China are now flooding our warehouses. Most of the major suppliers are now importing from China. I just opened up a special valve from Taco out of Cranston, RI. Valve is marked made in China. Our pipe nipples are even coming in from China. A sad state of affairs in my opinion. I guess you do not have to feel bad about purchasing the whistle.

steamfan@crusoe.net

> Found these through a link on another
> message, wondered if anyone had seen one in
> person, or better yet heard one. Sure beats
> paying $3,000 on ebay if in fact they are
> quality pieces with good sound quality.
>
> http://www.multipowerinternational.com/specials.html

I believe this is the same outfit that will import a Chinese locomotive for you. I saw a piece on "voice of the Iron horse" website a while back about using a chinese whistle- different sound and plenty of flash on casting



superheater@rrmail.com

If these are 4" diameter, that makes them 2/3 of a "normal" locomotive whistle, which is usually a 6" diameter.
This will make a higher pitched sounding chime than the big monsters, but if it's only wanted for the trophy room, it's a good deal.

Also might sound pretty good on air for new years eve!

> If these are 4" diameter, that makes
> them 2/3 of a "normal" locomotive
> whistle, which is usually a 6"
> diameter.
> This will make a higher pitched sounding
> chime than the big monsters, but if it's
> only wanted for the trophy room, it's a good
> deal.

Not quite. Pitch is only indirectly related to whistle diameter; the length of the chambers have the most effect.

Diameter more affects the loudness of the whistle.

Steve

SZuidervee@aol.com

We will try to get sound clips up asap. We carry both 4" diameter (5 and 3 chime) and 6" diameter whistles (currently 5 chime only). Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

http://www.multipowerinternational.com
info@multipowerinternational.com

> We will try to get sound clips up asap. We
> carry both 4" diameter (5 and 3 chime)
> and 6" diameter whistles (currently 5
> chime only). Please feel free to contact me
> if you have any questions.

Sound clips would be an exceedingly good idea. If these whistles are like the one that came on JS8419 at Boone, IA, I'd drive a looooooooooooooong way to avoid hearing that again.

The Boone folks put a nice CB&Q whistle on the 8419 and she sounded grand the last time I was down there.

Regards,
Doug


Soo Line #1024
dougb@sunserver.com

The Horn & Whistle Group on Yahoo has a lengthy and technical discussion going on over these very whistles for the very same reason--bargain-hunting time.

The consensus seems to be that they don't sound wonderful, but are the PERFECT foundation for experimenting with customization, modification, re-tuning, etc. Once again, this is NOT something I recommend for amateurs, but it's better to "muck up" $600 worth of replica parts than $2,000 worth of original Nathan parts. It's also the perfect answer for keeping a pretty/functional whistle on hand at all times, while protecting that precious LV, Reading, etc. chime whistle in a safer location.

Publicly accessible Horn/Whistle Yahoo Group
LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net

One of my cohorts emailed Multipower asking about the availability of various types of whistles recently, and apparently they will custom build up to a certain size from blueprints. However, he hasn't heard back as to the price for the particular replica he wanted built.

Southeastern Railway Museum
gapower97@yahoo.com

> The consensus seems to be that they don't
> sound wonderful, but are the PERFECT
> foundation for experimenting with
> customization, modification, re-tuning, etc.
> Once again, this is NOT something I
> recommend for amateurs, but it's better to
> "muck up" $600 worth of replica
> parts than $2,000 worth of original Nathan
> parts.

Not so, these are 4 inch narrow gauge whistles. The expensive Nathan whistles you are talking about are 6 inch whistles. These four inch whistles were fitted to Chinese narrow gauge 0-8-0's and when I heard them, they tended to overblow badly. $600 - $800 for a 4 inch is above eBay prices. You can get a nice 4 inch three chime Crosby for that kind of money.

The 6 inch cast iron five chime used on Chinese standard gauge locos does not appear on Multi Power's web site, so I can't say how much they charge for it, but it can sound anywhere from pretty nice to terrible. Casting quality and machining quality is all over the map on the samples I have seen in China. As far as prices are concerned, the works manager at Daban told me that they pay $75 for a new six inch five chime whistle. They will sell them for under $150 (depending on your bargaining ability), but then you get the joy of lugging them home!

trainrider47@aol.com

Having one of the cast iron 6" five chimes in my posession, I spent about 2 hours removing the Cosmline and grinding flashing from the openings.
I blew it on 150psi shop air and it sounded fair. Seperated the bowl from the chime top and turned the bowl to true it up and ground more casting from top. Then I sand blasted then bead blasted the top. Now it has a beautiful tone to it. For awhile it was on a narrow gauge 3 truck shay as it sounded near to its original West Side 5 chime. Now I just use it to wake up the neighborhood as it is loud!
But the neat thing is, you can experiment with this type of thing and not worry about destroying a piece of true American Heritage. Many tourist railroads need new valves etc. and since the USA and the Union driven manufactures can't produce a product that is affordable, we will have to resort to other means.

Jeff

btflco@juno.com

> Having one of the cast iron 6" five
> chimes in my posession, I spent about 2
> hours removing the Cosmline and grinding
> flashing from the openings.

Jeff,

Where did you get yours? It sounds like it was brand new. Had it already been converted to 2" npt or did you do it? If they are for sale in the US, what is the source & price? I bought mine in China because I was there, but going over just to pick one up is going to be pretty expensive! ;-)

Thanks for the tips on improving the sound. Mine has a warped lanquid plate, cast integral with the bell. I'm considering removing it altogether and turning up a separate plate, like a Nathan.

Michael

trainrider47@aol.com