HORN & WHISTLE

Here is a list of all of the major articles and features which you will find in the new issue, number 133.

1. Our "What the Heck Is It?" contest. Here's a new one for you. A little different the previous one, and very relevent to one specific thing that some of us do at our events!
2. Whistle Sound Levels Revisited. H&W member Peter Ommundsen contributes more of his invaluable research about steam whistles. Why, for example, might one whistle of a similar looking pair be much louder than the other when both receive steam under the same conditions. here is where you will find out.
3. The Marketplace. H&W takes another look at the horn and whistle marketplace on-line. If you don't regularly look at eBay, this article is a must to see what the present buying and selling trends are in our hobby, and it's also an excellent guide for you to see how much you should pay for a particular item, and likewise, if you're thinking of selling, find out what is a fair price. If we think someone's overpricing something, we'll definitely say so in this column!
4. The Dumbest and Most Idiotic Thing that has ever been written about in this publication. You may be quite surprised to find out what it is, but if it continues, it may well put a serious crimp on some of our activities as well as making acquisition of train horns and other similar signals much more difficult. And it is likely that some serious injuries may even result as this practice continues to spread. I will quote a few of the individuals who encourage this most stupid activity so you can see for yourself just how dumb and immature they really are.
5. Whistle Story. HWEG Member Billy Irvin gives us an excellent account of how he made two replica Crosby 12" chime whistles. But wait until you see how neatly he added his own personal touches to this project. He's planning to demo these whistles at Boot Hill this year, and I hope to be there to see them in action.
6. This place no longer exists, but I found some wonderful pictures on the Internet that show the interior of the Chestnut Hill Low Service Pumping Station in Boston's Brighton section when it ran by steam which was produced in five very large vertical firetube boilers. The main engine room of the adjacent High Service station has been turned into a museum, but the low service plant is now luxury condos. Well, we don't care what it looks like now as a condo complex, but these pictures show it when it was a steam powered pumping station with 4 nice Holly triple expansion Corliss engines and the accompanying 5 VFT boilers. I was just maybe 7 or 8 when this plant ran 24/7 with steam from these boilers for the last time. By the time I was fourteen, the VFTs had been removed, and when the plant did run on rare occasions after that, the steam came from the much newer water tube boilers in the high service plant.
7. Need Three Phase Power, but your utility will only provide single phase to your residence? Here's an excellent way to solve that problem by converting the incoming single phase to a viable three phase supply that will let you run multiple motors simultaneously and even do plugging and quick reversals, something you can't do with most single phase motors at all. If you're setting up a home shop with a lathe and a milling machine, most of these come with three phase motors. Same goes for many air raid sirens if you collect those. You'll need three phase to sound such a siren, or run most engine and toolroom lathes, and milling machines also. Here is an easy and effective way to do this.
8. Our 2014 biggest Steam Toots. Our intrepid editor-in-chief, Harry Barry, gives us his account of several of these events. Harry is extremely knowledgeable about steam whistles; he also has representative examples of some of the loudest and most powerful signals ever built, including two Chrysler 180 HP air raid sirens and a fully operational type F diaphone foghorn. Not only that, but he is perhaps one of the most dedicated and active supporters that our hobby has. Be sure to read his accounts of our events.
9. The Horn Doctor encounters some M horns that had severely stuck back caps. He tried all known conventional methods to open them so that he could repair them, but nothing worked, so he resorted to some unconventional means. He finally won out, but not without a tremedous amount of effort and work. I guarantee you'll find his latest Horn Doctor Column of great interest as he shares this adventure with you.
10. Altering Acoustic Environments, or making what you hear not what you heard. Making recordings of our events, and especially recording train sounds right at trackside can be difficult. Sometimes really difficult. You want to get the sound of the train and the signal, and you also would like to get the sound of the fabulous echoes that often accompany moving trains, but it can be extremely tricky. Here we'll look at a viable way to generate the echoes separately and then add them to the recording so that you get the best of both worlds, a great sounding recording, along with the fabulous echoes that usually occur. Is it trickery, artistry, or a little of both? You decide!

And There's MORE!

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