Hello, new to this site and can't figure out which forum is best for this question. We have an antique train whistle that we are trying to incorporate into a train-themed float for the local St. Patrick's Day parade. We would love to blow the train whistle during the parade. What would be best method to produce sound? Compressed air? How would we go about hooking it up? Please, any help you could offer.
If it's an authentic whistle, compressed air is the ticket and great volumes of it at 100+ PSI. It'll drain a fair-sized air tank in no time flat. This should be a great parade!
Thank you; this is very helpful advice. Do you have any suggestions for the delivery method/adapter/interface between the air hose and the whistle?
Welcome to TrainBoard! Any competent hardware store or auto parts retailer will have all of the fittings you need, on shelf, in stock. Just take your whistle and intended air line/hose there. As already noted, it will quickly drain your tank. Another aspect, is that it will sound a bit different from when used on a locomotive, etc. That application is different from the mostly dry compressed air. Steam under pressure has a whole lot of moisture being expelled through that whistle.
Another source of compressed gas would be a CO2 fire extinguisher. We used one for a PVC cannon on our Mardi Gras Pirate Ship float. Just remove the nozzle and go to an auto parts or hardware store for hoses and fittings. Suggest a Mom-n-Pop store over a chain. The M-n-P have imagination and would be excited by the challange, whereas most chains are run by clerks.
Thank you. We had thought about using some kind of gas canister, but we had not thought about a fire extinguisher!
If you decide on a CO2 tank, have your whistle, hoses, and tank firmly mounted. IIRC, the tank's initial pressure is around 2500 PSI. Though it's been over 30 years since that time, so my memory may be corrupted just a bit. Hate to have your whistle attempt orbital launch.
Welcome to TrainBoard!! You might bear in mind that thing is gonna be really loud, especially up close and personal. Some hearing protection is in order till you find how loud it really is.
Hoowee, hadn't thought about that. Engine whistles were designed to be heard from a half-mile(!) away by folks in a car with the radio blarin'. Engine boiler pressure was maybe 250-350 PSI. CO2 extinguisher a might higher than that...gonna be loud, son.
Something else we had not considered--thanks. The engineer who used this whistle died in 1930. None of us are old enough to remember how it sounded.
A question has come up about potential damage to the whistle, given the pressures that will be involved. Here is a picture of it: The owner states that the whistle was brass plated after the engineer's death, and his name was etched on the whistle. Older people in the family are afraid they remember the process rendering it inoperable as a whistle, or questionable to hold up to the stress of operation. A little research in old newspapers revealed that a Southern Railway machinist had made the whistle himself and presented it to the engineer. It was a brass whistle which "sounded different from all others." Are you all aware of anyone near Knoxville, Tennessee, who could possibly examine the whistle and tell us whether operating it could damage it?
I have never heard of a steam whistle being damaged. Possible? Perhaps. I doubt the air pressures we have talked about could cause damage. A real steam engine whistle, (which we must assume this is, and not just for display), was made to operate at pressures sometime well exceeding 300 PSI. With an air compressor, you will not come close to that number. You can easily place a pressure regulating valve in line, which would allow you to completely control the amount of flow to the whistle.
Given the "sounds different from all others" comment, I would sure want to hear it. The brass plating might be the reason it was considered inoperative. If installed on a locomotive for use, the plating and etching would probably be damaged. Shouldn't be a problem under the controlled conditions you will be providing. BTW, who is the junior engineer holding it in the photo? Cute.
Thank you--this makes sense in terms of the difference in operating conditions. Junior engineer is a direct descendant of the engineer Mike O'Connor, and the family is very proud of their historical connection with the railroad. This is in fact how our Irish-American community came to be in Knoxville--They were the laborers and the stonemasons who constructed the railroad in the 1850s, and many continued working for the next generation or two as engineers, machinists, tinsmiths and other trades that kept the trains running.
