Is anybody making a good whistle?

yellow_cad said:

Is anybody making a good USA sounding whistle?

Click to expand...

Electric? Live steam? DCC? I think you need to be a bit more specific?

I've been using RCS whistle modules on my live steamers. Unfortunately, they are no longer available.

Live steam.

Is there a 'good sounding USA whistle' in our smaller scales?
I have a Bob Weltyk whistle on my CP Royal Hudson and it sounds better than the 'peep peep' of the original but still not quite what the real one sounds like.
Also, it needs a lot of steam, and NOT wet steam, to make it work.
In my opinion, Accucraft have mounted their whistle take off too low, so when I have a boiler that is ⅔ full, it is over the whistle valve so the wet steam makes for a very poor sounding whistle, hence I never really have a use for it.
I am sure that there must be plans of how to make one if you can solder one up.
Cheers,
David Leech, Canada

Yes I wish someone would make a good one too. I want to try and build one for my T1 which I should be able to slip under the streamlining...

Bob Weltyk was (is?) making the Larry Bangham resonant whistle. Multi-chime sound pretty good. The larger the chamber the better the sound, so custom chambers as big as you can make them (also the in proper octave) would sound the best. Don't know if you can still obtain all the back issues of Steam In The Garden that had Larry's original designs, but that would be a good starting point. I'm hoping to do this some day, but my machining skills are still novice level.

DJB makes the Bangham type whistles as well.
DJB Model Engineering Ltd

yellow_cad said:

Live steam.

Click to expand...

I repeat that I use the RCS 'whistle' modules in my live steamers. They attach to a channel on the RX and you wire them to a speaker. He had a really nice single chime L&B whistle, and a 3, 5 and 6 chime US style whistles.
Single Chime at about 0:39 on this video:
Here's a test of several versions on my bench:

Nice, but since RCS is out of business, is there another alternative?

seadawg said:

Bob Weltyk was (is?) making the Larry Bangham resonant whistle. Multi-chime sound pretty good. The larger the chamber the better the sound, so custom chambers as big as you can make them (also the in proper octave) would sound the best. Don't know if you can still obtain all the back issues of Steam In The Garden that had Larry's original designs, but that would be a good starting point. I'm hoping to do this some day, but my machining skills are still novice level.

DJB makes the Bangham type whistles as well.
DJB Model Engineering Ltd

Click to expand...

Do you know what issues? Or if not that specific what years would have had those articles. I saved the whole archive in the last week they were online.

Here are the issues dealing with whistles in SIG
35,39,42,54,66,67,72,75.78.82,83,92,96,111,166 & 167 which are reprints of 35 & 39

Harvey C.

Here is one I made for the Cab Forward

Greg Elmassian said:

since RCS is out of business, is there another alternative?

Click to expand...

The whistle modules were made and loaded by Model Radio Workshop in the UK, who sells them with tugboat hooters, etc. I've been in touch with Mike, the owner, about continuing supply. If anything happens, I'll start another thread!

That whistle on the Cab forward sounds fantastic. Does it take the whole boiler full of steam to sound?!!

hcampbell said:

Here are the issues dealing with whistles in SIG
35,39,42,54,66,67,72,75.78.82,83,92,96,111,166 & 167 which are reprints of 35 & 39

Harvey C.

Click to expand...

Are you saying 35&39 are the originals and everything else are just reprints?

Sorry 'bout that. Only the 166-167 are listed as reprints.

Harvey C.

It doesn't take the whole boiler, but you definitely have to have the pressure up!

Great whistle!

Alan

Those are some fantastic articles. It adds another item to my list of future projects that is already pretty long. And that video of the Cab Forward whistle had me giddy. I'd hardly be able to move anywhere from playing with the whistle all day.

Attached to this message in .PDF form are the first 3 articles, I missed the first page of the 4th article but the trailing pages are there.

Message me if you want me to dig further into the archives.

Thanks for posting these articles long out of print. All I had previously were the LBSC articles he mentions. This is going to be a futur project for me at least. What makes American engines so special? One of its principal caracteristic is its incredible multi tone whistle.
Santé, Simon

David Leech said:

Also, it needs a lot of steam, and NOT wet steam, to make it work.
In my opinion, Accucraft have mounted their whistle take off too low, so when I have a boiler that is ⅔ full, it is over the whistle valve so the wet steam makes for a very poor sounding whistle, hence I never really have a use for it.

Click to expand...

David, is there a way around this problem such as come off of something higher? It definitely looks low to me too.

It is hard to get the deep multi chime whistle sound in this scale. Bob's whistle are great. I have bought a few PM Research whistles and I know it's not a deep tone but they sound good and require less pressure. Another option would be Maidstone engineering.


Never tried their whistle but have purchased fittings from them and have been impressed with their quality.