@RickO posted:Heres an excellent high quality photo Gary. When you zoom in it looks like it might be whistle. Theres a large port at the base of the whistle. No clue what that is. Unless its something else, maybe these locomotives have 2 whistles?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alcomike/46412636982
Now, to get this to Lionel so they don't offer a whistle steam feature and no whistle
That's definitely not a whistle. Looks to be a consolidated type safety valve, probably to prevent over-pressurization of that pipe.
https://valves.bakerhughes.com...5411543-safety-valve
Most whistles commonly used on U.S. locomotives have the same basic form going back to pretty much the beginning. At the simplest, they have a bell on top. Early ones could have just been a tube with a flat or shaped top, later ones were cast and had visible "steps" depending on the height of each "chime". Under the bell is a bowl with a languid plate in the center which directs the steam at the proper angle/velocity to strike the bell and make the sound. There is a surprising amount of precision needed in machining these parts to make a whistle sound right.
Some whistle bowls have an integrated valve, others (generally earlier on and non-locomotive applications) used a separate valve elsewhere in the plumbing. The one below is a five chime whistle from a C&NW locomotive. It has a horizontal valve and is a flange mounted base vs the threaded connection often used. At the very least it's a good representation of the basic shape you'd be looking for.
