Bob Bubeck posted:c.sam posted:"sounding like the original" is a dismal prospect! As a boy I was sorely disappointed with the Gilbert 'Air Chime Whistle' and the "Air Chime Horn'. The 'Diesel Roar' was decent but the horns & whistles sounded like nothing I had heard by real RR tracks before....
Aw-gee. Call it nostalgia, but I kinda like the Gilbert "Nathan air chime" whistles.
Depends on the sample. Some were better than others (circa mid-50's). Used as a diesel horn in the PAs, it is really not any worse than Lionel's bicycle horns. Of course, the synchronized smoke and choo-choo conquered all.
Bob
I agree with you, Bob. The 1955 Gilbert 708 diesel horn generator sounds like the single chime horns that were in common use early in the diesel era. Modern locomotives have multi chime horns and of course sound much different, but the AF horns were installed in Alco PAs and GP7s.
You can listen to some horn sounds at the following wikipedia site:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...n_horn#Audio_samples
Listen to the Leslie A200-156 and WABCO E2 sound files (both single chime horns). The old AF diesel horn sounds pretty good to my ears. Certainly better than the high pitched Lionel diesel horns of the day, which sound a little like a clown car horn.
Scott Griggs
Louisville, KY
