American Flyer whistle/horn

When I had flyer, I preferred their whistling billboard and their diesel horn billboard. I never cared for their air chime units. They both sounded the same.

As I remember the two, the whistle had two tones that's blended but, neither the horn or whistle were realistic sounding. I guess at the time any sound was better than no sound.

Ray

The original intent of the 'whistle' was to be a Nathan Air Chime, which would sound the same whether fitted to a steam engine or a diesel electric. The oscillator-generated sounds of these Gilbert devices changed to some degree over the course of the 1950s due to speaker changes and so forth, but the resulting sounds were (are) affected by which shell they were (are) enclosed.  For example, a horn in a plastic shell PA sounded different from a die cast steam engine tender shell. Along the same lines, Diesel Roar from a PA was deeper and richer (relatively) than from a GP7. The later introduced variable whistle actuator permitted some change in pitch. Clearly, the air chime was a work around by Gilbert who was not permitted to use a DC offset air whistle like Lionel's (aside from the one briefly used in the 314AW). But then, Gilbert had its synchronized smoke and choo-choo which was leagues better than the competition.

Bob

As a boy, I never heard the 'Air-chime' whistle OR horn and always envied my friends' Lionel horns and whistles! I started with the PRR K5 #310 which was silent. Eventually acquired a Santa Fe PA with the diesel roar which was impressive but I don't remember it having any horn. Years later when I had the hobby shop we worked on a 314AW and it sounded great!

@c.sam posted:

<snip> Eventually acquired a Santa Fe PA with the diesel roar which was impressive but I don't remember it having any horn. Years later when I had the hobby shop we worked on a 314AW and it sounded great!

Usually, a diesel with Roar also was built having the horn feature. The speaker and the electronics components share commonality for the two functions. And, yes, it is generally recognized that the DC offset whistle in the 314AW was Gilbert's best sounding.

Hope this helps.

Bob

It probably did have the horn Bob, but at present, I don't recall. The 'roar' was interesting but I didn't care for the the horn I heard in other Flyer diesels so I may have just not used it. We had the whistling billboard and perhaps the air-chime horn billboard as well.