Vol/ Master Vol : Redux.

[Steve Conner]

Ah, but is a 5E3 louder than a train horn?

[Enzo]

Well, if you disconnect the NFB and set the bias to....

Now I am most familiar with the Nathans, but Leslies are common too. (You shouldn't ask that sort of thing of a railroad geek.)

A collection of locomotive air horns

My grandfather was a railroader, in a small railroad town along the Potomac river in the Appalachian area of Maryland. There was a large yard there, which stretched two miles either direction from the center. Above the engine roundhouse was a large steam whistle. It blew a couple times a day to signal to crews out in the yards that it was lunch break or shift end. It roared up and down the river for miles, certainly easily heard all over the yards. And of course everywhere in the town. A couple miles down the track was no problem, you'd definitely hear the thing. To my knowledge they never tried a 5E3.

WHOOOOOOO...

[Sea Chief]

I live in totally rural area. Actual farmland, not the suburbs. I used to raise hogs even. Two miles down my road is an interstate highway, trucks driving along at 60 miles an hour. I can easily hear the trucks from my home. And in fact on quiet evenings when i am out looking at stars and listening for night bird sounds, that sound from 2 miles away is actually annoying, because it catches my ear, and I cannot hear small wildlife sounds. Are they loud? Not in the slightest. If you are driving beside them on the highway, yes, the tire noise is very loud, but not at my home. But I don;t want to hear it nonetheless.

Two miles farther down that road, so about 4 miles from my home, is a railroad track. I can hear the train horn honking for the road crossing. Again, not loud, but potentially annoying if I want to listen to something.


Yes, old ladies are more sensitive to loud, and even when it isn;t loud where they are. If they can tell it is "too loud" where people are listening to it, they object.

Then you must put your small animals in concrete box with 1 thin front wall, stick them inside with a biscuit or some milk or s'thing and site it 30 yards away- then I say you'll be able to hear them louder.

[Steve Conner]

I remember my music teacher at school telling us that some blues songs were based on the whistle of a train and getting us to sing Whooo-ooo in harmony.

Also, a couple of years back I was in Whistler BC and couldn't sleep from jet lag. It was about 1 in the morning, dead quiet and suddenly I heard the North American train horn for the first time, echoing in the distance. British trains have a boring two-tone beep-boop, but the American one sounds a three- or five-note chord. What a mournful, spooky sound. I think my music teacher was right in spirit, even if in practice the blues was around long before diesel trains with multiple air horns.

[Enzo]

I'll invite those raccoons into my garage, we'll see if they accept.

Steve, there were audio samples of many of those horns in the collection I linked.

[Sea Chief]

I'll invite those raccoons into my garage, we'll see if they accept.

Steve, there were audio samples of many of those horns in the collection I linked.

Hey thanks for that link! absolutely -gorgeous- sounds. Fascinating they adhere to careful srructure and chords.. never knew that/ I thought they was one or two in a random mess of discordant noise: love to hear one for real. British Rail doesnt quite stack up does it?! Now I know how Trumans Water got their squawking-off kilter fab GTRs inspiration from!

[Steve Conner]

SC, can we expect your next thread to be about how your new American train horn is driving your neighbours crazy?

[Enzo]

YEAH!!! That will show him who is boss.

[Chuck H]

Back when I played out my drummer had an old fire truck rotary siren. He would crank on it at the beginning of one of our songs as an intro effect. It was a big hit. I'm afraid a train horn in a small club might have an adverse effect though. With the audience running, screaming and covering their bleeding ears

[Enzo]

And a big crossing gate comes down across the dance floor. They can dance, you can check them out, but they can never leave.

[Chuck H]

I read that the old train horns were typically over 150dB!!! Yikes! I can't imagine setting one off in a room with a low ceiling and a max capacity of something like 150. Of course the club owner or bar tender would calmly walk over and ask "if you could turn it down."

[Enzo]

I'm an artist, man, you dig? I can;t be turning my air horn down, it doesn't get the tone...


Back in the 1960s there was a cat named Sun Ra, and he and his Solar Arkestra played this far out jazz. I went to see him in Washington DC, it was a free gig at an urban park. A big band that day, he had several drummers and a bunch of other percussionists. The whole stage was people moving. And there , right in the center of this grouping of musicians, was a folding pole stand, like we might sit PA speakers on. On top of the stand was a large air horn. Yes, one of his musicians was an air-hornist. And now and then at appropriate moments, a blast of airhorn fit into the music. Seriously.