WHISTLE FREQUENCIES
Last Update: March 20, 1998
I love the sound of a steam whistle echoing off the canyon walls after
a day out on the line. I have often wondered what tones are coming
out of the whistles of the K class engines. A while back I used to
work for a company that was involved in noise cancellation equipment and
had access to a spectrum analyzer. I took some of my video tapes
in to work and made some plots of the various engines. The results
can be seen in the following charts. I can't really vouch for the
accuracy of the charts but they seem to make sense due to the fact that
most of the whistles were 5 chime devices. I have included some audio
files for your listening pleasure. They are all Real Audio files
so you will need the Real Player.
Get the Real Player now: www.real.com
FREQUENCY PLOT OF CUMBRES & TOLTEC #487
FREQUENCY PLOT OF CUMBRES & TOLTEC #488
FREQUENCY PLOT OF DURANGO & SILVERTON #482
Hear 482 whistle
REAL AUDIO FILES
Bell K36 #484
Double header whistle
#463 & #497
Whistle K27 #463
Whistle K36 #489
Whistle K37 #497
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