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 in mp3 format.
FREQUENCY PLOT OF CUMBRES & TOLTEC #487
FREQUENCY PLOT OF CUMBRES & TOLTEC #488
FREQUENCY PLOT OF DURANGO & SILVERTON
#482
Hear 482 whistle
MP3 AUDIO FILES
Bell K36 #484
Double header whistle
#463 & #497
Whistle K27 #463
Whistle K36 #489
Whistle K37 #497
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