I'm excited for the new Vision Line Challengers to ship this year, and I have a question about the sounds. Will these locomotives have the Challenger whistle from the previous runs (like the 2015 Lionmaster Challengers/Older Vision Line Challengers), or reuse the whistle from the Vision Line Big Boy? Two different videos from Lionel say two different things. Let me know which one is confirmed.
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I can't confirm anything but they are both a version of the same whistle which is a UP Hancock whistle which is accurate for the bigboys, challengers as well as the 844.
Splitting hairs, the VL bigboy whistle may be a slightly higher tone than the VL challenger. This is probably due to however the sounds were recorded and /or mixed in Lionels audio dept.
Both are accurate as whistle tones vary with steam pressure, weather conditions operator, etc.
Check out this web page from the UP Historical Society. It contains several samples of UP hancock whistles and demostrates how each one can sound a bit different: UP Historical Society/ Hancock Long Bell 3 Chime Recordings
It just seems like one those whistles that Lionel is putting in everything these days. Just like the violin horn on their LEGACY diesel locomotives. They've used the correct one on past ones, I don't know why they'd want to change it. It's just confusing that two different videos say two different things. Lionel Vision Line Challenger video says Vision Line Big Boy whistle, and one episode of the Ryan & Dave Show says "3985's whistle".
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