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My grandfather had this thing in his garage we called "The Whistle Machine" - basically this Rube Goldberg looking contraption - consisting of a huge old compressor and a bunch of whistles and horns and handles.

This was the biggest horn - just wondering if anyone can ID this as train horn? And - if so, what kind of train would it have been on.

This is about 28 inches long - and has a 10 inch flare on the horn.

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I am not an air horn collector, but it certainly does look like a single note "blaster" air horn on the type used on many, many early diesel locomotives.

Does it have any markings such as WABCO, Nathan, or Leslie?  I can't remember the difference in the caps, which would identify the manufacturer.  It is most likely a Leslie A-200, which was favored by EMD or a WABCO which was favored by Alco.

Railsounds posted:

Does the contraption still work? We all want to hear it.

 

Unfortunately - I was forced to disassemble it - I couldn't move the big old compressor. It had a motor the size of a medicine ball!

I did salvage all the old horns and whistles - and plan on reassembling my own version of "the whistle machine"

I do have some pictures and video of it before I took it apart. I'll dig them up and post them.

Number 90 posted:

I am not an air horn collector, but it certainly does look like a single note "blaster" air horn on the type used on many, many early diesel locomotives.

Does it have any markings such as WABCO, Nathan, or Leslie?  I can't remember the difference in the caps, which would identify the manufacturer.  It is most likely a Leslie A-200, which was favored by EMD or a WABCO which was favored by Alco.

Thanks for the reply!

I'm thinking there is a cap missing of the backside - probably had some branding/info there.

There are few numbers - might have to do some searches on those.

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