Railroad Airhorn Guide

Welcome To The Five Chime Consultants Web Page

The purpose of this page is to provide information on North American diesel locomotive air horns. We have attempted to provide detailed and accurate information regarding the many different types of diesel locomotive air horns that have been used in North America.

Five Chime Consultants was formed in 1990 to try to preserve the quality sounds of the horns used by North American Railroads from the 1950's to the 1980's. Our initial efforts involved the purchase, restoration, and application of these older horns. In the early 1990's we leased vintage horns to Trancisco Tours for use on their short lived San Jose to Reno 49er excursion train, to the Oakland Terminal Railway and Alameda Belt Line for use on their GP-7's, and to the California State Railroad Museum for use on their E-9 #6051. Presently our Nathan P-5 is still on the 6051. We also have a Nathan P-3, M-3, and M-5 and a Wabco E-2 on locomotives operated by The Pacific Locomotive Association on the Niles Canyon Railway in Sunol, California.

Today, due to a lack of interest by western short line operators regarding use of vintage horns, and as a result of a great increase in horn theft, our primary purpose is to provide information.

Please Note: We have no horns for sale and cannot recommend dealers. While airhorns can be a fascinating hobby, the horns depicted here are intended to be distinctive signaling and warning devices on railroad locomotives. Their application to private vehicles, trucks, or boats is not encouraged, and their use on such vehicles may violate local noise ordinances.



Our E-mail address is FiveChime@aol.com.

This site was last updated on: July 30, 2009.


Copyright Restrictions and Credits

Entire contents copyright © 2009 by Five Chime Consultants. All rights reserved. Recordings and other content on this site are made available for personal use only. No portion of the material contained on this site may be copied, reproduced, pasted, reposted, redistributed, broadcast, or published in any form or media without the prior written permission of Five Chime Consultants.


Nathan/Airchime Horns:

Early Production (rare):

H5
N3

M-series:

M5
M3
M3H

P-series:

P5
P5a
P01235
P3
P2

J-series:

J3 Snowplow Whistle

K-series:

K5H
K5HL
K5LA
K5LLA
K3L and K3H
K3LA and K3HA
K2H


Leslie Horns:

"Tyfon" A-series:

A-200

"Supertyfon" S-series:

Early Production (rare):

S-5D
S-3J

Later production:

S-25

S-2B
S-2M

S-3K
S-3L

SL-4T

S-5T



Prime Manufacturing Horns:

PM-series:

PM-920
PM-990



Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) Horns:

"Pneuphonic" A, B, and E series:

A-2
E-2

AA-1
AA-2

E-2B-1
E-2B-3



Hancock Air Whistles:

4700



Links of Interest

Leslie Controls, Inc.

Airchime Manufacturing Company, Ltd.

Wabtec Corporation

Grover Products

Buell Air Horns

Chris Moyer has an extensive airhorn site at
www.locomotivehorns.info

Ed Kaspriske is the proprietor of
Horns Inc.

Matt Donnelly also maintains a site on
Locomotive Horns

Ken Kanne is The Horn Doc


E-mail Lists

There are a couple of horn-related Yahoo! Groups mailing lists. To subscribe to either of these lists, send a blank e-mail message to the appropriate address below. You will receive an automated subscription confirmation message, and replying to the message will subscribe you to the list. You can also subscribe/unsubscribe on the web by going to the Yahoo! Groups website.

Trainhorns list: TrainHorns-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Horn/Whistle list: Horn_Whistle-subscribe@yahoogroups.com



Web Forums

Locomotive Airhorns


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