Great first run today with my ‘new’ MTH Daylight. Really impressed with the whistle.
Sounds just like the 1:1, trust me on that one. Great loco, Jerry, enjoy!
tac
Mt Gleep & Lake Flarp RR
I do tac, just hope I can resist buying MTH Daylight cars. Got several passenger trains already, don’t want to buy any more cars to store. Those Santa Fe ones it is pulling came with the lot of MTH, they will go with my F-3’s I got about a month ago, terrible whistle on them!
Especially since an F3 should have a horn. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
I believe those Daylight locos had both a steam whistle and a air horn. They were built for runs between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Where they ran along the water there often was fog. The air horn cut through the fog better than the steam whistle. Going from memory on this so correct me if I’m wrong.
Paul Burch said:
I believe those Daylight locos had both a steam whistle and a air horn. They were built for runs between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Where they ran along the water there often was fog. The air horn cut through the fog better than the steam whistle. Going from memory on this so correct me if I’m wrong.
You’re correct Paul. Trains #98 and #99
Yes, and some of the later steam locomotive only had an air horn. I believe the NYC did that, but I could be wrong. But Jerry said the F3 has a terrible whistle. That’s probably because F3’s only had an air horn.
“Daylight Engines” were used throughout the west coast as far east as New Mexico, but were originally created for the Coast Limited “Daylight” run in 1936 (two twelve car streamlined high speed trains powered by six GS-2’s with new orange/red/black color scheme). Coast Daylight trains #98-99 were fourteen years after the inaugural run of the Daylight Limited in 1922, as train #71-72 long after the Daylight term had been coined and was originally simply the daylight version of the run between LA-SF.
Starting with the GS-3’s and through GS-6’s a deep-tone step-top Hancock Long-Bell Chime steam whistles were fitted horizontally behind the dome. These whistles were known for their haunting, melodious tone and were used on high pressure loco’s as 250psi made the typical whistle “break” or scream… UP used this whistle on their high pressure equipment too.
Leslie Typhoon air horns were fitted on all of the streamlined GS engines left of the smoke deflectors.
The Air horn was used on grade crossings to alert autos of FAST approaching trains and at the station one-mile marker.
The Steam whistle was used to signal trainmen as the air horn was directional and near impossible to hear riding on the train.
FWIW: the steam whistle and air horn were operated by air valves, so either ON/OFF, it was not possible to produce sound variations.
Trivia garnered from books by Mr. Robert Church.
Michael
Neat to get all this info on it, thanks!
Jerry,
That whistle sounds just like the UP whistles I remember as a kid. Beautiful.
Noel
I rode in the cab of 4449 as a guest of Doyle McCormick back in the Freedom Train days between San Jose and San Francisco and several times over the years on the same excursion runs with the Daylight livery, and I remember Doyle being able to get some “music” out of the engine. I didn’t ask whether it was steam or air horn, though. I will never forget the thrill of those rides …
I sure evoked a lot of fond memories/info on this post. Guess that is why the locomotives are hard to come by. Looking for some MTH Daylight coaches , if anyone has any. I know Accucraft has some, but they are $300.
Hi Jerry:
That whistle is amazing. Too bad MTH did not go with the major 1:29 market back in the day. The Accucraft coaches would be the correct scale length. The MTH coaches are way too short. MTH selects the correct 1:32 scale and then builds the coaches way too short. I do not understand why. The MTH Hudson is also a great model with great features and great paint but it came out after the USA version so MTH missed out on my purchase and I missed out on the MTH laboured chuff which is super neat.
Norman
Norman,
I like the size of the MTH trains. Look good, to me, on my small layout. I have pretty large curves, but would not want the cars any longer than they are. Detail is good and they seem to stand up to rough handling, seems I break stuff off other brands easier. MTH is bringing out some Daylight cars next year, so I’ll probably get some of them.
Norman, MTH shortened cars for the same reason LGB and to a certain extent some Aristo, to be able to navigate tighter, toylike curves.
Greg
Jerry, Here is a video that my Brother in law and I did a few years ago. The diesel was on the back end coming down the canyon for braking.
Rick