WHISTLES 101 - EVERYTHING you could want to know about STEAM TRAIN WHISTLES!

[@hadinossanosam4459]

My initial guess for why the pitch changes was that the air/steam mixture in the flow changes, and higher steam fraction = higher speed of sound (since c_steam > c_air) = higher pitch (of course more air also means cooler fluid, which exaggerates the effect). This would also explain why the smaller chimes are affected more, because they have proportionally more space to entrain air between the bowl and the bell, relative to their internal volume. Maybe one could verify this by checking if the size ratios correspond to the frequency ratios at partial or at full blow: this explanation would predict the latter. Might be hard to measure this accurately enough, though. (And yes, I've also taken acoustics courses unrelated to my EE major, does it show? xD) On a more frivolous note, I find it interesting that I can't tell the 4/5/6-chime recordings apart here, despite decades of playing multiple instruments, composing, and even specifically picking apart chords into single notes... but somehow if it's a whistle, my brain just goes "train whistle" and no further detail is noted xD Always funny how perception is affected so strongly by context and experience

[@Hyce777]

That's a brilliant point that I've not thought about. Air/steam mixture... Hm. Hard to measure, but definitely something to think about and test for. Seems to be a better reasoning for the smaller chimes than mine too. You're onto something here.

[@MK.5198]

"my brain just goes "train whistle" and no further detail is noted xD" We have a name for this. it's called being a foamer

[@ninjia7347]

This is because you haven't played the steam organ (doesn't exist as far as I know).

[@Hyce777]

@@MK.5198 it's part of the pyschoacoustic phenomenon of them not really hitting an exact chord and the chord changing. It doesn't make sense to your western music trained ear, so you just perceive it as noise.

[@hadinossanosam4459]

​@@Hyce777 Ok, I've done some analysis, and have some interesting results. Most interestingly, assuming the longest chime of your 6-chime is a λ/4-resonator and 12 5/8" long (as mentioned in "I had to wait 6 YEARS to hear my steam whistle."), then the speed of sound in the resonating fluid is only 330m/s when quiet and 355m/s (!) when fully blowing. I couldn't find good sources for speed of sound in air/steam mixtures, but pure steam at 100°C would have a speed of sound of 455m/s, so there's definitely entrainment, and a lot of it! I'm also more certain now that there's also some thermal effects (or other weirdness) as you suggested, since the spectrogram clearly shows the peak frequency doesn't occur simultaneously in all chimes. (It's not sequential, either... the lowest is first, then the 2nd and 5th lowest, then the others? what the heck) If you have measurements of the Hyce 6-chime, I could double-check both if my speed-of-sound calculations are accurate for the other chambers, and if the quiet blow is indeed all air: if it is, I would expect about 6.7, 7.5, 8.5, 9.7, 11.1 and 12.7". :) (those numbers are the theoretical lengths if all chimes operate with the same speed of sound, which they can only do if they're filled with all air or all steam, and I'm now assuming the latter is impossible due to those speeds of sound calculated above)

[@weylinwest9505]

OOOO = What are we doing?! Conductor: *DON'T YOU SASS ME, BOY!*

[@marcsimonsen1578]

As a lifelong train enthusiast, many of these finer points of railroading have not been explained to me. Thank you for sharing what I wish was far more common knowledge. Why doesn't your channel have 100k+? Keep 'em coming!

[@Hyce777]

Cheers Marc, here's hoping we get there!

[@Ohiotrucker1]

I used to cover the holes like a flute and change my breathing to change the sound. Man I loved those wooden whistles.

[@TheBeeMan1994]

I always tell my friends “The conductor technically runs the train, the engineers job is to go forwards and backwards”

[@Hyce777]

Pretty much, lol.

[@Pystro]

The conductor is Kirk, the engineer is Scotty/ the Redshirt on the helm.

[@roadwolf2]

But without the fireman the locomotive won’t be going anywhere

[@TheBeeMan1994]

@@roadwolf2 *diesel enters the chat* lol I’m a modern day conductor, much different from back in the day with 5 man crews, conductors now are tasked with being switchman, brakeman, conductor, and if the locomotive catches on fire, a fireman lol

[@waynegrimes2263]

The conductor is responsible for the the train but he does not operate the train in any way. He does talk on the radio and keeps the engineer under control.

[@ajaxengineco]

Never thought that the material would make a difference to the sound of a whistle. Here in Britain we use almost exclusively brass, and also almost exclusively single chimes, up to a pitch that is generally considered offensive to American ears! A nicely turned brass whistle is a beautiful thing, and for a long time we liked to mount them proud upon the cab roof, highly polished to boot. Of course - another use for a high pitched single-chime whistle is in a calliope, and I think those are rather nice.

[@danmanthe9335]

Not that it'd be practical or anything but think about a few pipes ala pipe organ from a cathedral mounted on a steam engine

[@dominicbarden4436]

@@danmanthe9335 The British TV series Ivor the Engine kind of did that: the locomotive in question had his whistle replaced by three pipes from a fairground organ so he could 'sing' in the local choir.

[@meliketrolleys]

As a former professional French Horn player (New York Philharmonic, Met Opera, Cleveland Orchestra) and railfan, I really really enjoyed this. Thanks!

[@KurtClark]

I am amazed at how much these whistles share in technology with radio! All the talk of frequencies and half waves were things I am familiar with in Amateur Radio. And THEN you dug out the spectrogram and it sealed the connection! Some amateur radios have those right on the face - where they're known as "the waterfall." Very informative video. Thanks Mark!

[@Hyce777]

Cheers Kurt! Surprising where the tech comes from, isn't it? Neat stuff. Hope you're doing well, bud!

[@realcanadian67]

Another 1 hour of just Hyce and trains! Great way to start a Tuesday. I'd love to see a video about grade crossings!

[@Ronald.Golleher]

The spectrograms of the whistles was very neat to see. Definitely showed the pitch changes very clearly.

[@jordonfreeman166]

At the TVRM, when they’re backing around the wye, a conductor is on the back of the train and will say a few times on the radio “three cars, ”, and the locomotive will then blow two short toots on the horn/whistle.

[@SOU_Railfan_4501]

I've been there

[@PowerTrain611]

It's easier and faster to blow the whistle to acknowledge radio transmissions when doing delicate or reverse moves in a steamer than it is to reach for the radio. Usually you have your hands full with the throttle and brake handles when doing delicate moves (like coupling to a train), and when reversing you're often "leanin' out the winduh" to see past the tender a little. It's an awkward position and hard to get to the radio in most engine cabs. Much of the time the radio is operated by someone other than the engineer on mainline trips, because the engineer has his hands full AND because he's got a "pilot" with him, someone that knows the territory and the specific rules that apply, so he takes care of comms with the dispatcher.

[@sawspitfire422]

6:58 A lot of routes use Up and Down here in Britain, as related to London. Lines going towards London are "Up" and vice versa, even though most lines to London run south and so go down if you look at it on a north oriented map, not confusing at all lol

[@Trotters79]

"In" and "out" would make more sense. Inbound to London and outbound from London. But then again, when writing a time table, if they always put London on top of that time table, "up" and "down' does make sense as well.

[@Mishn0]

On the question of pitch change on a fixed-length whistle chamber: Have you considered how the angle at which the steam (or air) strikes the edge affects pitch? You can get a pitch change on a flute by rolling it as you blow across the mouthpiece even if you don't change the note you're fingering. You can even do it with a beer bottle. It works best if the bottle is full or almost full, but you can get quite a range of pitches by varying the angle you blow across the top. Blow very flat across the top, parallel with the top of the bottle and the pitch is highest. Blow steeper, more into the bottle and the pitch drops. I can play simple tunes on a beer bottle, much to the amazement of people who don't know the trick. The "full bottle works best" is its major shortcoming in that venue. Might the pressure of the steam in a train whistle affect the angle at which it strikes the bottom edge of the bell a little?

[@Hyce777]

Hmm, that's a possibility, and not one I've considered. Sounds like I'm going to need to get some slow mo camera footage of the whistle doing it's thing when it's cold out.

[@Mishn0]

@@Hyce777 Oh, great video by the way. I really like your 101 videos. When I went to a 2 year tech college for computer science we had to take what I called the "physics class for people who don't need to learn physics", which was mostly a lot of unconnected sections on the basics of physical principals. One section was on sound in enclosed pipes. The professor, who was way too smart to be burdened with us, was a rail-fan so he got onto train whistles for his examples. During the whole semester, me and another "not-traditional" student (old fuckers) would veer him off course by mentioning something about trains. The rest of the class (dumb kids) would groan and complain, but the professor would happily go astray talking about trains for 20 minutes. We'd make it up to the kids by telling them EXACTLY what was going to be on the next quiz or test because we knew the professor's "tells" about what that would be. They weren't even secret tells, he explained it on the first day of class, but the kids wouldn't/couldn't remember or understand.

[@Hyce777]

@@Mishn0 sounds like great memories and a great prof. The ones you could derail were always the most fun.

[@Pystro]

Would that mean that you're changing the part of the tube that is producing the resonance? The top end is clear, it's at the height of the metal end plate. And the height of the bottom end would then shift according to where that blade of steam is. A telltale that that's what's happening is if you calculated back from the pitch to the pipe length (assuming equal steam temperature in all pipes) and got an equal absolute change in length. A telltale that it's the steam temperature or steam/air mixing ratio would be if the ratio of the pitches stayed constant if you "heat up" the whistle with a really long string pull. Also, it would slightly lag behind the volume changes.

[@nathanielspoelman9881]

I believe you are correct about the striking angle/position changing with different velocities of the exiting stream of steam, moreso than the temperature of the steam distorting the sound. This is evident by the fact that a whistle, when tuned correctly, can still be quilled quite well on compressed air. The sound will obviously be slightly different than on steam, but if temperature was the determining factor for the pitch change, quilling wouldn't work on compressed air. Compressed materials lose temperature the faster they are released. If you open a valve on an air tank at 25 psi, the air coming out will be cool. If you open a valve on a tank with 1000+ psi, it leaves with so much velocity that the temperature drops incredibly low, even accumulating ice on the valve. It would seem to me that if temperature was the determining factor, a whistle would not quill right on compressed air because the temperature vs. pressure/velocity range would behave in the opposite manner that steam does. Of course this is all just head cannon as I'm sitting on the toilet so I could be completely wrong.

[@boxcarthehusky420]

Still the best and most informative railroad content on KZbin, I'm convinced Hyce could show us how to build glorious steamy Bois.

[@dominicwroblewski5832]

Thank you ! After nearly a life time of trying to get answers on how steam locomotive whistles work , now I finally know. No one ever mentioned the effects of material composition or the effects of sound waves and speed in steam.

[@Tristan_S346]

The whistles are some of the most alluring parts of steam engines for me, I love this deep dive and can’t get enough! Thank you!

[@manuelkong10]

Whistles are The voice of these man made creatures

[@wilfstor3078]

Learning about all the whistle codes was pretty neat, as I only learned of the Proceed Forward, Proceed Backward, Grade Crossing, and a few of the crew communication signals from my time with the Toronto Railway Museum. Although I did get a little more experience with the different varieties of whistles, which is surprising since our only operating steam locomotive was the little 7 1/4 inch gauge 2-6-0 on our Minitrain. That had a flat top hooter, that drained the steam pressure so much we couldn't even do a full grade crossing sequence with it. The only other whistles we had on the property was the huge hooter whistle that the brewery that was in the same roundhouse as us had attached to their equipment using waste steam from the brewing process to blow the whistle every hour. And the Steptop 6-Chime of an unknown make that we had fitted to our big Northern, Canadian National 6213. We did also have what appeared to be a CP Flattop 5-Chime in the back of the shop, but I have no idea why it was there since the only CP equipment in our collection is an Alco S-1. It could possibly be something left in the shop from the time when it was still a working Canadian Pacific roundhouse, although it was shut down and emptied in the 80s, and hadn't seen steam since the 60s so I doubt that hypothesis...

[@Train2589]

"just giggle the cord a bunch" is my favorite because boy did i have fun doing that. years ago i was "running Thomas" i saw a pickup coming at us as im already 3/4th into the crossing sequence (had just blow the short and about to call crossing clear per our railroads procedures). My brother told me later that "Everyone wondered why Thomas started to peep quite a bit" until a cloud of dust and screeching tires heralded the pickup stopping just short of occupying where my cab was.

[@icastromusic]

I really love how you break down the science of the acoustics and mechanics of how the whistles function! This is the level of nerdiness I appreciate as both a musician and railfan! 😎

[@marionette5968]

I didn't even know that there was an hours worth of information to know about whistles. Amazing.

[@lawrencemargagliano5987]

It's so helpful to hear someone like this gentlemen, who is very knowledgeable about a subject, bring the information to life. Thank you!

[@dwightprzybilla6477]

Heck yes my good man! You nerd out every chance you get. Absolutely wonderful content and presented in great manner. Please keep it up, and venture into the weeds more often! On your video about air brakes, there was a comment from a gentleman that ran trains in north/central MN. I drive through several of the towns mentioned everyday on my way to work, and it really painted a wonderful picture of how these living beasts once roamed these lands, to be tamed by those brave enough to attempt. BRAVO!

[@GrumpSkull]

I'm in the process of doing some audio modification in a train game to make a realistic user controlled steam whistle and you're the guru! Whoo whoohoohoo Whoo!

[@Hyce777]

:D happy to hear this video helps!

[@sambrown6426]

I was recently at a steam show, and one of the traction engines there had a steam slide whistle. Yes it was funny. Yes it was glorious.

[@thetrainstation2helpee933]

Hilarious!

[@Railfan105.]

Nice, I've been waiting for this video for a while. I became interested in whistles thanks to an unexpected source: Minecraft. In my offtime I play on a creative building server where a majority of the builds are trains, including my builds. I wanted to add a little something so I started adding whistles and horns to the locomotives using some redstone and note blocks. While they're obviously not going to be one to one with the real thing, as long as I can find the tuning I can recreate any whistle you'd want.

[@ebnertra0004]

I have done some experiments with creating horns in for use in Open Rails, especially bringing back some oddball early Leslie projects, since they did some weird stuff back then. It's pretty interesting to hear these sounds that haven't really existed in years

[@manuelkong10]

speed of sound affected by temp and altitude....another one of those "don't know it all" moments that I think are so useful in life. very fun helpful vid

[@chrispistel5221]

Another thing to look at is how the pressure affects the pressure. In a pipe organ, the pitch of a pipe falls off as wind pressure drops. Many pipes also jump up an octave when blown at a much higher (relatively speaking) pressure. It’s called over blowing the pipe. I think the flow over the languid gets disturbed when the pressure of the air is outside the range the pipe was designed for. May also be a similar factor in play in steam whistles. Have you tried playing a whistle on compressed air to see if the effect is similar?

[@Hyce777]

I've never seen one jump up an octave myself; I think the excitation is different enough that they don't do that.

[@chrispistel5221]

For sure the pressures are in very different orders of magnitude. If you ever get a chance to try a whistle on air, I’d be very curious what your impression of its behavior is. Thanks for diving into this subject. That almost was 102 level. 😉

[@pokemontrainermichael5551]

I love listening to steam whistles

[@ControlPointDonelson]

I got to blow a grade crossing on a GP7 once, I was able to quill it pretty well and a few engineers here in TN like to add another short blast after all of the long blasts or just after the last one in the grade crossing sequence

[@TheMowsefan]

Back in the good old days, each engineer had his own little tweaks and "signature" whistle technique. His family would know when he was rolling into town.

[@tootired76]

I'm immediately going to download Hyce's 6 chime whistle mod for my Derail Valley!!

[@hootinouts]

Very nice presentation. When I was a kid growing up in South Philadelphia back in the 1960's, The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard had this massive steam whistle that would blow at the changing of each shift and at 12 noon. My home has about two miles away and when that whistles blew, you could feel it. That whistler had a very robust growl to it.

[@Erniethebear]

This is a subject that has fascinated me for several years, and this video answered nearly all my questions about how they work. Very thorough and informative.

[@Hyce777]

Cheers mate! if you have any other questions, feel free to send them my way. I have been working on getting a follow up video put together.

[@joemcelroy1801]

I’ve lived in Colorado most of my adult life, but I grew up in Virginia, and my father actually used to make professional audio recordings of the N&W excursions in the 80s/early 90s. In my late teens, I imported some files of 1218 into pro tools and went down a similar path, except that I was analyzing a huge N&W hooter (I was mystified by the engineers ability to make it “tweet” both at the beginning and end of pulls, and how that was controllable from such a “sloppy” linkage and such a high pressure and volume boiler and whistle. I wonder if I can get my dad to email me some files of 611 back in the 80s, that was a very low pitched whistle, if memory serves, a 3chime from maybe a boat? Anyway, great video, I absolutely am at the same nerd level with this stuff, and love seeing someone else analyze audio to this extent!!

[@JamesPattersonGeepfan]

28:00, gee that table cloth wrapped thing looks familiar........ that pipe whistle too.......

[@DerpyPossum]

Steam locomotive science is my favorite kind of science :)

[@ringoraccoon6349]

This is cool. Accidentally stumbled on this video looking for what you call the sound a steam whistle makes. I gather it's a TOOT. I'll have to come back and finish this one! Fascinating stuff, mate!

[@Spook_Boi]

i love your new studio setup. good for talking head vids. im loving these 101 vids and i wouldnt be too shocked if classes used them in some precedent. also 455's botched whistle sounds like Thomas the Thermonuclear bomb except its ONLY the screams of the damned

[@bassmechanic237]

Great video. You got me interested in steam driven engines and trains now. Great little series you got going on here now. Godspeed sir.

[@thatonegamer8558]

I think the god of trains has blessed me or cursed me that everytime i start a hyce video a train passes the railroad crossing near my house

[@PatrickKCompton]

Hyce, as a fellow train nerd (G scale LIVE Steamer), a musician, and an electrical engineer, I loved your spectrogram look at whistles! Never sat down and thought about it, but always knew the answer was in the steam. Take care.

[@dezertraider]

VERY VERY COOL.THE OLD STEAM WHISTLES ARE SOME OF MANS BEST SOUNDS..STAY WELL

[@jefffixesit60]

I didn't hear steam train whistles as a kid born in '55, but I spent a ton of time on the Ohio River listening to the whistle on the Delta Queen riverboat. I also heard the steam calliopes on the Queen, and on the Nachez riverboat in New Orleans. Beautiful things, wonderful sounds, I wonder if my favorite nerd Hyce has geeked out on calliope tech? Carry on, love these videos 😊

[@JonsGarage89]

Great now I have a strong urge to build a whistle. Fascinating. Id love if you had the ability to show off all the different whistles that were in that boxcar.

[@Midland1072Productions]

I now know why 2102's and 425's Reading 6 chimes literally rattled my ear drums a few weeks back, they had to have been opening the valves the entire way. Awesome video as always Hyce!!

[@jenniferbutcher8393]

The other channels: ooo! Listen to that!! (Cotton candy) Hyce: now, let's look at that on the spectrograph ( meat and potatoes 😁) Amazing in depth analysis that answered many of my questions, finally! As a flute player, I enjoyed this immensely. Thanks!

[@organbuilder272]

That top chime is an overblow - The "Chime" is speaking at an octave higher than it should for the given length. Again PRESSURE will effect the pitch far more than temperature. Pitch is altered by temperature, humidity and pressure. Find an organ tuner and they will set you straight and perhaps help you to get the perfect pitch in your chimes. Organs came before whistles. But they are identical based on fixed physical principals.

[@andrewpalm2103]

Very interesting stuff, Hyce. It makes sense that the valve position affects the higher chimes more if the change of equivalent length is a higher percentage of the base case length. For a very long chamber the change would be a lower percentage. That's my hypothesis. It would also be interesting to see amplitude vs. frequency spectrogams of whistles made from different materials to see how the mix of overtones (timbre) changes. By the way, the more "nerdy" the better in my opinion. Cheers from Wisconsin!

[@Hyce777]

I want to make some test whistles for looking into this sort of stuff. I don't have a good enough A:B for the same exact whistle out of brass or iron etc...

[@lambdamoses6837]

Really interesting and informative. I love your 101 videos. LA Metro (governed by FTA, not FRA) light rail lines have lots of grade crossings and the operators do the 2 long 1 short 1 long signal with the high horn (the trains have a high and low horn) in South LA where it's not quiet zone. Often they finish the signal too early, before entering the crossing. Can you do an air horn (and quiet zone) 101 video? Also can you do a bell 101 video? Like history and types of bells and rules on using them. I like how the horns and bells sound. And lights 101...

[@erbman89b]

Thanx for answering a question I've had for decades. Like you, as an (aero) engineer I couldn't figure out why the pitch changed. When you mentioned the temperature of the steam depends on how much is coming out, all suddenly made sense

[@eltonjohnfan100]

I worked for MD whistles a long time ago, then mike sold it to Chris somewhere out west I think. I enjoyed this. Thanks.

[@pyromaniacal13]

I learned so much from this video, and I really enjoyed the nerdy bit at the end!

[@ebnertra0004]

54:00 To put that pitch change into airhorn equivalents, that whistle basically changes from a Nathan K3LA (B maj) to a K3L (D# min), just due to flow rate change. That, to me, is nuts

[@whoever6458]

I have one of those personal train whistles and I've wondered exactly that! lol

[@thetoontrain473]

When I went on the D&S in the summer, I met a conductor named Jake. We had several conversations and I asked him many questions about railroading while on our way to and from Silverton. I forgot what the signal meant but the locomotive did 3 toots to probably ask “hey are we stopping here?” Or something like that. he let me hold my hat out of the side of the train when we passed a green sign to give the driver a signal for the all clear. they replied with 2 small toots to confirm they saw the signal.

[@thetoontrain473]

I asked why they used the whistle so often and he said that they try to use the radio as little as possible.

[@shaunzamenick5157]

This video has helped me so much with designing my whistle

[@Azeria]

32:00 timbre, the -re suffix being pronounced the same as -er is standard English. Metre (unit of measurement) and meter (device for measuring) are homophones for example. See also infrastructure and miniature and departure and calibre. When words with -re are loaned from French into English, as they have been continuously over the last thousand years, that’s just the way they’ve been changed. I was taught to pronounce the first vowel more like the french though, with a vowel closer to ‘o’ than the ‘a’ you’d find in the closely related ‘tambourine’, although my music teacher may have just been being pretentious.

[@caelumvaldovinos5318]

Yet another great episode with Professor Hyce! Looks like that crushing student debt payed off in the end

[@danielmilitello4795]

I noticed that the famous "choo choo" pattern is the proceeding forward whistle/horn.

[@SteamCraftOfficial]

yay!!! Ive been waiting on this for a long time!!

[@dvone4124]

Subdivision "East" and "West" still applies to Interstate Highways in the US. I often head mostly north on a stretch of Interstate 10 that's only marked 10 West. Doesn't help that the office is on the I-10 East side if you're driving, but called I-10 West by the Postal Service because they have their own subdivisions.

[@piotrrze]

I was always in love with steam locomotives. But I would never imagine this topic is SO interesting. Like watching an hour video on whistles... Great videos and waiting for more of them. And I wish I might meet you at the museum one time ;) And as a master in Electronics Engineering I really love your scientific but not to complicated approach on the topics!

[@Villager9]

Let’s gooooo I’ve been waiting for this ;)

[@brillbusbootcamp2320]

Great stuff, Hyce, I appreciate all the detail! Now I understand why an electric railway air whistle doesn’t quill as dramatically as a steam whistle. All one can do at a trolley museum is reduce the airflow to get some of the chimes to stop resonating, assuming the car doesn’t have one of the very common single note whistles.

[@SnakeMan51]

Hyce--I collect those wooden whistles. Here's how you make them "quill"--> Cup your hands around the very bottom part (near where you blow into it), and as you blow into it, slowly open and close your hand. It'll vary the pitch just like the real thing on the locomotive. ;-)

[@NorthEasternMotionProductions]

I know on scenic railroads in New Hampshire, it’s 3 honks if the locomotive is departing in reverse, and 2 honks for if it’s departing forward, no matter if the actual train itself is going forward or backward.

[@whusmanameAtGeeMail]

I think any time you ask if we wanna know something, and wonder if you should make a video about it, the answer is YES! Please make that video about Grade Crossings 101, or pretty much any other video you were wondering if you should make... Just keep geeking out for us. This stuff's interesting.

[@th3darkgem566]

"It's past time, we should be leaving I can't leave until you tell me that I can" haha

[@WindersRanger]

Totally nerded out and stayed till the end. This kind of stuff is right up my alley. If you’d like to take a look, i made a video of mounting a working EMD bell and proper valve to my truck.

[@georgewolf7063]

Wow! And I thought I knew a lot about train whistles! ;) I really loved your added insight given your background! I've actually been planning for a long time to build a "steam" whistle for my car (just to give it my own personal touch). The two biggest hold-backs have been 1: how does the diameter of the bell (or chamber) affect the tone of a whistle? And 2: how much difference in length would I need for a six-chime whistle? (and what is the relation between the chamber length from ie: an A nat. and a B nat. or B nat. and a B#? I know an octave below is always 2x the length of the original.)

[@darkprince2584]

I like the northern pacific 5 chime . That deep low sound is spooky and gives me shivers and I am for it.

[@kyle_trainsimulator4228]

in the UK some of the tube stock/subway trains are fitted with whistles and all of the modern-day locomotives have a high low horn.

[@thejdmguru621]

I like the way they Quil the whistles at Rio Grande and Cass Scenic Railroad, it gives me goosebumps.

[@GodschildinNC]

really great to see you get so excited about trains. I only have a fraction of your musical/engineering knowledge. I just assumed the pitch change had to do with the steam temp. as the higher temp gas would move faster.

[@jasonwhitler4167]

Keep making the nerdy stuff. I'm a mechanical engineer so I like the detail.

[@patricksheary2219]

Mark this was fabulous! Explained so much and the fact you are musician made it even better. My first go at operating a whistle was not so good to say the least! Thankfully I had a patient teacher. Now with your tutorial I can apply what I learned here for the next steam up day. So many thanks again. The whistles are quite amazing instruments in their own right, not to mention beautiful! Thanks again! BTW your guitars are fabulous you must have an amazing collection.

[@Hyce777]

Cheers Patrick! I have been playing and slowly collecting for over a decade now.

[@patricksheary2219]

@@Hyce777 Wow that’s excellent. If you are ever in Washington, DC please stop by the DAR Museum where I work because one of my curatorial duties is caring for our antique musical instruments. I could give you the curator’s tour of the collection. Sadly no locomotives to show although I’ve tried to suggest we get one to no avail. I can’t understand why. 🤣

[@Jopsyduck]

I think I now truly understand the phrase "shrieking like a lost soul" from Thomas and friends.

[@Ultionem_Dorus]

This video has given me an idea that I might be able to use for my graduation project.

[@barryfendel709]

A good example of east and west when actually the tracks go north and south is in Deer Trail Co, On the UP line.

[@jimschneider5193]

I absolutely love your content. Learning a hell of alot from you. Appreciate your videos so much. But the cake was seeing an original Hooter whistle. Was it an N&W original? Nothing like the Winston Link recordings of them moaning in the hollers of West Virginia. Keep the videos coming.

[@Hyce777]

We do not have an N&W hoot at the museum. Lots of random western ones, but nothing from that far east.

[@bobbysenterprises3220]

I'll have to watch this with my buddy jack. He loves train whistles and the sound of a steam loco. He runs around making the whistle pattern used at crossings and the steam chug sound. I'll have to get a video of him doing this to you. Jack is a cockatoo

[@Hyce777]

Oh my God that's precious. Please send a video my way!

[@RailNut2]

For those interested in steam whistles I just came across this announcement. Irvine, KY - The Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation is pleased to announce the Third Annual Whistle Blow presented by the Railroadiana Collectors Association Inc. The public event will be held on Saturday, October 7, 2023 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. at The Yard, in Irvine, KY. If you can not attend it will be live streamed throughout the day on KZbin.

[@PowerTrain611]

I really appreciate the guitar comparison when referring to the timbre. I've had my fair share of guitars. My favorite was my metallic blue Jackson JS-1. That thing looked awesome and sounded just as good. Also, sting types and materials should be accounted for. D'dario versus Ernie Ball, steel versus bronze, bright versus dark, etc... Yeah, I'm a musician too. I play 14 different instruments, self taught on all but piano. I'm only half decent at piano, and I can't really read music so I'm just a fraud. I play by ear, tutorials or tabs.🤣

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

Optima Gold Master Race :D Ernie Balls are pretty solid, though :)

[@marktaylor8659]

This is extremely interesting and thanks for doing all this research. And I love your different whistle comparison by using guitars. Opened my eyes completely. As a Pennsy fan, loving the Banshee whistle, perhaps it's like a Telecaster guitar. BTW, as a bass guitarist, I'm strictly a Precision guy as I like the simplicity. Thanks for sharing this.

[@Hyce777]

The banshee is most similar to... I have no idea. Something awful and shrill. Lol

[@Squidy-gx6eb]

As a trumpet player I loved the nerdy bits.

[@AShadowboxsFSX]

Thanks for directing me to this video Hyce, all this time later haha

[@kfcgaming4891]

hey hyce love your set up and your computer.

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

0:14 LOL! 11:02 Basically "We GoT pLaCeS tO bE!" 19:59 I've seen that guy's videos... I totally randomly had his "cold and dark startup" in my recommendations and that made me want to do that stuff in VR. Then I found Derail Valley... and this channel... the world is small XD 38:37 That'd be about 420 high. 58:15 After seein all those spectograms and listening to the grade crossings, I got the feeling most are like o- o- o- and only that particular one that pops up right here is more like o- o- o - and therefor the closest to - - o -. Obviously most engineers tend to start out with a short toot, but then immediately append the long one to it, but that often makes the one actual short one really hard to tell from the ones that are part of the long toots. But regardless, if anyone is near a grade crossing and not on the train, probably any signal would suffice... XD 59:09 That's how it's supposed to be! How else could anyone possible understand how things work? XD PS: I now wonder if Soviet choochoos actually had/have whistles that play the first chord of their anthem that almost anyone can racognize it already by... I totally wouldn't be surprised at all XD PPS: You guys need to get enough choochoos with different whistles so you could play a complete song's chord progression with them... Listening to Imperial Marches and other meme songs made by a bunch of floppy drives is kinda getting old :D

[@kimbleyoungblood393]

Awesome video! I’ve been wanting to build a multi chime train whistle for a few years now and you’ve definitely inspired me to do it and now I know exactly how 🤙

[@kevino6618]

Interesting background to the different sounds of different steam loco whistles.

[@tobyradabaugh5033]

You’ve done it yet again hyce very informative I had no knowledge on steam whistles up to this point the whistle signals we very fascinating for me will use them in train sim also where did you get the chart of dargw whistle signals

[@Hyce777]

From an old D&RGW timetable.

[@tobyradabaugh5033]

@@Hyce777 thanks had pretty much no knowledge on whistle signals

[@alwaysbearded1]

Fascinating. I love your deep dives and nerdiness. Learned a lot. At San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, where I once volunteered, we tried to get the steam whistle on the Eureka Ferryboat to sound for her 100th birthday in 1990. Since the boilers were non operational we used the largest air compressor a trailer mounted type we had and plumbed it up to the whistle. Not a peep. That made me wonder what the effect of expanding steam vs. just air pressure has on the sound of steam whistles. I'll have to talk to our steam guy at the park and find out if we still have the whistle for Eppelton Hall (think of the little paddle wheel steamer in Around the World in 80 Days). My friend and others have restored steam tug Hercules to nearly operating condition and I've heard that whistle. Now I need to go there and figure out how many chimes, what material it is made of.

[@scottmoore598]

Hyce, thank you for the in depth explanation of the science of the whistle. I assumed it was the air pressure and flow, but I couldn’t figure out how a stationary resonance chamber would change pitch. The speed of sound changing makes sense. Off topic question - Do you know how to change the volume, not pitch, of an air horn? In the 1:8 scale “Live Steam” hobby, many diesel locomotives use multiple air horns. I would like to make the air horns drift off in volume at the end, almost like an echo, but with the same inner modulation of the full volume horns.

[@BNSFGP38]

- - o - is morse code for Q. The brits( who started the whole thing) would signal to Quarantine the crossing. We later stole it and standardized it as our crossing signal too.

[@Aidan_Rattlehead]

I’ve probably learned more from these 101 videos then all of junior high school (grades 7,8,9) On another note I’ve been playing guitar for almost 2 years now and I never really had a good understanding about both major and minor cords, scales, etc. I never really could hear why the cords were what they are until you brought that up about whistles. It’s really cool seeing both of those things relate to each other in that way.

[@Hyce777]

I do tag them as college level education when I post them, so I'm glad I'm vaguely correct :D And yes, music and it's relation to whistles is awesome. Glad I could help. If you ever have guitar or theory questions feel free and reach out!

[@Aidan_Rattlehead]

@@Hyce777 thanks man, keep doing what you do.

[@andrejentoft]

Love your videos!! Such fun learning about an old craft ❤️

[@gypsyshot5225]

Here is something I've found interesting, on switch engines, gypsies, donkeys, traction engines and other steam equipment they usually have several different whistles for different kinds of commands and signals

[@Foxymorris9236]

Also any plans for a new Railroad 101: about railroad language talk, I only know very little, like a Banjo: a fireman's shovel. And a peanut roaster:a small steam locomotive such as Bessey

[@The_Canadian_Railfan]

i know many things about whistles but the most important is: CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[@cmd062]

4:14 It's interesting the lack of consensus but I'm going with what you said because it makes the most sense. I have spoken to engineers who said its based on the direction of the locomotive not the train and others that say what you said that its based on the train.

[@owenhenderson3143]

Now, I have a question. What if we made a steam whistle with something more like reeds in it. Something like a harmonica's or accordion's reeds. It would most definitely need to be scaled up, or slightly redesigned, since the reeds in accordions and harmonicas aren't very robust. But I feel like it would be a very interesting thing to look at with and compare the differences of both