Lunkenheimer Whistles

The AMERICAN QUEEN's whistle is a Kahlenberg whistle. Her original whistle was from the HERBERT E. JONES on loan from the West "Bye God" Virginia Jones.

Now, the NATCHEZ has a Lunkenheimer; talk about a whistle!

The last I remember AQ's whistle had a dome top, which means either a Lunkenheimer or Powell, which are both of Cincinnati. I don't see any close up pictures of the whistle on the board anymore, so I can't keep up with any changes that may have been made. Kahlenbergs have flat tops. If they haven't changed it, the General Jackson has a 3 bell chime Kahlenberg.

Yes indeed! The Natchez does have a Lunkenheimer. My family and I were on the Natchez at the last Tall Stacks.

Frank X. Prudent;6699 wrote: The AMERICAN QUEEN's whistle is a Kahlenberg whistle. Her original whistle was from the HERBERT E. JONES on loan from the West "Bye God" Virginia Jones.

Now, the NATCHEZ has a Lunkenheimer; talk about a whistle!

The AMERICAN QUEEN has only had two whistles that she can call her own, the HERBERT E. JONES' and the Kahlenberg that she sports now. She has never regularly blown a Lunkenheimer whistle nor a Powell Valve Co. whistle.

I would have sworn it had one with a dome top a while back, but I could be wrong. I thought I saw it here on the board. Could it have been a borrowed whistle?

Frank X. Prudent;6704 wrote: The AMERICAN QUEEN has only had two whistles that she can call her own, the HERBERT E. JONES' and the Kahlenberg that she sports now. She has never regularly blown a Lunkenheimer whistle nor a Powell Valve Co. whistle.

I just found it under the pictures for the American Queen and you're right; it's definitely not a Lunkenheimer. I could have sworn I saw a picture of it with a Lunk sometime back, but maybe it was on the Mississippi Queen. I'm fairly certain the Delta Queen has always had a Lunk.

I believe the Mississippi Queen once had a 3 bell chime whistle made by the Davis Calliope Works, the same as its calliope. I was on board and took pictures of it in 1976. The problem was that it had undersized inlets and narrow slits which choked the flow, making it underpowered for the main whistle. With new bowls and a larger manifold it could have worked out well. The scale of the bells themselves were fine, similar to a Kahlenberg.

Frank X. Prudent;6704 wrote: The AMERICAN QUEEN has only had two whistles that she can call her own, the HERBERT E. JONES' and the Kahlenberg that she sports now. She has never regularly blown a Lunkenheimer whistle nor a Powell Valve Co. whistle.

The DELTA QUEEN did not always have the Lunkenheimer that she blows now. Tom Greene removed that Lunkenheimer and replaced it with the CHRIS GREENE's whistle. I don't know how long the Chris' whistle was on the DQ before her original whistle was put back on. Maybe it was a year or two at most.

Yes, you are right the MQ's original whistle was a three bell affair built by Art Davis. By 1978 it was removed and replaced by the GORDON C. GREENE's whistle. The Cincinnati brass of the Delta Queen Co. didn't think that the old GORDON's whistle looked in keeping with their new steamboat, and the original Davis whistle was returned to it's perch sans one of the bells. The MISSOURI whistle that the MQ wore when she last operated was put on her during 1979.

Roddy Hammett always said that the NATCHEZ whistle was the only one he knew that could make a grown man cry - there is no way to gently ease into it. I always warn passengers with babies who always seem to pick the seats right below the whistle.

Someone told me years ago that the Whistle on the Roundhouse (possibly the power plant a short distance away) has a Lunkenheimer Whistle "identical" to the Str Delta Queen's. I cannot prove it, I never saw that whistle, nor to my memory ever heard it.

The Lunkenheimer plant was not far away. Can anyone shed any light on this rumor?

from the Cincinnati Union Terminal Roundhouse....sorry 'bout that.

Jim, I don't know about the Cinci Roundhouse whistle, but there is a Lunkenheimer SOMEHWERE in Memphis that could be heard at 580 S. Prescott St. that also sounded just like the DQ's. Heard it several times over the years, but have no idea where it was. Weather conditions had to be "just right' -- I probably only heard it 5 or 6 times in the 26 years we were there.

We had two factories down near the river in Rock Island, which sounded steam whistles at 7 and 8 AM daily. I presume it was to signal the start of the work day. I could hear them clearly here, some 2 miles away. The factories are long gone, as are the whistles. I believe that Fred Way said the NATCHEZ' whistle came from a factory. I presume this was a fairly common practice, to use steam whistles to signal in factories? I know that now there is an airhorn on the Domino Sugar Refinery in NOLA which sounds the lunch break at 12 and 12:30, so I suppose as steam was replaced as a heating source, so went the whistles?

Some years ago a sawmill near the point in Vicksburg i SAW a sign posted at the workers entrance "BE ON THE JOB WHEN THE WHISTLE BLOWS AND STAY ON THE JOB UNTIL THE WHISTLE BLOWS'.

I suspect most factories in the early 20th century had steam whistles for announcing lunch time and quitting time as they could be heard over quite a distance and probably most either used steam in the manufacturing process and/or generated their own electricity.

I was raised in a mountain canyon railroad town (Dunsmuir, CA) and the old timers would tell me they could tell when it was going to snow by the sound of the train whistles--they'd change at the right temp/humidity for snow.
Once, when I was in eighth grade, I heard a steam whistle blowing just as we arrived for class (the old school was just above the old roundhouse site--actually all of downtown is). Everyone else thought I was crazy, but it turned out there'd been a derailment and the SP had brought down the steam powered big hook from K. Falls. What a sound, echoing off the canyon.
In later years some steam did come through (Freedom train, Daylight & even McCloud 25 & the Royal Hudson), so I did get to hear "whistles down the canyon." It gives you chills to hear it echo off the canyon walls. And, yes, it carries for miles. I believe this is one reason whistles were used to signal work times and emergencies. The steam was readily available, and (for the times) there was nothing else as loud, or as far-reaching as the steam whistle.
Other than a pipe organ (which really is a bunch of whistles), I don't think man has made a more beautiful LOUD mechanical sound (as opposed to musical instruments--him, dare I mention bagpipes?? 🙂 )
Steamcerely,
David D.

I am not only uncertain, but unsure about this: I thought the Natchez whistle was formerly on the J. D. Ayres.

If I remember correctly, one of the draw-backs with the AQ's Kahlenbergs is that they are blown remotely with an electric solenoid. The pilot pushes a button to blow the whistles. This doesn't give the pilot much control over the whistle. In my opinion it would sound better if it had a traditional valve and lever mechanism, operated by reachrod or rope, etc. It might not look as "tidy", but the pilots would have more control over the whistle, with fewer "squealers" from the highest pitch whistle.

Hmm, I know the NATCHEZ bell is from the J.D. AYERS, but I don't know about the whistle. I'll look back in the Reflector for the delivery article.

Origin of the NATCHEZ IX whistle

Here it is - I could have used the handy-dandy Reflector index which Alan compiled, but its more fun to skim through the issues and reread countless stuff that doesn't pertain to your search! Anyway, from pages 2-3 of the Sept. 1974 issue: "A three-chime Lunkenheimer steam whistle was loaded aboard the DELTA QUEEN at Sewickley on Friday, June 28, 1974 consigned to the Frisbie Engine & Machine Works at Cincinnati. The Frisbie firm attended to getting the brass bells polished. It was then shipped to Wilbur and Bill Dow at New Orleans who plan to install it on the new steamboat NATCHEZ...The origin of this whistle is not clear but tradition has it that it once was on a steamboat and then was placed on the South side (Pittsburgh) mill of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. It was brought to 121 River through the good offices of Raymond D. Powell. The whistle goes to the new NATCHEZ with the compliments and good wishes of S&D." Later Jim Swartzwelder commented: "I remember the whistle well; it blew at J&L's South Side Works at 9 each morning; ever since my grade school days I've heard it--it's deep-throated notes reverberating across the Monongahela River into Miss Timblin's art room at the Oakland Elementary School near the Parkway."

Jim,

Your getting into a bit of whistle lore when you mention the whistle off Union Station here in Cincinnati. It was a Lunkenheimer and was very similar to the DQ's with the exception of a lifting ring in the place of the top acorn. The reason I mention the lore portion is that the whistle was "removed" from Union Station without the owners knowing it. It was supposedly in a private collection here (definetly not mine) in the Cincinnati area and supposedly recently was sold for a considerable amount of money. At least that's all I know about it.

A lot of interesting points you brought up, as whistle design has been a major part of my life for the past 33 years.

Due to the tonal spectrum of most whistles having the most energy at their fundamental frequency, rather than distrbuted among their harmonics, as are most other sound signals, whistles tend to carry farther than other signals for a given frequency and output. The reason for this is less atmospheric absorption, which attenuates the higher frequencies the most.

The reason is that in additition to following the inverse square law of losing 6 dB/doubling the distance, there is a frequency dependent loss of about 1 dB/1000 feet at 500 Hz. The higher the frequency, the greater the loss. Since whistles tend to produce more fundamental frequencies than other signals, there is less propagation loss over greater distances. For these reasons and due to the fact that whistles are more pleasant to nearby ears for a given SPL rating than air horns and sirens due to less harmonic content, I've been actively campaigning for years to return them as mainstream sound signals.

Another point you brought up is that sounds tend to carry better at night than during the day. This is not only due to the fact that the ambient noise level due to daily activities tend to be less at night, but also due to a temperature inversion in the upper atmosphere which tends to keep sounds closer to the ground rather than escaping into the sky. Terrain such as canyons can be "iffy", but in your case it seemed to have channeled the sound along its path rather than blocking it.

Both flue organ pipes and steam whistles operate by the same laws of physics and in fact form part of a very predictable continuum (see my research site on Flue Pipe Acoustics at http://rjweisen.50megs.com ). Whistles have for decades also had the bad rap of being the least efficient of all high power sound signals as compared to air horns and sirens.

With proper attention to the right design parameters, this no longer need be the case. You can design whistles to achieve high output using only a fraction of the customary pressure and you can also design them to considerably reduce the required flow rate without limiting the output. Sure, a loud whistle requires a much higher flow rate for a given output than an air horn, but it can achieve this at a fraction of the pressure, similar to the pressure and flow rate of a motor driven siren. No one questions the efficiency of chopped air devices such as sirens.

David Dewey;6730 wrote: I was raised in a mountain canyon railroad town (Dunsmuir, CA) and the old timers would tell me they could tell when it was going to snow by the sound of the train whistles--they'd change at the right temp/humidity for snow.
Once, when I was in eighth grade, I heard a steam whistle blowing just as we arrived for class (the old school was just above the old roundhouse site--actually all of downtown is). Everyone else thought I was crazy, but it turned out there'd been a derailment and the SP had brought down the steam powered big hook from K. Falls. What a sound, echoing off the canyon.
In later years some steam did come through (Freedom train, Daylight & even McCloud 25 & the Royal Hudson), so I did get to hear "whistles down the canyon." It gives you chills to hear it echo off the canyon walls. And, yes, it carries for miles. I believe this is one reason whistles were used to signal work times and emergencies. The steam was readily available, and (for the times) there was nothing else as loud, or as far-reaching as the steam whistle.
Other than a pipe organ (which really is a bunch of whistles), I don't think man has made a more beautiful LOUD mechanical sound (as opposed to musical instruments--him, dare I mention bagpipes?? 🙂 )
Steamcerely,
David D.

My advice would be to replace the solenoid valve with a whistle valve so that the operator can quill it and make it "talk". Just make sure the valve and feed line are no smaller than the whistle's inlet diameter so that it can be blown at full power. I have my doubts about the size of the current valve and its feed line on the AQ. An inadequate feed source can ruin the sound of an otherwise well designed whistle by starving it of its required flow rate and making it sound weak and puny.

Steve Huffman;6732 wrote: If I remember correctly, one of the draw-backs with the AQ's Kahlenbergs is that they are blown remotely with an electric solenoid. The pilot pushes a button to blow the whistles. This doesn't give the pilot much control over the whistle. In my opinion it would sound better if it had a traditional valve and lever mechanism, operated by reachrod or rope, etc. It might not look as "tidy", but the pilots would have more control over the whistle, with fewer "squealers" from the highest pitch whistle.

When I was growing up in Louisville, I could hear several factory whistles from my grandparent's home in the Highlands. I never knew where they were but the announced the beginning and end of the work day. Some were chimes and some were single note hooters.

As for whistles on roundhouse roofs, I liberated a Nathan 5 chime from the roof of the old Seaboard roundhouse in Tampa when it was being torn down. It is cast iron and there was another one up there that was a brass four chime, unlike any others I've ever seen. It resides in another collection here in Tampa.

I've managed to collect around a dozen whistles over the years from small to large. Among the bigger ones are an ICRR 3 chime, ICRR 6 Nathan chime (bell only from 0-8-0 3501, L&N 3 chime from a Big Emma 2-8-4, a Lukenheimer single note brass whistle from a tug boat, and the SAL Nathan 5 chime. I have a Powell 3 chime on my steamboat.
-JH

When I was hired in 1980 at Emery Industries, the plant (over 100 acres in Cincinnati) no longer used a whistle to summon and dismiss the 800 or so workers there. It was replaces by a plant horn on the "new" (1976) boiler house since the old whistle could not be heard throughout the plant. The plant horn was controlled by a tape that electrically fired the horn at 7:25 (warning to begin work), 7:30 (began work), 9 AM (break), 9:15 (end break), Noon (lunch), 12:30 (end lunch), 2:00 PM (break), 2:15 (end break) 3:30 (go home!). Back in the whistle, daze, the engineer or, more likely, boiler operator on No4 had to blow the whistle at all those times! Along with the above signals, there was a code that could be broadcast at any time: two blasts, engineer return to boiler house; three blasts, FIRE; For all the seeming discipline, all signals from the boiler house, save the last two, were ignored! I have the old whistle schedule from the Peters Cartridge Company (1887-1944), it is penciled on a FIRE ALARM SIGNALS poster: "Blow Whistle 7:oo, 8:00, 3:30, 4:30, 12 Midnight"

I have a question....the other night I was watching Will Roger's movie "Steamboat Round the Bend" and every boat had the same whistle...all of them Lukenhiemers just like the DELTA QUEEN's. My question is this....did the River Lines use the same whistle on all their boats?

The DQ's and DK's whistle were stock Lunkenheimer whistles that, at that time, could be ordered right out of the Lunkenheimer catalogue. Perhaps it was The California Transportation Company's signature whistle.