Lunkenheimer Whistles

The blowing of that whistle could be eased into if it had the right valve. Some whistle valves just can't be eased open like the one on the DQ, for instance. I have tried all kinds of combinations of valves and valve pulls on our whistle and have resorted to a standard ball valve with a spring on the valve handle and an elongated pull handle. It can be eased on very gradually. Ball valves are a lot easier to find, and cheaper than whistle valves. They all eventually leak, no matter what kind it is, and cause water to accumulate in the whistle, so we have installed a drain line to get the water out before blowing.

Our whistle is a three chimer that was rescued from an abandoned sugar mill in south Louisiana. I got it while working on the DQ and, after some tweaking in the engine room, we used it as the DQ whistle for about a day. The bells on it are rather mismatched, indicating they were obtained from different sources. It has plumbing on it that does not match the size of any standard plumbing around today.

I have seen the advice many times that whistles should never be fed from an under-sized steam line. That may be true but on my little steamer, I would be limited to a peanut vendors whistle! I simply put in a bushing reducer or whatever to get to the half inch line size I need and even then, must reduce the pressure more by throttling it thru an in-line globe valve or it tends, I think, to overblow. When I throttle it properly (about 3/4 turn open on the valve) all the whistles I use sound off just dandy (lifting paint has been mentioned). MISSIE usually has anywhere from 35 to 120 psi in her boiler when I open the whistle valve. I do have three three situations to work around...if unblown for a while, condensate build-up showers all and sundry with, um, ah, hot water, and if I carry boiler water higher than half way up the "glass", water gets carried along and gags the whistle and finally as mentioned before, after about four seconds of blast, she runs low on steam! All three situations are fixable...the first with a condensate trap or manual blow-down valve in the line, the second by keeping the water level on the low side and lastly, by putting an accumulator in the line. The first and last add expense, complication and weight to an already cramped environment. Any other thoughts will be cheerfully entertained!