A New Whistle for the 905

       On June 8th of this year, 2007, we received the donation of a new whistle from a gentleman who wishes to remain anonymous.

       The original whistle was stolen sometime in the last 15 years.

       This whistle was manufactured for us using the dimensions supplied by the Wheels of Time Museum in Peoria, Illinois.  They removed the whistle from their Rock Island 4-6-2 # 866-877 to protect it from vandals during the winter.  They tore theirs apart, took photographs and made measurements.

       We want to thank the steam department at the Wheel's of Time Museum for taking the time and effort.

       And we certainly want to thank our donor for having this made and presenting it to us.

     The whistle will require 85 to 150 psi of air or steam supplied through an 1 1/2 inch line.  We have not tested it yet.  But the donor did test it in Pawnee, Oklahoma earlier in 2007 during a steam show and he was nice enough to forward to us the sound file of that test.  I believe the test was made on 90 psi of live steam pressure.

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     Our intentions are to mount this on the locomotive towards the end of the restoration.  We will probably have a second spreader plate built so that we can blow the whistle with less air pressure and the intensity of the sound will be less.  After all, we are located inside a city park.

      Our whistle was manufactured by Mike Daugherty of M D Whistles, LLC. for our anonymous donor.  Mike's website is MDWhistles.com.