Western Railroad Discussion > Horn Info. on BNSF ES44AC diesels

This afternoon BNSF 7415 (  I believe a ES44AC ) rolled through town and I liked the mellow sound of the air horn. It was a 5 chime.
Would someone identify the horn model number and manufacturer of this horn ? 

On the other hand, the BNSF SD70ACE units are equipped with an uncomfortably loud horn .
What model is it , and can anyone tell me the aprox. decibel level  that horn blasts out  ?
Thank you !

ACe's typically have a K5LLA and all of them are ridiculously loud, somthing like 128db iirc.

Bill Miller
Galt, ON

BNSF 7415 would be an ES44DC, but regardless GEVO's have horns where 4 of 5 bells face the rear so are not as obnoxious as the EMD's.

Bill Miller
Galt, ON

The ACe horn is just as god awful inside the cab. GE horn you can easily talk over.  My theory is that the ACe horn has to be louder so you can hear it over all the rattling, squeaking and vibration in the cab.  (Yes even the newer ones suck)

BNSF ES44's usually carry some variant of the Nathan K5HL.

ES44C4 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The ACe horn is just as god awful inside the cab.
> GE horn you can easily talk over.  My theory is
> that the ACe horn has to be louder so you can hear
> it over all the rattling, squeaking and vibration
> in the cab.  (Yes even the newer ones suck)

Do you hate the rockwell display system as well? Say you do and make me smile!

70ACE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ES44C4 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The ACe horn is just as god awful inside the
> cab.
> > GE horn you can easily talk over.  My theory
> is
> > that the ACe horn has to be louder so you can
> hear
> > it over all the rattling, squeaking and
> vibration
> > in the cab.  (Yes even the newer ones suck)
>
> Do you hate the rockwell display system as well?
> Say you do and make me smile!

The operating system sucks, the cab sucks, the horns suck, the coat hook 6 inches above the toilet suck, the fridge that opens into the conductors knees suck. They do pull good and I don't mind them if they are trailing.

This post makes me wonder if the engineer/conductor need to use hearing protection in the cab?
Phil

Put em in an old F-unit and listen to them bitch!

The 5-chime on a SP covered wagon used to vibrate the cab and were just as loud an ACe and sounded good. At least you can hear an ACe horn in an automobile.

Larry

The newest ACe's are actually pretty quiet. The horns I believe are louder than the GE's which I think is at a higher flow than GE's.

The T4 GE's seem to have a ramp down to the air horn so it sounds a little closer to the older valves of yesteryear.

Pretty sure all the ACe's are not Rockwell like the 90's and 70MAc's.

Most are actually Windows XP Embedded for the OS and they have ported it over to QNX (which is what Blackberry switched over to before the iPhone killed them). QNX is pretty robust.

However it all talks to the aging EM2000 and its interface sucks.