Passenger Trains > Caltrain Horns Update

I was around CEMOF today for about half an hour in the morning and half an hour around noon, and there was no obvious activity for the horn replacement like there was yesterday. Has anyone got any more details? The thread from yesterday somewhat lost its helpfulness. Please post if you know anything, thanks.

According to the experts at Cemof, (2) engines (unkown, which ones) and one cab car
have been adjusted. If I see them or hear which ones, I will pass it on. Also, it
is about a three hour job per engine.

TopCat

TopCat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> According to the experts at Cemof, (2) engines
> (unkown, which ones) and one cab car
> have been adjusted. If I see them or hear which
> ones, I will pass it on. Also, it
> is about a three hour job per engine.
>
> TopCat
"Adjusted"? Did CEMOF remove the plugs from the air lines?

That's great news... what kind of horns are they?

Word on the street is that they are keeping the P2s and moving them back to the roof where the K5LAs used to be. This way there won't be a mile of pipe for the air to back up in between the whistle and the valve.

BACKGROUND

When the original modification was done and the whistles were moved behind the pilots (in 2001/2002 I believe), instead of rerouting the piping they EXTENDED it from where it terminated (on the roof) all the way back down to the new location. Then they added a pressure restrictor (to limit the volume of the whistle) right at the connection to the P2. So every time you blew the whistle, the air backed up behind the restrictor and into a ridiculous volume of pipe, and the air slowly flowed through the P2 in a long, wheezing, dying goose drone. With the vast majority of the equipment it became impossible to make proper whistle signals due to the inability to make short sounds. We complained about it for 7 years, even going so far as to have a meeting with the mechanical department a year ago, during which we explained to them WHY the whistles did not work properly. I even drew them a PICTURE for goodness' sake. They ignored us of course and are only now FINALLY doing something because the FRA got all over them about it.

SO... As far as I know, the P2s are staying, but they should sound a little better, and the engineers should have a lot more control over them.

Well, it's a start. I think Metrolink has the same problem, wondering if anything will change with them too. The MP36s were, I believe, the first set of equipment received with the P2s factory installed below the coupler and they sound a lot better then the F59s do (but that still doesn't say very much about the horns themselves).

The other question, however, is according to the other thread there were horns which didn't sound like P2s being tested at CEMOF... No word on that?

Heaven forbid three hours to do some work :)

TopCat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> According to the experts at Cemof, (2) engines
> (unkown, which ones) and one cab car
> have been adjusted. If I see them or hear which
> ones, I will pass it on. Also, it
> is about a three hour job per engine.
>
> TopCat

ThumbsUp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Word on the street is that they are keeping the
> P2s and moving them back to the roof where the
> K5LAs used to be. This way there won't be a mile
> of pipe for the air to back up in between the
> whistle and the valve.

Looks like this might be true, cabcar 113 now has its P2 on the roof. Seen sitting at Tamien at 1pm today.

All the fools had to do (Metrolink and Caltrans)is
take the original K5LAs and install a $2.00 Set-screw air restricter plug in the horn manifold air supply port(which comes pre-threaded from Airchime for this reason)to lower the loudness.

They spent good money on the K5s and should have stuck with them from the begining.

What a shame.

This P horn foly has been a complete waste of tax payers money
and will continue to result in sub-standard Grade X-ing warnings
and also continue to be very non-pleasing to the ears.

P5r24

nickrgeorge Wrote:
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> Looks like this might be true, cabcar 113 now has
> its P2 on the roof. Seen sitting at Tamien at 1pm
> today.

Well, I looked back at my pictures and discovered that 113 has always had a P2 on the roof, as well as beside the coupler. What gives??

P5r24 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> All the fools had to do (Metrolink and
> Caltrans)is
> take the original K5LAs and install a $2.00
> Set-screw air restricter plug in the horn manifold
> air supply port(which comes pre-threaded from
> Airchime for this reason)to lower the loudness.
>
> They spent good money on the K5s and should have
> stuck with them from the begining.
>
> What a shame.
>
> This P horn foly has been a complete waste of tax
> payers money
> and will continue to result in sub-standard Grade
> X-ing warnings
> and also continue to be very non-pleasing to the
> ears.
>
> P5r24

Agreed!! The current P2's are just an embarrassment, just too agonizingly awful to listen too, just....please, stop the madness!!!

P5r24 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> All the fools had to do (Metrolink and
> Caltrans)is
> take the original K5LAs and install a $2.00
> Set-screw air restricter plug in the horn manifold
> air supply port(which comes pre-threaded from
> Airchime for this reason)to lower the loudness.

Although I think you know this, I'll state it openly for others to read. The whole concept behind the two chime horns is so they can be installed in a tight location (Behind the Pilot or Plow), as such the horns could be relocated from the roofs to closer to the ground as to where the sound would be channeled along a berm towards a grade crossing, and not over the berm into neighborhoods. Naturally, the railroads cheaped out on the modification thus Caltrain's current predicament.

I think it would be absolutely pointless to just relocate the P2s to the roofs because a 5 chime would provide a lot more warning with a relatively small payout (actually, I'd think most residents would prefer a roof-mounted K5 over a roof-mounted P2 just because it sounds better).

If they are going back on the roof they should go to the SP standard Nathan P3R24. Plesant, but loud enough!

Regards, Jim Evans

Today I had a readjusted horn. Although they are two chime, they actually have control to them. They do sound like horns again and not a sick moose.