Western Railroad Discussion > I miss the old Nathan P-3 horns on SP! :-(

Living in Sacramento next to the former SP line, I used to at night hear SP diesel locomotives blaring their Nathan P-3 horns all the time.

I miss the sound of them nowadays. I hear a lot of Nathan K-3LA, Airchime K-3L and Leslie S-3L horns from newer UP and BNSF locomotives, but the old P-3 horn sound has pretty much disappeared. :( I wonder are there still any ex-SP locomotive in UP service still using the P-3 horn? Or did they swap them out for the other horn types when they were serviced and placed in UP service?

Try the Richmond Pacific to get your fix. I believe all three of our locomotives are equipped with Nathan P-3 horns.

SW1200

Where's Richmond Pacific located?

RayChuang1654 Wrote:
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> Where's Richmond Pacific located?


The harbor area of Richmond, CA. Hence the name of the railroad.

SW1200

P-3's, though getting more rare, are still out there blastin' away - at least here in the East. A few of your old SP units that have since become rent-a-wrecks for CSX still have them. Nice to get one of those as a lead unit once in a while - I'll take 'em any day.

Tom Kraemer,
Cumberland, MD

Good observation...in the sound category, the SP had the M3, M5, P3 & P5. Trainmasters mostly had M5's, IIRC.
They did offer some nice echoes.

Tom

Actually, the sound of the K-3LA is the second best horn sound I've heard. I do miss the P-3's, though. :-(

Check out this site: http://www.dieselairhorns.com/sounds.html

Scroll down to find a P-3 on SSW 8065

Enjoy

the older SP P-3's are still out there on the UP and shortlines (as noted by EsDubya1200). Heard one last night running through Oakland. The odds are they have been transplanted onto a SD40-2 but I have seen a few on the ex-SP SD40M-2's, SD40T-2's, GP40-2's, GP38-2's and GP40M-2's still left running around in painted, patched or if we are lucky unpatched form.

Crap, as I type this here at work Monday afternoon, a UP freight is rolling by with a muffled SP P-3 horn up front! Something is clogged or cracked but there be a SP horn rolling by...


-Ryan aka "espeeboy"
on the ex-WP Oakland Sub MP11.2

I'm with you guys, any horn that reseambles the SP style P-3 will always draw me memeories of SP!

Yessir.. I've been hearing the occasional P3 out the bedroom window in my neck of the woods lately too. Good schtuff. And such a welcome sound..

Cheers,
Harry

The old ones are hard to find. In the mid 1990s the P horn castings were modified by Nathan which resulted in pretty horn sounds turning to noise.
No place was this more noticeable that on the Norfork Southern where the Southern once had beautiful P5s which were replaced with crap. The SP P3s delivered new on the 100 class and 8100 class GEs were examples of the new casting type.

Regards, Jim Evans, Five Chime Consultants

I was on the BNSF 1009 a few weeks back, and it had a P3. It's K3 had been replaced. Every time I pressed that horn button, I felt like I was on the SP.

Ryan, I think I heard that same one as it was coming up the Niles sub yesterday. My mind said SP, but the paint said a UP SD 60. Couldn't tell if it was once SP.

DaveE

espeeboy Wrote:
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> the older SP P-3's are still out there on the UP
> and shortlines (as noted by EsDubya1200). Heard
> one last night running through Oakland. The odds
> are they have been transplanted onto a SD40-2 but
> I have seen a few on the ex-SP SD40M-2's,
> SD40T-2's, GP40-2's, GP38-2's and GP40M-2's still
> left running around in painted, patched or if we
> are lucky unpatched form.
>
> Crap, as I type this here at work Monday
> afternoon, a UP freight is rolling by with a
> muffled SP P-3 horn up front! Something is clogged
> or cracked but there be a SP horn rolling by...
>
>
> -Ryan aka "espeeboy"
> on the ex-WP Oakland Sub MP11.2

Is there any markings or other on a horn that will tell you the "casting"? I have a friend with 3 chime horn (Nathan I think), and now I want to go see if I can find out which one it might be and if it is the "old" type casting.

Bryce

It is very easy, as many horn-heads will tell you. The "old" castings say "PAT. PENDING" on the bell casting, and the "new" casings just say "PAT. PEND."

Thanks.....I'll have to check that out.

B

frnocom Wrote:
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> I was on the BNSF 1009 a few weeks back, and it
> had a P3. It's K3 had been replaced. Every time
> I pressed that horn button, I felt like I was on
> the SP.

Quick, someone get a picture of THAT! The first order of Dash 9-44CW's for BNSF had a very distinct-sounding horn and putting the SP-casting Nathan P-3 horn set on that locomotive would be extremely strange, to say the least.