Canadian Railroads > CP 4744, PGE 712 and horn/bell combinations

Showing evidence of battling freezing rain the journey previous to arrival at Montreal Cote St.Luc in January 1972, the sole 4000hp MLW M-640 shows the horn/bell mounting as delivered.

Herein the problem, both safey devices would have frozen solid under such icing conditions.

Bob Swanson, the owner of the Air Chime company suggested this position for maximum horn effectiveness, but the railways in Canada moved them back to the top of the long hood.

PGE M-630 712 is shown at MLW later the same month, showing a 5-chime Air Chime horn mounted below the roof line. At that time, Mr.Swanson was a PGE manager. Also, the PGE was regulated by the BC Government, and CP was regulated by the Canadian Government.
The Government officers responsible for locomotive appliances had differing opinions between BC and Ottawa.

As a result, there was a four way debate regarding where horns were to be placed between the railways, the unions, the horn manufacturer, and two sets of Government regulators.

Close perusal of locomotive pictures between 1970 and the present will show the horns in several locations. Those railway shopmen who had to relocate the horns several times had their own opinion of this debate also!

Looking at some of my BCR M630 images, it would appear 701 to 704 had the whistle mounted high, whereas the other M630's had it mounted lower as seen in Phil's image of the 712. I wonder if the whistle mounting was the railroad request or manufacturer's decision. Then again BCR 701 to 704 were more of a true Alco design C630 rather than MLW630. Oddly in my images it appears that BCR 717 has a high mounted whistle. Doug



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/14 12:07 by hoggerdoug.

its like trying to figure out where this puppy is from, I'm tired of pulling hair out of my scalp looking at pictures, I know its PGE/BCR but who knows what!

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K5H from BC Rail.

Regards, Jim Evans

Well yeah thats what I said.... One could technically say its not from BC Rail but rather PGE/British Columbia Railway, just depends on how picky you want to come with Paint Colour/Railway Name.

I do have a red one of the L variety thou.....