Re: Question for Earl

Earl Wrote:
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> First off, none of the 480's today have their
> original whistles. As built the 480's had single
> note "hoots" like 463 wears. Back then the D&RGW
> practice was freight engines had hoots, passenger
> engines had 3 or 5 chimes. By the 1930's this was
> done away with, and whistles got changed around.
> Your picture of the 482 shows pretty much "as
> built" with a hoot whistle and the factory
> lettering. The lettering style BLW applied was
> essentially the SG style. The cab numbers are
> larger that was standard practice on the NG power.
> Likewise, the tender lettering was larger than
> that used on NG power. For what it is worth the
> lettering style that was used from the mid-1970's
> to the early1990's was based on this lettering.
> When 484 was scraped down and repainted and
> lettered in 1976 by Ernie Robart, he found the
> original lettering and copied it.
>
> Sorry about the derailed thread here....
>
> The whistle that was on 489 in 1981, is mine. It
> is an ALCO 5-chime. It came from a big burly
> 0-6-0 that was owned by the Phelps-Dodge
> Corporation and was used in the pit as well as a
> switcher in their big copper mine in Ajo, AZ. The
> whistle lived on a couple of other C&TS engines
> also. Now it lives in my garage....


Earl

Thanks for the response and the additional details and history. The whistle you own is a real nice one and hopefully someday we'll hear it on another NG engine.

William
aka drgwk37