DateTime
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Author
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Posting
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05/21/2001 8:20PM |
Bill Kuebler |
All NP F-3s, 5s, and 7s
(freight and passenger) originally had Leslie single-note horns, one facing forward and the other facing
rearward. All NP F-9s (freight and
passenger), except 7050A, were delivered with Nathan 3-chime and kept them throughout their NP
service lives. NP 7050A was an ex-EMD
demo unit, and it came with Leslie single note horns. This unit was converted to passenger service in 1967 and
renumbered 6707A; it got a Nathan
3-chime at that time. The
Leslie horns on all passenger F-3s, 5s, and 7s were gradually replaced with Nathan 3-chimes during the period
1956-1963. Those years are real close,
if not exact, as end points of this time span. No passenger unit
retained its Leslies throughout its
NP service life--well, except 6500C (1st), which had a real short service life because it was
wrecked (and destroyed) in August
1955. There was a 6500C after that accident (until 1965), but that one
was an F-9 with a Nathan 3-chime. It
was renumbered 6703C in 1965. The
Leslie horns on most (slightly more than half) freight F-3s, 5s, and 7s were gradually replaced with Nathan 3-chimes
during the same period (1956-1963).
The freight Fs that weren't changed retained their Leslies throughout their NP service lives. There
is no discernible pattern as to which
of these units were changed to Nathans and which ones weren't. In the freight F-3, 5, 7 groups, age of unit and
model is not much of a determining factor.
There were several F-3s that got Nathans and some newer F-7s that never got Nathans, for example. It would
be a matter of looking at lots of
pictures and nailing it all down that way. I know of no written
document in the NP archives that
details this issue. Most of this
horn replacement work on both freight and passenger units was done along with lots of other appliance
work on these engines--some of it
internal, such as brake equipment modifications to passenger
units. Authorization for Expenditure
(AFE) files are not detailed enough to identify specific units for the purpose here. These answers are based on extensive photo analyses, personal
recollections, and familiarity with
NP's AFE files. For what it's
worth... The sound of a Nathan P-3
(3-chime) as compared with the Leslie horns should be more than enough to convince you to go with the Nathan. As
far as diesel unit horns go, the
Nathan P-3 sounds as beautiful as a diesel's air horn can sound and has all the others you listed
beat by a wide margin; the Leslie
BLAT horn sounds like a sick and angry cow, by comparison. But I'd
take a Leslie horn any day over one
of those whatever-it-was horns on the CB&Q E-units, at least the ones I heard in the 1960s and 70s. Those
were the WORST sounding horns I ever
heard in my life. Whoever designed them was more than unmusical; that person was diabolical and
demented. It should have been called
the Frankenstein horn. F3, F7, F9,
air horns, Leslie, Nathan, 1950s
Compiler C Frissell |