# Quilling whistle vs. Quilling Horn



## oscale (Aug 27, 2013)

The Lionel legacy Berkshire in the 2014 catalog states that it has a quilling horn. The legacy New York Central has a quilling whistle. I associate a whistle with a steam locomotive, and a horn with a diesel locomotive. I would appreciate any knowledgeable input about the difference, and why would they put a quilling horn on a steam locomotive instead of a whistle?


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I'd suspect it's mostly a difference in what the guy writing the catalog copy was thinking than a difference in the operation.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

oscale said:


> The Lionel legacy Berkshire in the 2014 catalog states that it has a quilling horn. The legacy New York Central has a quilling whistle. I associate a whistle with a steam locomotive, and a horn with a diesel locomotive. I would appreciate any knowledgeable input about the difference, and why would they put a quilling horn on a steam locomotive instead of a whistle?



I think he used the word wrong.

The first Locomotive used steam trumpets.
Copy and paste,
Locomotive steam trumpets were soon replaced by steam whistles. .... The term for this was “quilling the horn".

a lot of info from this wiki if you want to read it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_whistle

I think when they Quilled the horn it made a different sound, I think it was the way it is made.

Edit,
Nope it is not here is the explanation in the link above,

Blowing pressure – Frequency increases with blowing pressure,[30] which determines gas volume flow through the whistle, allowing a locomotive engineer to play a whistle like a musical instrument, using the valve to vary the flow of steam. The term for this was “quilling.”

All whistles are not made alike, different whistles make different sounds.
Read the link.


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## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

I was watching a New York Central video on the weekend and some of their later steam engines (I think they were Berkshires actually) actually had air horns not steam whistles.

Was a little different since you don't often associate that sound with steam engines.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

cv_acr said:


> I was watching a New York Central video on the weekend and some of their later steam engines (I think they were Berkshires actually) actually had air horns not steam whistles.
> 
> Was a little different since you don't often associate that sound with steam engines.


Sure it wasn't an air whistle?

I found this site, http://www.dieselairhorns.com/collection.html underneath each description is an audio sound link if anyone wants to know what something sounds like.


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## rkenney (Aug 10, 2013)

"...allowing a locomotive engineer to play a whistle like a musical instrument, using the valve to vary the flow of steam. The term for this was “quilling.” An experiment with a short plain whistle reported in 1883 showed that incrementally increasing steam pressure drove the whistle from E to D-flat, a 68 percent increase in frequency.[31]"
Also from the Wikipedia article.

It is interesting to note as well that the same whistle generates an entirely different sound when blown with air as opposed to steam. Much of the distinctive steam whistle sound is due to the steam condensing (cooling) as the whistle is blown, changing the tone dramatically. Compressed air does not condense obviously so that the tone is more consistent and lacks the depth associated with steam.


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## sjm9911 (Dec 20, 2012)

Learn something new everyday.


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