Mount Washington horn a thing of the past?

[StephenB]

Originally Posted by Descant

Is it really an air horn? When Jack Miller built the mini-Mount, he had recordings of the Mount's horn and sent them to a horn manufacturer to get an exact duplicate sound. His was an electro-mechanical device, wasn't it? That's quite a pipefitters dream to run a pipe from the engine room/compressor and air storage tank to the top of the wheelhouse, although that must be what they had when the Chateguay was built, same with bell signals to the engine room, since they did not have transmissions but had to stop/start to change from forward to reverse.

What I believe to be the air horn is mounted on the top of the smoke stack rather than the wheel house.


it wouldn't be too hard to run a compressed air line up the inside of that large stack, the latter being sized so large from the Mount's steam engines that first year it hit the water. The existing pipes for the Caterpillars and what I imagine is the diesel gen set look to take up almost no room in the stack.

I'm sure someone here must know intricate details about all these mechanicals, maybe even someone from the company. Please enlighten us!

[garysanfran]

Leaving The Weirs this morning, the air horn was used.