I remember that the 19000-series wood cabooses with the low cupola had air whistles. These were similar to the ones on some older diesel switchers. On the switchers they were mounted horizontally above the front cab windows. I looked at my photos of the cabooses but could not see the whistles. I thought they were mounted above the end door and they were operated by a cord that ran overhead. For what purpose were these used on the caboose? Where were they installed on the caboose?
I remember seeing the whistles mounted at the hand railing level with a simple push lever with the whistle orafice being directly connected. I assumed they used them when backing up a train, that the conductor would sound the whistle if they were backing over a crossing. I've never heard one in operation however.
Whistles, The whistles were connected to the train line with a hose about 4 ft. long The whistle was used when backing up as a warning to traffic and people.the brakes could also be set from this same valve. If you were shoving a cut of cars this same hose could be coupled to the air hose at the end of the car and the trainman riding the end of the car could warn traffic,etc. and also had a way of stopping the cut if he was out of the engineers view. LEW
LEW, wasn't this or similar air device used by the caboose crew to signal the engineer, especially during backing operations?
Whistle, I dont't know about other locations but we never used the caboose whistle for signals.If the train or cut was more than two or three cars you might not hear the whistle.In most cases you would shove slow and if need be they would set the air at a crossing if need be or to stop at a switch to enter a track.On a passenger train they had a whistle in the cab and the conductor could signal the engineer with the proper series of shorts and longs. Most of the time you had your head out the window watching for signals. LEW
