Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway - Whistles of 2018
Vložit
- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
- The 15 inch RHDR runs for around 14 miles along from Hythe to Dungeness in Kent. It operates a fleet of around 16 locomotives (11 steam, 5 or so diesel / petrol - only 2 diesels are for pulling service trains).
Unlike the Bure Valley Railway in a previous post which only began life in 1990, this railway dates back to the 1920's. These days every whistle is unique but with the long life of the railway I cannot say when each locomotive got the whistle they have today. No 7 has changed multiple times in my lifetime and no 5 was changed as its previous one was too quiet. The rest of the original 10 have remained unchanged for at least 40 years and perhaps much further back.
There is also a little known piece of history here. The first UK mainline locomotives to carry chime whistles were the LNER A4 class designed by Sir Nigel Gresley. All subsequent LNER express locomotives to follow (Thomson / Peppercorn A1's & A2's) then carried them and so did the BR Standard 6P, 7P and 8P classes but it all started with the A4's.
Captain Howey, who built the RHDR, was friends with Sir Nigel Gresley. He also had property in Australia and regularly travelled there via Canada where he was known to the Canadian Pacific Railway. On one such trip he returned with two US built Crosby chime whistles - one of which he gave to Gresley as a gift, thus introducing Gresley to the chime whistle and changing the sound of UK mainline express steam forever.
Howey's Crosby chime was fitted to RHDR no 9 which still has it today. In return Gresley later gave Howey a chrome plated A4 whistle which Howey fitted to RHDR no 8, which also still has it. A higher pitched (presumably post war) A4 whistle is also fitted to RHDR no 10 - but 8, 9 and 10 all sound quite different. The later BR version can also be heard on RHDR no 7. Another, completely different Crosby whistle is fitted to no 6 and is much more shrill.
Great video that amply covers how the Crosby Chime was fist used in the UK. I have an original US made pre - war type Crosby Chime and having done much research on this subject - covered in an article I wrote for Steam World in 2016 - I can confirm that the whistle on 'Winston Churhill' is indeed the example that Howey brought from Canada. It's measurements, internally of each 'organ pipe', are the same as my early whistle but differ from the later, post war, British manufactured Tri - Tone Whistles ( fitted to the A4, Britannia, Standard 5, Clan and Duke ) which internally are marginally shorter therefore giving the slightly higher tone. I might just make a correction, the Howey whistle gifted to Gresley was fitted to P2 2001 not the first A4 close examination of images of the day of the example on 2001 confirms it to be the same as that on 'Winston Churchill', with the built in valve which is used on 'Chuchill' but blanked off on 2001. Hope that helps.
Great montage of whistles 👍
My 2 favourites are Southern Maid and Winston Churchill
Brilliant! Thank you.
Samson’s whistle at 0:17 1:06 1:28 1:39 2:49 3:13 3:27 4:32 5:00 5:02 5:12 5:30 6:25
Typhoon's Whistles at 6:33 5:04 1:19 2:57 2:12 4:07
From the sound of it, typhoon or winston churchill is now carrying the chime Duke of Gloucester had in the 90s. The dukes chime is now higher in pitch.
Churchill still has her original Crosby chime that Howey bought in Canada. I was told that Typhoon had a Britannia whistle (fitted in the last few years). I've never seen a Brit in steam but the sound of the whistles on CZcams is much more shrill than Typhoon's. Logically the Duke would have a similar whistle and if her previous one was deeper you may be on to something if it's now on Typhoon.
@@plesbit ah interesting. Yeah if you listen to vids of the duke from when she was freshly back in steam in the 80s/90s, there’s a striking similarity in pitch to typhoons, less shrill and more rounded
My favourite is Dr syn
Can I just say when kids cover they ears don’t get me wrong it’s loud but I get very annoyed because one time I was recording typhoon and this kid when he covered his ears he was blocking my camera other than that great video!!!!
What's wrong with Typhoon's whistle here ? Dead pigeon stuck in a chamber or what ?
I think that's just what it sounds like! Someone told me it's a Britannia whistle. It's not very musical, is it?
I think it's amazing, especially in the Eskdale Valley
I must admit it's not nice
@@plesbit yeah it’s a BR Crosby
2:57 sounds like an A4 🚂🚃🚃
No 8 (2:53) is a pre-war A4 whistle, given to Captain Howey (who built the railway) by Gresley. They were an American design, made in the US. The A4's mostly lost their chimes during WWII (apparently sounded too much like air raid sirens) and the removed whistles mostly melted down for other use. After the war they decided to return the distinctive sound and a new batch of UK made whistles were made - but they sounded slightly different. No 10 (2:57 is one of these whistles - it once lived on Commonwealth Of Australia. No 9 (6:49) is one of the original Crosby chimes that started it all. Howey brought back two Crosby's from Canada but gave one of them to Gresley - thus introducing Gresley to the chime whistle and giving rise to his decision to put chimes on the A4s. He kept the other and put it on no 9 where it still lives. So essentially no 9 is the forerunner to the A4 whistle on no 8 and the later variant on no 10 as well the even later BR version on no 7. Sorry - bit of geekery for you.
@@plesbit I said it *sounded* like an A4 whistle
@@plesbit I must correct you captain howey designed it and then gifted it to the wonderfull Gresley
Wiki's reads that (Class P2) No. 2001 "Cock O' The North" was given a Crosby chime from Howey to Gresley. Could it have sounded like No. 7's or No. 9's whistle?
ok but which one is Thomas's whistle?
Green Goddess
@@omegadavids6362 brown bricks
My name Amit Kumar Sharma I am driver 20 year experience please your country my job train driver
""""""""""""""Toy trains""""""""""""""
Very big ones. 😆