Air Horns

[windtrader]

Yeah, not to spoil the fun but if one were to sound an illegal horn and some driver claims an accident since there was a huge distraction, guess what, at least here in CA be prepared to move cause you're about to lose your house.

[eagle19952]

Hadley horn and a vintage Plymouth Road Runner, both work off the horn/steer wheel. I have a selector toggle switch on the dash.

[TomC]

This is not a case of "my horn is louder than your horn", it is a need for safety. Normal air horns are just not loud enough to overcome the nearly silent interiors on some cars now-add in a loud stereo, and they won't hear a thing. Blast with a train horn, and that will wake them up-believe me when I say the train horns have saved me from some bad possible collisions-mostly with trucks. Good Luck, TomC

[luvrbus]

I seem to recall reading where anything over 90db could cause hearing loss correct me if that is wrong.The railroads have paid out big bucks for employees hearing loss around here, my neighbors that have worked for BN/SF for years cannot hear their self fart 

[CrabbyMilton]

You can get anything aftermarket but I always wondered  why MCI, PREVOST, VAN HOOL and the rest don't offer air horns as RPO.
I've seen a few semi's at our plants with those train horns. Those things will catch you off guard and think twice if even if you know that there aren't any track nearby.

[peterbylt]

If your looking for the Real Deal.

I am tempted to bid on them.

https://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/auction/view?auc=2019852

https://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/auction/view?auc=2019859


Would probably take a little work to get them operational.

Peter

[DoubleEagle]

If I recall correctly, real train horns are strong and effective because pressures of 160-180 psi are used to blow them, which is above what we have on most coaches. A "train horn" on a bus won't sound quite the same.

[Rick 74 MC-8]

Clifford
Didn't you know that's why farts smell. So Def people can enjoy them too. Sorry for the drift but it's not very often that comes up.

[kyle4501]

True train horns can consume a LOT of compressed air!

Energy is required to make the noise. I saw one train horn that needed 200 scfm of air at 150 psi.

I would like a bit louder horn to catch inattentive drivers attention. A pressure regulator could be used to adjust the sound level. A discrete electric switch can select between normal air horn & the louder horns.

[Iceni John]

True train horns can consume a LOT of compressed air!

Energy is required to make the noise. I saw one train horn that needed 200 scfm of air at 150 psi.

I would like a bit louder horn to catch inattentive drivers attention. A pressure regulator could be used to adjust the sound level. A discrete electric switch can select between normal air horn & the louder horns.

Yup, lotsa air.   Here's Nathan's website:  http://microprecisiongroup.com/nathan-airchime/technical-info   Their K-5H needs 150 SCFM at 120 PSIG, while their K-3LA needs only (!) 72 SCFM at 100 PSIG.   Even the latter would be a challenge for a bus  -  a large surge tank would be needed to flow that much air.   So, maybe a real train horn is not such a sensible idea!

John   

[Brassman]

Those train horns at auction have 5 horns. Are they all at different frequencies? Who picked thatsound, and why?

[chessie4905]

Most everything you wanted to know...or didn't. These are manufactured by different companies, hence their unique sounds.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_horn

[richard5933]

Great article - thanks for the link.

[TomC]

Buellairhorns.com have "train" horns that I'm using, but are made of plastic and don't use alot of air, but are loud.