HogBoyJr. Wrote:
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> Most SP cab forwards used the standard SP 6 chime
> whistle. When they were smokebox mounted, they did
> not use the lever/rope pull type valve. They
> instead used an air actuating valve in the cab and
> an air valve to blow the whistle. This resulted in
> the whistle being either on or off only and the
> engineers could not quill the valve and "play" the
> whistle.
>
>
> Tom, I've got one of those 6 chime whistles as
> well. LB did not stand for long bell. LB stood for
> "Locomotive Bronze" and 9299 was the pattern
> number. There was a system in SP's Sacramento
> pattern shop to denote what pattern went for what
> application. When the pattern went to the foundry,
> whoever was setting the molds and calling for the
> material didn't even need to look at the spec
> card, they just had to look at the pattern to tell
> them what material to use.
>
> I've got a steel SP short 5 chime and the pattern
> number on it starts out with LS, meaning
> "Locomotive Steel". When I helped restore the
> 2467, we found LI, LS, LB and LA on tons of parts
> that were made in SAC. Here's what most pattern
> prefixes stood for.
>
> LI Locomotive Iron
> LS Locomotive Steel
> LB Locomotive Bronze
> LA Locomotive Aluminum


Thanks a lot, I just learned somwthing.
I had a 5 chime once too, I was all excited because it came off of an Atlantic. I soon
learned that had absolutely nothing to do with sound quality. But then, I'm not a big
fan of 5 chime whistles.