I want to know if I am wrong or not, but having grown up on the old Florence Division (Augusta to Florence), esp. experiencing trains no. 50 and 51. Re: airhorns placed on E's and F's by ACL: In modeling in O guage almost all EMD E's and F's sound systems I see advertised have the single (truck-type) chime horn which the units had when first delivered by EMD. Since I lived less than a mile from the track and heard these locos at all times of the day and night I feel like i was hearing something like the AirChime K5LA horn of today; i'm sure it was the Nathan M-5's - BUT NO MANUFACTURER WILL PUT THIS TYPE SOUNDIN THEIR E's AND F's! Many pictures of othere roads's EMD units, even through the 70's show the single chime horn, but I know that ACL must have started a multi-chime horn very early because my experiences come from the 50's and early 60's. Does anyone have knowledge of this or give me contacts - Thanks so much for any help.

-- Capers Bull (eurekaairline@yahoo.com), January 07, 2002

Answers

The M5 went into production in 1950. It was originally designed at the request of the Southern Railway, but the ACL quickly took a liking to it. Later on, the ACL also used the Leslie S-5T. The chime horns quickly gained favor as they were a much more pleasing sound than the "booommmmmppppppp" of the single note "honkers" like the Leslie A-200 and WABCO E2.

-- Dennis McCurry (dennism3@bellsouth.net), February 12, 2002.

Most railroads got away from the single chime horns because they did not like the sound and you are right the horns the ACL was using were Nathan M-5's.

-- Gary Riccio (g.riccio@worldnet.att.net), January 08, 2002.