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 Vol. 17 No. 2
 February, 1987

Stay Safe in 87        
Swanson Cultivates Whistles on Farm
Courtesy VIA Rail Canada


Robert Swanson's invention can be heard each time a train passes a level crossing.

Vancouver - When robert Swanson heads for the farm, it's not to milk the cows and feed the chickens - he goes to test whistles.
 
Mr. Swanson's whistle farm on Vancouver Island has all the paraphernalia he needs to work on the sounds he produces for trains throughout North America. He also composes whistle sounds for ships' horns, foghorns for icebreakers, and the occasional specialty item such as airhorns that can be played with a
keyboard.
 
These whistles are loud; not the sort of thing you'd tinker with in your backyard. That's why Mr. Swanson's whistle farm is surrounded by forest about 32 kilometers from Nanaimo.
 
"It's the only place where I can test without bothering anyone", says Mr. Swanson.
 
Just about everyone in North America has heard his compositions.
 
He's responsible for the sound heard whenever a diesel locomotive approaches a level crossing. And, that plaintive wail so reminiscent of steam trains, was developed by Mr. Swanson about 40 years ago (59 now).
 
He invented the whistle to replace the "honkers" that were originally used on North American diesel locomotives.
 
Those whistles sounded "more like a moose in heat that like a train", he said. In fact, "in Northern Ontario, moose were charging the bloody diesels".
 
THE RIGHT NOTE
 
During the Second World War, Mr. Swanson developed a whistle using the C-sharp-diminished chord, which sounded more like a steam engine's whistle.
 
But, when he made his proposal to transport officials in Ottawa, he was told the National Research Council had determined it was impossible to make a diesel horn sound like a steam whistle.
 
Undaunted, Mr. Swanson returned home and rigged up a whistle, mounted on a B.C. Electric train, and taped the sound. His tape was played for a number of U.S. railroad officials, who quickly adopted it as their own.
 
Flushed with his success, Mr. Swanson went back to Ottawa where CP Rail and Canadian National agreed to use the new sound on their trains. They opted for the three-tone version rather than the five-tone sound used by the Americans.
 
Mr. Swanson is a devotee of the five-tone version.
 
"The three-tone stops the moose from charging, but the five-tone will get him off the track".
 
But he doesn't stay awake nights worrying about a railway's choice of whistles.
 
"I don't squawk about which one they take because, what the hell, I've got them all!".

 
This Canadian Pacific Spanner article is copyright 1987 by the Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.
 
 
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