Air Horns on GP-7 and GP-9

Horn Installation on NYC GP-7 and GP-9.
Does anybody know what was installed on these early geep locomotives delivered to the New York Central?

Photos of GP-7s show a single horn on the engineer’s side (right side) of the long hood facing forward and a single horn on the fireman’s side (left side) of the cab facing back along the short hood. My guess is these were Wabco E-2 horns (single “blat” tone).
See example photos:
http://gelwood.railfan.net/nyc/nyc5607s.jpg
http://gelwood.railfan.net/nyc/pe5615s.jpg


Photos of GP-9s are problematic as the air horns all seemed to be mounted on top of the hoods and most photos don’t show the top of the hoods very well. It looks like there are two horns just behind the second cooling fan from the front of the long hood (just in front of the air tanks on the “torpedo tube) models. There is a single horn on top of the short hood. The double horns look similar to the Leslie S2-M, but my recollection is they didn’t sound like the S2-Ms that were on some of the later E-8 locomotives.
See example photos:
http://gelwood.railfan.net/nyc/nyc5955s.jpg
http://gelwood.railfan.net/nyc/nyc5986s.jpg
http://gelwood.railfan.net/nyc/nyc7300.jpg
The 7300 may have a Leslie S3-?

Since there were no responses to my question here, I thought I would summarize what I learned elsewhere. If you have further information or questions, please jump in.

From Ron Chamberlain on the Yahoo Horn& Whistle group and from retired NYC engineer LEW on Trainboard I was able to put together the following:

NYC GP-7s were equipped with the WABCO E-2 (almost a standard air horn on the NYC). One horn was mounted on the right (engineer’s) side of the long hood facing forward. Another was mounted on the fireman’s side of the cab facing back along the short hood. There were two whistle cords inside the cab (as was the case for most road diesels), one for each horn. The WABCO was factory tuned to F below middle C.

Ron Chamberlain told me that with the introduction of the GP-9 in 1954, EMD adopted the Leslie S-2M/S-25 combination for road applications. NYC GP-9s may have been equipped originally with Leslie S-3L air horns on top of the long hood. This is a combination of three horns with the smallest facing the opposite direction of the other two along the short hood. I am still looking for photo proof of that. Unlike other road diesels, the GP-9s had only a single air valve and one whistle cord. LEW remembers that when operating long hood forward the sound of that single small horn was not very loud and they had trouble signaling the crew in the caboose and calling in the rear flagman. A large horn was mounted on top of the short hood to solve that problem. It seems that what happened was the S-3L combination was split up and re-arranged. The S-3L originally had the #44 bell (the smallest, highest pitch) reversed and facing to the rear. Later the #44 must have been swapped with the #25 and the #25 installed separately on the short hood facing to the rear. The #25 is the largest and deepest sounding of the three horns. That left two horns (#31 & #44) in the original location on top of the long hood facing forward. This is essentially the Leslie S-2M, and that is what can be seen in all the photos I have found so far. In any case the GP-9s ended up being equipped with the standard EMD combination of Leslie S-2M/S-25 horns. LEW says that there was still only one air valve and one whistle cord so that all three horns sounded together. The Leslie S-3L (or S-2M/S-25 combo) sounds B, D#, A (lowest to highest pitch).

Mike

I grew up along the River Division in NJ in the 1950s. As I remember Geeps were rare. About the only time I might see one would be on the afternoon express to Albany, which would go by Old Hook Road crossing while I was out playing in the neighborhood before dinner. Sometimes those trains would have an RDC on the rear.

I do not remember them having the same horn as the ALCO RS-3s.

DocJohn

Just joined this group, that's why reply is several years late.

In 1958 NYC 5926 had a horn that sounded completely different from other NYC GP-9's assigned to the MC.

In this era C&O GP-9's had horns that sounded close to a steam whistle and horn on 5926 sounded nearly the same. My buddy and I looked and horn on 5926 was not painted blue.

Wonder if NYC was testing something different?

NYC bought about 10 Geeps from the C&O about 1956-ish, units built in Canada, for use on the Canada Southern. By Conrail they became 5818-5827. They were probably renumbered since the 5920s are occupied by mostly former EL units in this initial Conrail roster I'm looking over.