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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2013 20:30:18 GMT
I was reading an October 1960 working timetable and instruction book for British Railways, Scottish Region East the other day. Whistle codes for steam locos were under the categories of short, long and crow, eg if assistance was required from Inverkeithing up to the Forth Bridge then, at a preceding signal box, the driver gave the whistle code of 1 short and 1 crow.
My question is what is a crow whistle ?
Sometimes, in the early morning I am awakened by crows (the black feathered variety) and they have a very distinctive call of caw-caw-caw. Is this the same sound as a steam locomotive crow ?
Regards
Jim
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jma1009
Elder Statesman
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Post by jma1009 on Dec 16, 2013 23:06:19 GMT
'crow' is whoah- who!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2013 8:27:48 GMT
JMA, Thanks for that information and "whoah-who" is easier to sound on the whistle than "caw-caw-caw" . Still wondering why it is called a crow. I must get out more and listen to the black feathered ones squawking away to see if there is any similarity. Regards Jim |
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steam4ian
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Post by steam4ian on Dec 20, 2013 22:19:03 GMT
Jim
I think the term "crow" has more to do with a rooster than the bird related to a raven.
The rooster crow is Cock-a-doodle-doo translating to short-pip-short-long; (Pip is shorter than short) this has been abbreviated to what jma describes.
In our old local rule book drivers were to sound a "crow" when approaching level crossings, most of which were ungated and uncontrolled. In later rule books the code was Long-short-long. In the USA the sound for level crossings is Long-long-short-long; great if your sleeping car is just behind the loco and you are going through some town at 3:00 am.
For you ornithological interest in Australia our crows call Cark-Cark-Caaaar; very morose and very evocative of the outback regions.
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Post by GeorgeRay on Dec 29, 2013 18:19:59 GMT
in my part of the UK a crow whistle was cock-a-doodle-do. it is easily sounded on a whistle, and was used when operating with an locomotive on the back of train. It appears that the definition of a crow whistle my have varied from place to place or maybe from driver to driver. In my preserved railway driving days my ex BR instructor at the time used cock a doodle do as the crow when required. in fact on rough track it was easy to inadvertently sound two pips or one long one short or vice versa when only a long was intended, this was difficult to prevent if the loco did not have a cord but used a lever on the cab spectacle plate. :-)
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jma1009
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Post by jma1009 on Dec 29, 2013 21:24:04 GMT
perhaps i should have typed 'whaoh-whoah-whoo'! seemed simpler at the time!
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johnthepump
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Post by johnthepump on Dec 31, 2013 20:08:32 GMT
The two long one short one long as used in the U.S.A. is the Morse code letter Q. Having visited several steam lines in the U.S.A. the explanation for using this code is given by them as:- In the days of Queen Victoria if she was on board a ship the Master was aloud to sound Q as sovereign right of passage. The American railroads thought as they have right of way at level crossings they decided to adopt Q for this purpose. Regards John. |
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