Vol. 17 No. 2
February, 1987
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Stay Safe in 87
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Swanson Cultivates Whistles on Farm
Courtesy VIA Rail Canada
Robert Swanson's invention can be heard each time a train
passes a level crossing.
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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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