Dear Editor: Can we straighten something out once and for all? Modern trains do not whistle. Jeremy Shepherd's story NV City Silences Whistles at Forbes (Dec. 10) - in which the term whistle and whistling appear almost a dozen times - notwithstanding, whistles are a product of the steam age. I am sure many North Shore residents fondly recall the soft, sad whoo-oo! of the Royal Hudson back when it hauled trains full of tourists up to Squamish and back. That was a whistle, everyone, albeit a very nice one. It was powered by steam from the locomotive's boiler. Diesel locomotives don't normally produce steam, and have thus blown horns to signal and warn people from their practical infancy some 75 years ago. Yet, for some reason, people (including writers who should know better) persist in believing that railway engines blow whistles, even though horns and whistles sound nothing at all alike.
I'm glad we could clear that up.
Wendy Magnall
North Vancouver
Editor's note: According to the CN fact sheet Why Trains Whistle, "Train whistles are safety devices that alert motorists and pedestrians to the presence of an approaching train." The whistles (CN does not call them horns) on all locomotives manufactured
since 1982 are push-button controlled to provide a consistent sound level. Read more at the following link: portmetrovancouver. com/docs/default-source/community-north-shorewaterfront-liaison-committee/Why_Trains_Whistle_-_CN_ Fact_Sheet.pdf?sfvrsn=0
