DJB whistles

[Keith S]

After seeing some videos, I've decided I am interested in a DJB whistle for my Roundhouse "Billy" engine.

I've visited the website and there seems to be whistle types that are specific to which Roundhouse model you have. Of course, "Billy" is not included, but I imagine the "Lady Anne" one would be the correct type to order, or would the "Fowler" one be correct? Does it have something to do with how far the back of the boiler protrudes into the cab? If so the "Fowler" one might be more correct for "Billy".

Also, just so I have this straight, it's necessary to remove the regulator from the steam turret, and mail it to DJB to be modified after ordering the whistle? Why don't they just modify the threaded cap on top of the turret with a banjo? Why the regulator?

[Big Al]

Just phone DJB a nice man answers the phone and will let you know what you need. I found them most help full. Phone: 01777 871047

[Keith S]

Thanks Al.

[Keith S]

OK, I guess I wasn't asking the right questions. I'm still not sure the whistle is worth the 90 pounds, plus the bother of telephoning long-distance to the other side of the world, plus punching holes in the cab of my engine, plus consigning my regulator to the aether that is international post for six weeks. I was hoping to initiate a discussion about these whistles, because I quite like the idea of any steam engine having a whistle. THe DJB whistle seems like a good choice, because it has a design which, with a resonating chamber, might sound nicer than a little mamod-like "peeper" being overdriven at 40 p.s.i.

However, computer and camera microphones do not pick up the sound very well. On youtube these whistles all sound like a very sick dog trying to break wind after eating too much alfalfa. I'm sure they sound much nicer in real life: or do they?

Also, I am interested in seeing how others have installed them

Finally I am interested in the steam lines. I see they are only plastic, rather than the other steam lines in my locomotive which are proper ones made of metal. Are there any problems with this plastic as it ages? Is there a way to paint it, so it looks like a proper metal steam line? I am not keen on putting plastic on my engine, but if it's trouble free and can be disguised well enough to not look like plastic, I guess it's OK.

I am interested in learning more from people who are satisfied, not-so-satisfied, or otherwise. The suggestion to ring DJB myself is helpful, but I believe it would be polite to discuss what the whistles are like first before wasting the vendor's time with a bunch of questions, when I may not purchase the item. THis is what forums are for, after all: "discussion". Does anyone have anything helpful to say about their experiences with these whistles? I think all engines should have whistles.

[TonyW]

I've fitted several to both Accucraft and Roundhouse locos.

Are they worth £90? Only you can decide, but they are beautifully made, and yes, they sound good.

The steam line provided is not plastic. It is a piece of silicone tubing. I see no reason why it should not give years of service, and it is easily replaced in the unlikely event that it does fail. I have found no paint that will stick to silicone.

If you can silver solder then there is nothing to stop you modifying the regulator yourself.

The most difficult bit is drilling the holes in the cab front. It needs patience and care as they need to be the right size in the right place first time. Drilling in to the pristine paintwork of your own loco is one thing, but my heart is always in my mouth as I drill in to the pristine paintwork of somebody else's loco!

[Big Al]

Sorry for not noticing you live in Canada. I have DJB whistles on a Roundhouse Silver Lady and Ltd. Jack. I fitted the Silver Lady one myself, as said above drilling the body work on a new engine is a scary business but I took my time and it came out well. I also fitted radio control to them both. As for the price I wanted a good looking and sounding Whistle so i went for the best.    :D   you can E.mail DJB and ask for more details.  pbailey262@btinternet.com Go Leafs Go.

[Keith S]

Ha, ha, Leafs! We love to hate loving them.

OK so they are well made, eh? Just after I posted the last question about the silicon tubing I read Tag Gorton's article in Garden Rail about his "Hannah" engine, and I see he found some black tubing, so I suppose I may try that.

I just have one more question, why is it preferable to tap into the regulator body rather than install a fitting onto the brass threaded cap on top of the turret itself?

[GardenRail]

Ha, ha, Leafs! We love to hate loving them.

OK so they are well made, eh? Just after I posted the last question about the silicon tubing I read Tag Gorton's article in Garden Rail about his "Hannah" engine, and I see he found some black tubing, so I suppose I may try that.

I just have one more question, why is it preferable to tap into the regulator body rather than install a fitting onto the brass threaded cap on top of the turret itself?

I have never fitted to a Billy, but like others, I would suggest emailing Paul Bailey. He is a great guy to deal with and a very nice man. I have just fitted a DJB whistle to my new Alco and it works superbly. DJB supplied a new banjo ring together with a siphon for the pressure gauge (in my case one suitable for a half inch gauge) and, other than the three holes in the spectacle plate, it just bolts on, replacing the pressure gauge banjo. All one then has to do is to take the gauge off the old banjo ring and fit on the new. Used to be that tuning was a must - but all the ones I have purchased in the past few months have been supplied ready to go. As to cost – well as Tony says, it is up to you. For me it is worth it because one gets a nice deep whistle and the steam comes out of the right place.

[GardenRail]

Ha, ha, Leafs! We love to hate loving them.

OK so they are well made, eh? Just after I posted the last question about the silicon tubing I read Tag Gorton's article in Garden Rail about his "Hannah" engine, and I see he found some black tubing, so I suppose I may try that.

I just have one more question, why is it preferable to tap into the regulator body rather than install a fitting onto the brass threaded cap on top of the turret itself?

This tubing is fuel tube I think for model aircraft. I you have trouble getting it I have enough for another dozen engines and it is no trouble to stick it in a jiffy bag. I enclose a pic of the cab to perhaps give a better idea..

[dewintondave]

I don't like the sound of those resonator whistles either. Three of my loco's have homemade normal whistles, I think they sound great. Check out these for all three. One is much larger than the other two.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq4MbCBAF6Y

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNQcoanpK18

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj6Jf8MqNIY

Best wishes,
Dave.

[GardenRail]

I don't like the sound of those resonator whistles either.  Three of my loco's have homemade normal whistles, I think they sound great.  Check out these for all three.  One is much larger than the other two.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq4MbCBAF6Y

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNQcoanpK18

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj6Jf8MqNIY

Best wishes,
Dave.

Glad you like them Dave - but would not be happy with a whistle like this. If anyone wants to hear mine in action then email me at tag (at) atlanticpublishers.com and I will send you an MP3.

[Superbiker_uk]

DJB whistles are superb and you get an excellent after sales service.

Not a great video but here is my Ragleth that I fitted with a DJB resonator and have to say that I think it's fantastic!!

<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/B2nk0SSxIl4?ve ... width="640" height="390"></embed>

[GardenRail]

DJB whistles are superb and you get an excellent after sales service.

Not a great video but here is my Ragleth that I fitted with a DJB resonator and have to say that I think it's fantastic!!

<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/B2nk0SSxIl4?ve ... width="640" height="390"></embed>

I have found you can blow a 'Jim Crow' with the whistle on RC. Just as I have on my MP3

[Keith S]

Thanks guys. Dave, those engines are great! I really enjoyed the videos. The whistles sound good too.

I shall be ordering a whistle. The one in Superbiker's video sounds great. It seems not to be easy to get whistle-sound on video, you can see that especially when people post videos of mamods and things, you can never hear the whistle. You guys seem to have gotten it however.

That black fuel line looks fine in the cab of your Alco Mr. Gorton. I wish I could buy a DJB whistle with an Alco attached.

Well, I shall ring Mr. Bailey and sort out which whistle will fit my engine. I'm sure the Billy won't be much different from a Fowler or a Lady Anne in terms of installing it.

I'm inspired to do some light cosmetic work on my engine by reading Garden Rail. As well as the whistle I think I will buy some "running boards" from locoworks when they become available.

[GardenRail]

Thanks guys. Dave, those engines are great! I really enjoyed the videos. The whistles sound good too.

I shall be ordering a whistle. The one in Superbiker's video sounds great. It seems not to be easy to get whistle-sound on video, you can see that especially when people post videos of mamods and things, you can never hear the whistle. You guys seem to have gotten it however.

That black fuel line looks fine in the cab of your Alco Mr. Gorton. I wish I could buy a DJB whistle with an Alco attached.

Well, I shall ring Mr. Bailey and sort out which whistle will fit my engine. I'm sure the Billy won't be much different from a Fowler or a Lady Anne in terms of installing it.


I'm inspired to do some light cosmetic work on my engine by reading Garden Rail. As well as the whistle I think I will buy some "running boards" from locoworks when they become available.

email me as above and I will send you a file with an RC whistle doing a Jim Crow.

[hussra]

Well, I shall ring Mr. Bailey and sort out which whistle will fit my engine. I'm sure the Billy won't be much different from a Fowler or a Lady Anne in terms of installing it.

The Fowler is slightly different in that the resonator is long and thin and sits on the right hand side of the boiler pointing downwards, rather than just going straight behind the cab front. It's just a case of what fits each particular loco.

I have been very happy with my DJB whistle and the service provided - David (who was still at the helm at that point) was happy to help with dimensions and trying to work out which combination of bits would fit best on a "Millie", for which there wasn't a standard setup. I ended up with style of whistle valve that goes on the pressure gauge banjo (same as on a Silver Lady), and the Fowler whistle. Other approaches are possible - IIRC Tag ended up building a custom resonator.

[Keith S]

Well, I've just received my DJB whistle in the post... It's a very nice looking bit of steam-jewelry. I've installed the banjo fitting and the valve... it only cost 5£ for the new fitting from Roundhouse and Mr. Bailey picked one up and installed the banjo fitting... no need to send him anything from my loco.

I temporarily hooked it up and steamed up the engine just to see how it sounded... pretty good. It makes a surprisingly low-pitched sound a bit like a flute or the sound you get if you blow across the top of a beer bottle. It won't make a sound at all below about 20 psi which is OK because due to my firing negligence my engine is always blowing off anyway.

There is a downside however, and that is that the resonator will be a very tricky fit in the cab. My engine is built from a kit, and I bent the fuel line so that the gas regulator and steam regulator are quite close together. The trouble is that the only place the resonator tube will fit nicely is between them. It will fit, but only just, so I will have to drill my holes very VERY precisely. not looking forward to that. Then there is another problem, and that is that the way I have my manual regulator handle installed, the resonator is just long enough to get in its way. I will have to find a way to do something about that, although I suspect I can pull the handle out a millimetre or so, maybe that will fix it. None of these things are the fault of Mr.Bailey of course, my engine is non-standard.

I think "Billy"'s cab is smaller than some Roundhouse engines. I was trying to think of a way to fit a wee man in there, but now there definitely won't be room.

However, I think all things considered the engine will be more fun to play with when it has a whistle. I read the instructions about "tuning" the whistle, but having tried it out, I don't think it needs any tuning.

[ace]

Consider me a lurker Keith, watching with interest. Any chance of a picture or two?

[rebelego]

I recently received a whistle myself, and face similar problems. The Roundhouse Charles cab is small. I will have to bend the gas valve and pipes to the side, and it will be difficult to fit the whistle valve without having to abandon the driver.

[Keith S]

Well guys, success! I got the whistle installed and I managed to get the resonator tube to fit between the gas valve and the regulator valve, and was able to slide the regulator handle a mm further back so the tube doesn't foul it. It would have fit easily on the left-hand side of the cab but would have been more visible as there is nothing else in that space but the gauge plumbing and reverser handle.

I ended up having more trouble getting the cab on and off frankly, because I needed to remove a few detail parts in order to get at the mounting bolts on the tank fronts.

I have some advice that worked for me. After I took the cab off I took some card and made a replica of the cab front sheet. Then by trial and error and measuring with callipers I drew the location of the holes on the card. I only poked little reference holes in the paper, then I put masking tape on both sides of the actual cab sheet and laid the paper over it. I used the little reference holes to drill small pilot holes, then I took off the paper template and drilled the pilot holes out to the proper size.

Of course this works well on paper, but they ended up not being perfect and required a little filing to dress them up a bit. I wonder if drilling three holes in perfectly straight line might not be beyond my intellectual capabilities but hey-ho, the whistle is on there now.

I steamed up the engine, and I think due to the abuse I subjected the whistle to trying to cram it into the cab front sheet, it sounded a little pained and farty at first, but I fiddled with the grub screw on the front of the whistle barrel and it soon was making the correct sound, a bit like the sound you get blowing across the top of a half-full beer bottle.

Previously I would have thought this sound to be too low in pitch, being more like what I would expect to hear from a boat or something. However, I watched some Ffestiniog videos and saw that those little engines have surprisingly deep voices, just like my "Billy" does now.

I'm quite pleased actually. Now I am going to see if my wife will give me a little piece of chain to hang from the whistle handle for my imaginary little driver to pull on at stations and grade crossings!