Kockums....Leslie's father

for all discussion about horns fitted to locomotives and trains, their history, and collecting them.
WeGotAir Australia
Airchime Junior
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Sep 20, 2020 11:38 am

Kockums....Leslie's father

Post by WeGotAir »

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G'day all, I have a very interesting and very influential locomotive horn to share with you tonight.

This 3 chime is not (as first glance could mistake) a Leslie "bronze tabby"!

It's a Swedish made Kockums horn, built in the very early 50s (or even late 1940s) for 25 English Electric locomotives that were ultimately bound for Australia and the Victorian Railways, they were a double cabbed electric locomotive known as the L class and were given 2 sets each of these horns, most wore them above the cab just behind the partitioning wall to the engine room then some had their horns out on the nose of the unit (googling VR L class will show many more pictures)

Going on the numbers there's 50 such horns here in Australia plus what ever spares were bought in...but who knows.

Now, to being Leslie's father, you can see the similarities between bronze Leslie S type chambers clearly, these horns are even called Supertyfons so the connection is strong, I've fitted diaphragms made for Leslie into them with no issues but the air inlet is from the 1/2"BSP base of the chamber with the metering restrictions drilled at this point and the bells are spun brass and copper that thread into the front of the chambers.

Of further interest is that the Australian sound signal manufacturer known as RVB used the same thread size for their bells to screw into their "S75" series of horns and bells from all decades from 1950 to current across all RVB and Kockums 75 series horns do interchange. RVB persisted with the older Tyfon style of power chamber until cessation of production in the late 2010s and Ibuki horns from Japan also used the tyfon design right throughout production, closely enough that parts from RVB and Ibuki 75 series horns will also interchange.......so Kockumsonics in Malmo have a massive legacy in the sound signalling world and I'm extremely proud to have several generations of their products in my collection.
Attachments
RVB S75 "air Hurricane siren"
RVB S75 "air Hurricane siren"
Ibuki S75 showing its tyfon internals
Ibuki S75 showing its tyfon internals
Old Kockums with a late model kockums bell threaded in
Old Kockums with a late model kockums bell threaded in
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C A WALSH United States of America
Airchime Junior
Posts: 22
Joined: Fri Apr 16, 2021 11:20 am

Re: Kockums....Leslie's father

Post by C A WALSH »

Way Cool. do ya got a sound vid of the horn? great peace of history. Thanks for sharin.