PVC K3L Runby At Portage

I decided to bring my PVC K3L up to Parry Sound for the day to add some entertainment for all the railfans. We would head south to Portage afterwards (between Rosseau Road and Dock Siding) next to CN's Bala Sub.

The PVC K3L was made by Scott Teague, and plays the notes D#0, F#0, A#+15. The sharp 3 bell gives it that modern K3L sound like those heard on CN SD75I's and Dash 9's. While those horns are almost a half step higher in pitch overall, the notes are spaced about the same distance apart and thus sound nearly identical to this one.

Equipment used was a 5 gallon air tank with a regulator and Viloco valve attached to it. A hose ran to the back to connect with a 20 gallon auxiliary tank, both pressurized to 170psi. I am still getting used to the new horn valve, so I didn't do the greatest job. The horn was regulated to 100psi which gave it that softer Dash 9 like sound. The air consumption is about the same as a new or remachined 3 chime K horn.

I've gone the route of PVC horns for now as real ones are very expensive, and personally aren't worth the cost to me unless they have traceable heritage in most cases down to the unit number. That is not easy to find, and Canadian heritage ones are even harder. And the current U.S. exchange rate doesn't help either. Scott's horns sound quite realistic, which will do nicely for the time being.