Whistle Parity

[Gordon Cook]

Alna, ME:
April 1, 2018
Steam crews on the WW&F Ry. are concerned that they are falling behind in the whistle race in Alna.
On Saturday, March 31, it became apparent that WW&F's #9 whistle is no match for the much louder and multi-toned whistle on the Maine Narrow Gauge's ex-B&SR #7, which was in steam for the day. #7's crew could be seen with silly grins on  their faces as their bigger equipment overwhelmed #9's authentic but smaller hooter.
Rumors are that the leadership of the WW&F is considering the return of Bernie Perch's CNJ #113 whistle replica to regain tooting domination in the Sheepscot Valley. This would require the rapid return to action of #10 so that it would be available solely to carry and power the larger whistle at full volume.
Observers in the area remain skeptical that this will happen soon, since WW&F CMO Jason Lamontagne prefers historically accurate solutions. He is quoted as being confident that adding two more replica Portland Co. whistles to #9 will close the hooter gap without resorting to more modern appliances. "Size does matter," he explained, 'but it's not the only thing."

[Bill Piche]

Until fairly recently there was a very large Port Co whistle on a pipe attached to building 1 at the Portland Company complex. It disappeared shortly after the announcement of the sale of the property to private developers.

It looked exactly like 9's whistle except for a valve-less bowl. Based on how big it looked I'd say it was at least 6 if not 8 inches in diameter and was probably the shift call\change whistle for the complex back in it's heyday.

Too bad it disappeared, that'd probably beat anything that I could muster up for #7 short of an actual whistle that she had while in Bridgton.