|
The Whistleman
My name is Ron Beberniss and I live in League City Texas, a suburb of Houston. I began collecting whistles in approximately 1994.
Since then, whistle hunting and collecting has become my passion. In my search for old whistles I will frequently stop by some of the used valve dealers in Houston looking for old steam whistle valves. Because of my persistent questions about old valves and whistles I got the name "Whistle man".
In real life, I do have a real job. I am an emergency physician, and operate a minor emergency/ industrial medical clinic on the west side of Houston. My hours are somewhat flexible which allows me to pursue my hobby of whistle chasing.
 I've been married to an understanding and tolerant woman named Carol for over 20 years, who has allowed my collection of whistles to dominate not only my office at work,
but also my office at home and many rooms of our home
and who waits patiently in the truck as I disappear into old abandoned industrial sites with my pipe wrenches and pipe cutters in hand.
While numbers are not really important, I estimate the number in the whistle collection to be between five and six hundred whistles, and that number keeps growing. The number is not really relevant because the focus is not on the ones in the collection, but… where is the next one coming from?
While my main interest is in the evolution and the history of whistles and hunting them down, one day I decided that whistles are dynamic and were made to be blown. I started with a small shop air compressor and a few small whistles hooked up to a small pipe manifold inside my garage. This evolved to blowing bigger and bigger whistles, which needed a bigger compressor and a bigger tank. Soon I outgrew my space in the garage and decided to put a bigger tank and bigger compressor on a trailer so I could move it around. Then I built a 2" pipe manifold to hold the bigger whistles. This process finally evolved into about 80 whistles being mounted permanently on the trailer, which I call “Little Toot”
It is powered by a 35 cfm Ingersol 2 stage compressor powered by a 2 cylinder Wisconsin engine. The latest addition to "Little Toot" was a Tangley calliope
which I found stored in a man's barn in Rye Texas. "Little Toot" makes frequent appearances in local parades, train shows, local festivals and occasional birthday parties. "Little Toot" is the ultimate noisemaker, between the calliope playing John Phillip Souza March music and the little kids blowing the whistles she is in her element on the Fourth of July...
Previous Page |
