I performed recently at the annual reunion festivities at Princeton
University, New Jersey, and while awaiting the start of the big parade
I heard the unmistakable sound of a locomotive chime whistle, followed
by a few single notes of the chromatic scale.  A steam calliope !!

Mere seconds later I was talking with the owner/operator and his
wife, Bart and Cindy Hoebel, residents of Princeton.  Bart is a long-
time professor in the Psychology Department at Princeton University,
specializing in neuroscience.  For fun he operates a hot air balloon,
a steam calliope on a fire engine, and he is looking for a place to run
a 58-foot steam powered riverboat!

The whistles and manifold were purchased from a salvaged calliope
which formerly operated in Allentown PA.  Several thousand dollars
later everything was assembled and operating in the bed of a bright red
fire engine.  While Bart drives the truck, organist-turned-calliopist
Cindy plays the remote keyboard inside the cab.  Here's the description
of their calliope:


General: 25-key steam calliope, mounted on a truck for performance in
street parades.

Vehicle: 1960 GMC fire engine pumper with the main water tank removed.

Power Source:  Fuel oil or #2 Diesel fuel; 10 HP boiler by Bryan Boiler
Co. produces steam at 100 psi.  Accumulator tank 4-feet diameter and
10-feet long stores steam at boiler pressure.  Regulated throttle
reduces the steam pressure to 50 psi for the whistle manifolds; the
manifold superheat temperature resulting from the throttling expansion
is not regulated.

Condensate from water traps goes into a 5-gallon flash tank, then
through a small condenser and into the 30-gallon main water tank.
A gasoline-driven 120-volt generator powers the combustion blower and
pumps.  Two 12-volt auto batteries provide 24 vdc to operate the
whistle valves.  Enough water and fuel is stored to operate at least
2-1/2 hours.

Manifolds: one for the high notes and a separate one for the low notes,
3-inch, straight line, with steam inlet at one end, water traps at the
other end.  The whistles are ordered bass-to-treble in a straight line
on the manifolds, placed up high along the left side of the truck bed.

Whistles: 25 whistles, home-built, based upon the design in "Live Steam"
magazine, 1977.  The brass-tube bells are supported by a center rod;
the whistle bases are machined from aluminum castings.  The lowest tone
is F above Middle C.

Valves: military surplus, 24 volts dc.

Control:  Organ keyboard with switch contacts, located in cab of truck.
A Peterson electronic organ control system will be added later for
recording and reproducing with floppy disc files.


The calliope performs each spring at Princeton University in the
annual "P-rade" and alumni festivities.  It appeared in the Christmas
parade in Clinton NJ, and also participated in Ocean Grove NJ at the
celebration of the 100th birthday of John Philip Sousa's "Stars and
Stripes Forever".

For appearances contact

  Bart & Cindy Hoebel
  207 Hartley Avenue
  Princeton NJ 08540
  tel: 609-921-6612
  email: hoebel@princeton.edu

Robbie Rhodes

 [ Bart's great-grandfather owned a harness factory in Madison,
 [ Wisconsin, where the Ringling brothers worked when they were
 [ young men.  In 1990 Bart visited a library in St. Louis where he
 [ found a book of stories about the calliope and a list of the
 [ calliopists who worked with the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey
 [ circus.  After that he simply _had_ to own a calliope!  :-) 
 [  -- Robbie