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I have just purchased a seriously large steam or air driven calliope
from a scrap yard for the value of the metal in it.  It has 32
whistles, steam manifold and electric solenoids.  It is undamaged
but dissembled and is minus the keyboard or control system.

It was made about 18 years ago but was never completed and ended up in
a scrap yard.  Two were made, the other operates at Scienceworks museum
in Melbourne off a basic keyboard.  Mine only needs simple assembly
then not-so-simple tuning and switching controls like keyboard or
computer.  Both calliopes were a result of a state government folly
that no doubt cost our taxpayers heaps.

My largest whistle is 5 inches diameter and 16 inches long.  The
manifold is over 8 feet long and the instrument is almost 5 feet across
the whistles and weighs around half a ton, so it is a fair sized beast.

Each whistle has a 240 volt AC electric solenoid valve under it so
I will use relays to isolate that high voltage from the controller
or keyboard.  Relays are cheap and reliable, almost any voltage is
available, so current draw and coil resistance can be modest and be
whatever is needed at this stage for the controller. I would not
contemplate operating 240V solenoids directly: it is far too dangerous
if outside.

I am particularly interested in having some kind of computer control as
I am no musician.  I am a member of a large steam club with wide open
spaces around their rally ground but with a major population just the
right distance away to catch the sound of this instrument and draw them
to our rallies

Despite being Australian, I have seen and heard the steamboat Natchez
calliope a number of times and my unit seems similar.  My manifold is
U-shaped and made from 4-1/2" ERW steam pipe.  Sixteen 1/2-inch outlets
are spaced evenly along either side and a four-legged stand is under
it.  There are two outlets below for drains and a single 1-1/2" inlet
and on top: a tapping for a pressure gauge.

Each whistle has an integral sweep elbow that screws directly into the
horizontally mounted brass solenoid valves that in turn screw into the
main manifold.  All whistles were fabricated from stainless steel plate
rolled to size and seam welded.  All seem well made and with a little
effort could be polished.  The Scienceworks calliope operates on air
and needs 100 cfm at about 60 psi.

I also play around with live steam, have a 1/4-scale traction engine in
operation and have rebuilt from total wrecks some 90-100 year old cars.
I also know a bit about electronics as I built a ham radio television
station by myself so I should be able to handle this beast easily
enough with a little guidance from those who have done similar before
me!

Arranging and connecting up a keyboard is easy but I was hoping some
MMD readers could save me a lot of trouble and research by pointing
me in the right direction to obtain suitable hardware and software to
enable it to be played by computer, presumably via a MIDI or similar
interface.

Bill Sides
Melbourne, Australia