Swanson, Robert Eugene

He came to Canada with his parents via South Africa.

He was the steam engineer at the Number Three Mill at Boulder Creek of Nanaimo Lumber.

He was Chief Engineer at the pulp mill at Port Mellon BC.

He moved to the Consolidated Mining Co. at Princeton BC.

He became Chief Inspector of Railways for British Columbia.

He was the instigator of the idea to run the #2860 locomotive from North Vancouver to Squamish in 1974.

He was a well known developer and designer of steam and air whistles and chimes at his Nanaimo whistle farm. On a large piece of property he had whistles, horns and air chimes at remore locations that the could activate from his workshop to text clarity and audibility.

He had an air chime that played the first few notes of O'Canada.

David Hill-Turner (British Columbia Nautical History Facebook Group 19/08/2017) states that " For many years he was also the Chief Engineer at the big mill in Chemainus.

He built a whistle for the mill that had a 4 inch feed and, apparently, could be heard over 10 miles away when the conditions were right. Bob went on to complete an engineering degree (in his own way) at UBC. Considering he was a highly experienced first class stationary engineer, it would have been a fascinating class to be in! Bob' company, Airchime Manufacturing, supplied many horns and whistles to marine fleets around the world, including BC Ferries. I read that the Queen of Nanaimo's horn was one of his favourites. AS I mentioned before it would be great to have it in a museum collection. The BC Hydro O Canada horns lead to a contract for the Centennial train and caravan in 1967. Airchime had one set in their collection and Ottawa's Musem of Science and Technology has a train whistle in their collection. Bob is probably best known for his train horns.

He described early diesel locomotive horns as sounding like a "sick moose." His horn was "music" - even it was done by an engineer with a slide rule. Sadly, the entire Whistle Farm collection was sold to an American collector about six years ago after AirChime was sold."