TAMPA, Fla. — HornBlasters, which sells train horns for automotive use, has announced it is entering the locomotive market after acquiring assets of the Air Whistles product line of Leslie Circor Leslie Controls.
Leslie, founded in 1905, is the oldest locomotive horn manufacturer in the U.S. and one of only two in the country producing horns for locomotive use. It also manufactures valves, control instruments, steam conditioning systems and water heaters.
“There is important heritage with the Leslie Controls brand, and we are proud to acquire the assets of their prestigious air whistles division,” HornBlasters founder and CEO Matthew Heller said in a press release.
Well I guess they’ll have to “blow their own horn.”
Leslie has had apparently very little to no success with this product line in North America for years, and it was presumably a fully/mostly amortized product for them that should have been quite profitable. How is a new owner going to get railroads to buy Leslies?
So Hornblasters have acquired a “blast from the past”?
LOL!!