Though one of the most familiar everyday sounds is the railway locomotive's whistle, like many other such, its origin is little known (writes a correspondent in “T.P.'s and Cassell's Weekly”). Formed under Act 110, Geo. IV. cap. 58, and having a capital of £90,000 in £50 shares, the Leicester and Swannington Railway Company's line (the second oldest section of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway) was opened for traffic on July 17th, 1832, the main line running from West Bridge, Leicester, to Swannington, a distance of nearly sixteen miles. Early in 1833, the company's locomotive, No. 3 Samson, was put in service on the line, and on May 4th of that year it ran into a horse and cart conveying butter and eggs for Leicester market, at Thornton level-crossing.

To sound an alarm, the company's drivers were provided with horns (as on the old road coaches), and Samson blew his on this occasion, but without attracting the attention of the man in charge of the horse and cart. The man and horse got clear of the oncoming train, but the engine struck and wrecked the vehicle and its contents.

The accident was duly reported to the engineer of the line, George Stephenson, by the traffic manager. The latter suggested the fitting of a steam alarm to the locomotive, and Stephenson, observing that it was “a good idea,” ordered one to be made and tried. Accordingly, a Leicester musical-instrument maker was commissioned, and he made a steam-trumpet, which was fitted on a mounting on the top of Samson's firebox. The experiment proving successful, the rest of the company's locomotives were likewise provided with these steam alarms, which, having a height of eighteen inches and a diameter at the top of six inches, were the forerunners of the present-day locomotive whistles.