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Learn to identify by sight and you can see what is on the the engines by looking at the photographs.
The best I can tell , single chime (hooter) whistles were on the earliest 19th century engines, like most other US roads. 3 chimes, usually identifiable as a uniform height cylinder with 3 scalloped cuts around the bottom of the bell, came into favor throughout the US maybe around the 1890s until right before WW 1. The taller the bell, the deeper the tone. In the early teens, you start seeing a lot of multiple chime step top whistles. These were most often made of cast steel by the appliance manufacturers. In general, 5 chimes were shorter and higher pitched than 6 chimes.
The biggest modern engines with higher boiler pressures had deep toned steamboat whistles, which avoided squealing on the highest tuned cells if overblown. They seem to have been mostly 3 chimes as best I can tell.
I hope this oversimplified over generalized explanation helps. I’ll post again after while about what I see myself on Mopac steam engines. And refer to photos in Collias’s book.
