Evocative railway sounds - what 'tingles your spine' ?

[ac6000cw]

Class 40 in between retaining walls, pulling away. Prolonged burst of coughing from the exhaust, accompanied by a low whine rising in pitch; the coughing dies away as the driver eases the throttle, the whine hangs, throbbing, at a medium pitch, as if in anticipation. The train gets under way, and the driver opens the throttle right up. The whine winds up like a jet engine; bellowing thunder erupts from the exhausts, rebounds from the cutting walls, and thuds back into the train in a solid wall of sound, the turbos a searing whistle to accompany the rumbling, chest-shaking crescendo as the world fills with something beyond noise, an emanation of power so dense you can feel it...

That has to be one of the best diesel locomotive eulogies I've ever read - well done

A literal tingle: brushing the back of your hand against the wire fence at the back of the platforms on Bescot station. Yay for electromagnetic induction.

....and the crackly buzzing noise in the rain (I assume from current leakage across the insulators) - always used to notice that at New Street.

 

[talltim]

The turbocharger 'scream' of an accelerating Paxman Valenta 12RP200L engine as originally fitted to the HST power cars.

This
Times 10

The sound of my childhood, growing up by the ECML at the time between Deltics and electrification, and then moving to the MML.

 

[Bald Rick]

A warm summer night, mid 80s. Just after sunset. Hearing a Class 50 hammering away up the bank at Pirbright on its way to Exeter.

From 4 miles away.

 

[Taunton]

From 4 miles away.

Distance the sound can be heard is certainly a sub-category.

I recall as a child visiting West Kirby on the Wirral in the 1960s, and from the seafront there on a quiet evening you could hear faint whistles, and indeed the general train roar, of expresses on the North Wales main line across the River Dee, which must be just as far. You could also see the carriage lights.

When I lived by Canary Wharf in the 1990s, after Saturday midnight, only, I used to hear what was undoubtedly a Sulzer under power, which I initially thought was a Class 47 from Liverpool Street to Stratford but later pinned down to a Class 33 on either an engineering or a newspaper train running through Greenwich on London Bridge to Dartford.

Speaking of West Kirby, on the last section from Hoylake station the noise of the train notably changed, to a roaring sound which was quite notable inside the train and indeed could easily be heard from a hilltop a mile or so away. I presume this came from some feature of the ballast or substructure - it suddenly started, and a minute or so later stopped again.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Class 20's. I grew up in the East Midlands in the 1970's when they were every where. A visit to West Houses on a Sunday afternoon (without trespassing!) and their distinctive noise could be heard drifting across the fields. Memories!

 

[Pigeon]

That has to be one of the best diesel locomotive eulogies I've ever read - well done

Thanks

Somewhere on the net there is some chap's writeup of a trip behind a 40 on the Stranraer line (IIRC) - it goes on like that for pages, and it's excellent. You could really "be there".

 

[ac6000cw]

A warm summer night, mid 80s. Just after sunset. Hearing a Class 50 hammering away up the bank at Pirbright on its way to Exeter.

From 4 miles away.

Yes, the aggressive bark of an English Electric V16 or V12 certainly carries well. I live about 4 miles from the mainline, but when 37's were regulars through Cambridge, on a still night I could hear them working hard as they headed north...

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Thanks

Somewhere on the net there is some chap's writeup of a trip behind a 40 on the Stranraer line (IIRC) - it goes on like that for pages, and it's excellent. You could really "be there".

Maybe this one ? - https://www.flickr.com/groups/cfas/discuss/72157623408382014/

 

[Springs Branch]

As a small boy in the 1960s, in the summer school holidays I always went to stay with my aunt and uncle. It sounds a bit Famous Five, but instead of a cottage in Cornwall, they had a house in a semi-rural location near Lostock Junction, just across the fields from the Bolton/Preston line.

Every evening at bedtime, the deal was that I was allowed to watch the passage of the "Boat Train" through the dining room window - then immediately afterwards off to bed with no further arguments.

The Boat Train in question was the evening Manchester to Heysham Belfast Boat Express, one of the last (if not the last) steam-hauled named train on British Railways.

It was quite magical to see and hear this train every evening in the summer twilight. Climbing the gradient from Lostock Junction to Blackrod, you could hear the loco working hard and see the smoke above the tree tops well before it arrived. After the chuffing beat of the loco came the clickety-clack of the train of carriages on jointed track and the warm lights of the compartment windows proceeding through the countryside.

Lots of Manchester/Blackpool DMUs passed during the day, but they had nothing on the nightly Boat Train.

 

[Pigeon]

Maybe this one ? - https://www.flickr.com/groups/cfas/discuss/72157623408382014/

Eh, well found! That's the one. The original website seems to have disappeared, good to see the writeup's still around.

 

[fyldetrainfan]

The sound of the traction motor blowers on class 86s and 87s. The rumbling noise on mk2 coaches as the brakes came on. Class 47s ticking over. The growling rumble of the pair of 37s on the Tunstead to Northwich ICI hoppers which could be heard for several minutes as they trundled through Buxworth, past New Mills South Junction and on towards Disley Tunnel, audible almost the whole distance from just outside Chinley almost to the tunnel, probably about 3 -
4 miles.

 

[Traveller54]

The sleeper from London to Inverness leaving Perth at about 0440, late 60s-early 70s. Even as a teenager I was not a great sleeper and often heard this train even though I lived nearly 2 miles from the line, on a hill on the western edge of Perth. I wonder if today's trains would be as audible.

 

[Smudger105e]

Kerlunk.
Click click click click click click pshhhhhhh
Click click click click click click pshhhhhhh
Ker l l l l lunk Ker l l l l lunk
Pshhhhhhh.

Power equipment sequence test of a 1963 stock EMU.

 

[satisnek]

Jointed track on the London Underground.

 

[strowger]

Deleted

 

[hassaanhc]

Gotta love Phil Sayer announcements . Often feel like I could sit at London Waterloo for ages just listening to them.
Quite like the sound of a Class 165 accelerating away, I'm certain they're much noisier than the older Class 150.
I live about 1 mile away from the GWML at Southall, but I can hear train horns this distance away, which is also built up in between. Mostly at night but can also be heard during the day!
Oh, and jointed track!

 

[The Crab]

How about the passage of a mixed goods train through a station? Instead of the uniform wheel/joint sounds of modern block trains you would have a mixture of short and long wheelbase two-axle wagons and bogie vehicles.

 

[jp4712]

The clonk-clonk-clonk-clonk of buffers going along the length of a loose freight stopping or starting.

The slow, rhythmic thud of a DC EMU's compressor below the floor.

A class 40 whistling away to itself as it idles on the 'wall side' at Manchester Victoria.

A Paxman Valenta screaming out of - well anywhere, really.

The singing rails at Wigan Springs Branch, in the middle of the triangle, heralding an 86 or 87 approaching from Golborne.

A class 110 rasping out of a station on the Calder Valley line.

Listening to the things and thumps of a mechanical signal box while sitting on the platform outside, trying to work out what's coming: and the signalman pressing a plunger to ring a bell on the platform that a stopper was coming in the next couple of minutes.

 

[MarkyT]

A warm summer night, mid 80s. Just after sunset. Hearing a Class 50 hammering away up the bank at Pirbright on its way to Exeter.

From 4 miles away.

Early mornings and late evenings I could often hear Class 50s on Dainton bank, also about 4 miles away from my parents' home in Torquay.

 

[Met5141]

Slamming doors and the much missed slam door trains on the Southern,( Clapham, Victoria, Waterloo and the like seem so much quieter now). Also any class 400 units with dodgy sounding "two tone" horns.

The clickety clack from the track, (that seems to have totally vanished from the main line. Bethnal Green, west anglia side, used to be my favourite).

And finally, the full "mind the gap" "stand clear of the doors please" announcement on the tube at Bank (central) & Waterloo (bakerloo) platforms . Not all the softly softly, polite announcements of today .:roll:

 

[Hadders]

I like the whining sound of the motors on a 365. Also the auto- announcements on these units whilst nothing out of the ordinary, have been part of my regular travel to/from London over the last 18 years.

Originally:
'Welcome aboard the West Anglia Great Northern Service to Peterborough. Calling at Finsbury Park, Stevenage, Hitchin, Arlesey, Biggleswade, Sandy, St Neots, Huntingdon and Peterborough'

Once WAGN lost the franchise it changed slightly to (for example):
'This service is for Cambridge. Calling at Finsbury Park, Potters Bar, Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City, Welwyn North, Knebworth, Stevenage, Hitchin, Letchworth, Baldock, Ashwell and Morden, Royston, Meldreth, Shepreth, Foxton and Cambridge.'

Still the same voice. I don't think it's ever been reprogrammed.

 

[Ploughman]

Early mornings and late evenings I could often hear Class 50s on Dainton bank, also about 4 miles away from my parents' home in Torquay.

Hearing Class 56's heading North out of York after midnight from my back garden when everything else is quiet.
I live 5 miles away from the ECML.

 

[antharro]

Nothing that hasn't been said already, but:

Network SouthEast clocks
Slamming of doors on VEPs etc, and on Mk3 carriages
158/159/165/166s pulling away from standing, or getting a bit of extra throttle to climb a hill
442 screaming along the SW mainline (and their slightly odd sounding compressors)
Compressors on old Southern region DC EMUs
The quiet mid-high pitched whine of a LU D-stock when stationary, there's nothing quite like it, brings back a lot of childhood memories!

and of course

a Paxman Valenta engined HST at full power.

 

[satisnek]

Network SouthEast clocks

They've got one in the Alexandra in Derby (just down the road from the station). Unfortunately the seconds don't work but it still does its characteristic 'clank' every minute!

 

[Rick1984]

The dong-dong-dong of station announcements, not many exist noo if any

 

[GatwickDepress]

They've got one in the Alexandra in Derby (just down the road from the station). Unfortunately the seconds don't work but it still does its characteristic 'clank' every minute!

There's also still one in London Bridge station, in the corridor that links the Southeastern platforms and the Underground station.

 

[Strathclyder]

A few more from me:

• A Class 318 screaming along the Ayrshire Coast Line towards Ayr/Largs.
• Multiple Class 156s idling away to themselves at Glasgow Central, the resultant noise echoing all around the station.
• A Class 314 leaving Glasgow Central on a Cathcart Circle duty, the resultant squeal of the brakes and that traction motor noise echoing all over the station. Central won't be the same when they're eventually withdrawn...
• A Class 320 ticking over at Helensburgh Central, waiting to leave for Drumgelloch.
• The distant echo of a Subway train leaving Kelvinhall on the Inner Circle, bound for Partick.

 

[coppercapped]

The clunk-crash of the Up Main Home and the Distant for the Up Main Starter clearing followed by the shriek of the whistle of a Landore Castle as it passed at speed on the Up evening South Wales Pullman at Reading.

Then the smell of the hot oil and coal drifting on the summer breeze...

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Is it me or was there a slight difference in sounds with the Networkers before some got retractioned?

 

[Hornet]

Sitting in the first coach, behind a 'Western', growling over the South Devon banks.

 

[DiscoStu]

The sound of a roarer hammering over Shap whilst in the comfort of a Mk1 or Mk2 compo with windows open in the dark.