Favourite automated announcement chimes and jingles.

[coupwotcoup]

Yep, it's clever.

I like the SNCF station jingle.

The musical motif was turned into a whole track, essentially becoming SNCF's theme tune!

Always reminds me of the intro to the old Sinatra song...."Love and marriage"....

 

[Jamesrob637]

I always liked the Hungarian 1980s station jingle.

My favourite is actually Geneva Airport, where the jingle is the first five notes of 'How-much-is-that-doggy-in-the-window...'

.

Is it still that even in 2017?! I remember "How-much-is-that-dog" in the 90s!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Is it still that even in 2017?! I remember "How-much-is-that-dog" in the 90s!

No, they changed it about 2 years ago, I forget what to.

 

[Dougal2345]

Any musical phrase repeated ad nauseam tends to leave me feeling... nauseous.

The French one is certainly extremely annoying - but the prize for driving me up the wall goes to Czech railways, whose jingle I heard earlier this year and which seemed to be the start of "Somewhere... over the rainbow...", but with the timing all messed up.

 

[317666]

One of my favourites is one of the old DB Regio chimes, which you used to hear on the old, former East German double deckers running round Leipzig and Halle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqvF96wZdJs

With regards to playing the state anthems, from my experience you only hear that around Berlin/Brandenburg and in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern - and even then not all trains there do it. It was much more common on the aforementioned double deckers, which played it for every station.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Here's an example of the DB one I was referring to with the different tunes by Bundesland. This one has two, one for Brandenburg and one for Berlin - though interestingly they don't sound like the "Landeshymne" for those two places, so I don't quite know what those ones are!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHYEhKIDZ28

 

[Westerner]

I like the Japanese ones. ..

https://youtu.be/tA-rU5a1INs

 

[S.Zeitblom]

The French one is certainly extremely annoying - but the prize for driving me up the wall goes to Czech railways, whose jingle I heard earlier this year and which seemed to be the start of "Somewhere... over the rainbow...", but with the timing all messed up.

Dougal2345, the jingle you're probably referring to comes from the famous symphonic poems Ma Vlast ("my homeland") by the Czech composer Smetana. Those four notes notably appear in the "Moldau" poem, the most famous of all, and are a symbol of the Vyšehrad castle in Prag.
Those Czechs are certainly very refined people...

 

[Jordy]

There's a load of Czech chimes here http://www.hlaseni.net/znelky.html

Vyšehrad (Bedřich Smetana) is used at Praha hln (occasionally, if the announcements stop for long enough!)

 

[mugam4]

I don't think it is used anymore but this used to play before every train - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH0xOhMV55g - always brought a smile since you'd typically only here it once per journey, although began to grate if you had to wait around..

 

[dutchflyer]

For me that SNCF is a real dislike-opinions differ. esp. that silken overly sweetened lady-voice.
The most extravagant was when relations between Ukrayna and Russia were not that sour yet: the main trains to the capital of this world, as anyone knows thats MOCKBA, had the full anthem played with all train-staff standing still and saluting. Formerly in communist times (this is an aside) the national CCCP-anthem was also played when AEROFLOTplane entered Russky airspace.
But I am surprised many here among you seem to know even the sources etc-I have never bothered about that.

 

[Groningen]

There is not much of music with the railways in the Netherlands.

Best i can think of is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-UA4GVlUJU

 

[317666]

There is not much of music with the railways in the Netherlands.

Best i can think of is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-UA4GVlUJU

I quite like the piano jingle which is played for NS International trains.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I quite like the piano jingle which is played for NS International trains.

Is that new? There was one a bit like the ATW jingle which preceded "De internationale trein naar Antwerpen en Brussel"... but that one stopped when it became an IC domestically.

 

[route101]

I like the SNCF jingle, had as my ring tone while back, will use again as going Nice in September.

One of my favs too , they had a jingle at Paris CDG airport that was not a million miles away

 

[route101]

Oui..

When I seen this thread "de-de, di-de" immediately came to mind! It's just le best!!
Look on YouTube and you will find so many versions and remixes of it. I have most of them on my phone.

Besides le SNCF jingle my other favourite has to be the old chime at Roissy Aéroport that was used for many years "Indicatif Roissy" composed by Bernard Parmegiani for Aéroports de Paris in the 70's. Now replace by "Indicatif ADP"

As mentioned above the SBB-CFF-FFS is also awesome.

I also quite like the short and simple bing bong at München Hauptbahnhof, the MVG chime is also cool.

And who could forget the old classic bing-bong chime at Glasgow Central that was there for more than twenty years?! I grew up hearing that and will be stuck in my mind forever!

Ah Glasgow central , wasnt a chime to me , as a bit harsher .

 

[Bletchleyite]

Does generally surprise me that no UK TOC has seen a chime as part of their branding - even advertising on TV often uses them at the end (e.g. Nestle).

The restful slow "bing bong" of Preston just sprung to mind, as well as the old female announcer there who use to sing the stations, quite atmospheric late at night.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Ah Glasgow central , wasnt a chime to me , as a bit harsher .

A gem that - which was often followed by a hasty and unintelligable broad Glasgow accent , about the cancellation of a Cathcart line train.

Wonderful Jimmy Shand type music played , to calm the nerves......

 

[317666]

Is that new? There was one a bit like the ATW jingle which preceded "De internationale trein naar Antwerpen en Brussel"... but that one stopped when it became an IC domestically.

Been around for a few years now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQesrBDEQpI

 

[route101]

A gem that - which was often followed by a hasty and unintelligable broad Glasgow accent , about the cancellation of a Cathcart line train.

Wonderful Jimmy Shand type music played , to calm the nerves......

Trying to think when the Glasgow Central jingle stopped .
There dosent appear to be any chime at central now ,

 

[Bletchleyite]

Trying to think when the Glasgow Central jingle stopped .
There dosent appear to be any chime at central now ,

The ATOS Annie system doesn't have one. Given how much that system tends to witter on constantly, that is probably a good thing.

 

[duncanp]

I remember at Glasgow Central in the late 1980's/early 1990's the chime that was used to alert people to an announcement sounded like the chimes from the TV programme "Hi-de-Hi".

You could imagine Miss Cathcart saying ".. Hi de hi passengers, the 07:00 to London Euston is delayed by 30 minutes due to leaves on the line.. etc etc.

 

[12CSVT]

I remember at Glasgow Central in the late 1980's/early 1990's the chime that was used to alert people to an announcement sounded like the chimes from the TV programme "Hi-de-Hi".

You could imagine Miss Cathcart saying ".. Hi de hi passengers, the 07:00 to London Euston is delayed by 30 minutes due to leaves on the line.. etc etc.

Or more appropriately announcing the next Cathcart circle service

 

[SpacePhoenix]

The ATOS Annie system doesn't have one. Given how much that system tends to witter on constantly, that is probably a good thing.

Is there a good choice of either rolling stock or station that I could search for on youtube to hear a sample of ATOS Annie?

 

[AY1975]

Yep, it's clever.

I like the SNCF station jingle.

The musical motif was turned into a whole track, essentially becoming SNCF's theme tune!

I also really liked the old SNCF one from the 1990s and early 2000s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnGYmKFx3CU

 

[Bletchleyite]

Is there a good choice of either rolling stock or station that I could search for on youtube to hear a sample of ATOS Annie?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzr66qrLSNA should do it.

 

[AY1975]

The ATOS Annie system doesn't have one. Given how much that system tends to witter on constantly, that is probably a good thing.

A few stations still do have a chime, even with today's digitally pre-recorded announcements. Harrogate still had one last time I was there, and so does Vauxhall.

Many stations (Derby, for example) seem to have one whenever they make a manual announcement (which they still do occasionally), but not for the routine digital announcements.

I think they ought to have a different chime for train announcements and for safety announcements like do not leave luggage unattended, take care in today's wet weather, etc (so we know we need not pay so much attention to the latter!).

In the 1980s and '90s Sheffield Midland had BR's standard "ding dong ding", and a lovely woman announcer (see www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8eYvnmZ60k). I much preferred that to the present day ATOS system.

See also the now closed thread on BR station announcers of old at www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=122463

 

[AY1975]

What is your favourite foreign station and onboard announcement chimes and jingles?

My favourites are the four Hungarian ones (it seems that there is one for local trains / one for long distance national trains / one for long distance international trains / one for GYSEV Raaberbahn trains) and the two Romanian ones (it seems that there is one for the South of the country and one for the North of the country). I also really like the one found on local suburban and regional DB trains in Germany. And the Russian and Danish ones are really good as well. Finally the BKK Budapest (Metro and Tram) has a really good one.

I have attached some recordings.

Does anyone know any other particular good ones?

Never heard that one on DB before. Most DB stations have a standard "bing bong" (or at least they did in the 1990s).

I quite liked this one from Leipzig Hbf which I remember from the mid-1990s: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt2sow5_stY

and these ones from Stuttgart Hbf: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzvyRVnaQNQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrNzA_weRo0
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNwHKeZktwM

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I love the current German speaking SBB Jingle. The French, Italian and old 1990 ones are a bit freaky to me.

I always loved the 175 chime, why do they never see, to play it anymore?

But one I find hilarious is one that I think is from Singapore. When the train approaches the speaker suddenly belts out a girl group actually singing "Train is coming, train is coming, train is comiiiiiiiiinnnngg. Love your ride!" and then the announcement comes.

 

[Bletchleyite]

In the 1980s and '90s Sheffield Midland had BR's standard "ding dong ding", and a lovely woman announcer (see www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8eYvnmZ60k). I much preferred that to the present day ATOS system.

That system was used in many stations in the North (Liverpool Lime St and Wigan NW certainly) with a posh but distinctly Northern accent (the "Good afternoon, welcome to X" had a short rather than long "a").

The screens in Sheffield were quite interesting, they weren't easy to read but appeared to be BBC Micro based.