Sounds of the Sixties ... (or later)

[DelW]

was a nice view point/video, used to live near harringay/the depot and that was train noise 24/7 but i found it would help you drift off to sleep sometimes where i live now is complete silence, bit too quiet for me

The post above appeared in the thread about the return of the 442s, but rather than drag that more off-topic, it prompted me to start a new one with a couple of my memories of railway sounds of years ago.

When I was a child, my grandparents lived near Harringay station too, and well within earshot of the extensive carriage sidings at Ferme Park. I can remember falling asleep to the sound of steam shunters working and whistling, which I think went on all night. I *think* I can remember hearing them all whistling at midnight to usher in the New Year, but it's possible that I've just read about that since, and assumed that I'd heard it myself.

At around the same time, my parents and I lived within earshot of the Sutton Park line, and another clear memory is lying in bed early on a frosty winter morning, listening to a steam hauled goods train trying to climb the bank from Penns Lane towards Sutton Park. Several times it slipped to a stand, and each time the driver very gradually got it moving again, up to maybe walking pace, then the loco lost its footing and the sequence began again. That must have happened four or five times over the fifteen minutes or so that I could hear it, probably covering only a mile or so in that time.

In later life I've lived in several places where I could hear trains but only distantly, and none were as evocative as the sounds of steam in the 1950s and 60s.

 

[VEP3417]

all i ever got to hear was gner class 91s/dvt ect clanking slowly into the depot with fans blearing loudly still, soothing enough to send you to sleep

 

[matchmaker]

Growing up in the west end of Glasgow in the 1960s/1970s near Hyndland Depot, the sound I remember best was a Class 20 hauling a 303 at night, transferring units between Hyndland and Shields Road.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

1973 Preston - Electrics being changed to diesel - loved the various sounds

 

[Dave W]

I am, at least until Saturday when I move house, on St Ann's Road, very near to the Salisbury. When the wind is blowing the right way, the reassuring sounds of the ECML carry down the Ladder. On other occasions it's the heavy freight on the Goblin.

 

[xotGD]

The sound of my childhood was Deltics giving it full whack hammering through Bensham.

Do I win the thread?

 

[EbbwJunction1]

I was born in 1956 and lived in a house high above Ebbw Junction shed and Alexandra Dock Junction yard.

An early memory was of all the steam-hauled trains passing through between Newport and Cardiff or the many shunting movements in and around the depot or the yard. Some 60+ years later, I'm still in the same house, but the yards and shed have gone, the line is now electrified ... and there's very little noise at all!