Where is the noise?

[ole man]

Whilst growing up in Crewe in the early eighties i can remember hearing all-sorts of trains around Crewe at night and in the daytime.
I lived near Crewe Works and could hear various Diesel classes such as 20s, 37s, 47s,33's and even HST's.
I can remember electric traction such as 85's, 86's and 87's making there unique noise's, my favourite loco was 87015 ' Howard Of Effingham ' it's the only loco name that sticks in my mind from all them years ago.
The Crewe- Manchester line made such a loud noise when trains went over the flashes just after Sydney Bridge Junction, due to the Subsidence caused by the old salt mines.
Now when i listen at night i can hear nothing but the boring noise of Pendolinos,and LM 350's.

What memories do you have of Railway noise from years ago, and where from?

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Having to blow your horn at the entrance and exit of every tunnel. That requirement was taken away a few years ago, mostly for noise abatement reasons.

 

[AlterEgo]

Not so long ago, but I do miss the warm hum of 321 engines accelerating since they've been mostly abolished from my part of the world.

Also, the tremendous unsynchronised clash as doors closed on 1959 Stock on the Tube.

 

[Hydro]

Having to blow your horn at the entrance and exit of every tunnel. That requirement was taken away a few years ago, mostly for noise abatement reasons.

I saw an old training film for then-new DMU's, the narrator commented that "the two tone warning horn is to be used at tunnels, crossings, approaching track workers, and when working on lines usually steam operated, at viaducts, bridges, curves and stations". An emphasis was on "Use BOTH tones always, to avoid confusion with a car horn". Now sometimes it's a quick blast on low tone for a warning board, two for the track workers and that's it.

 

[eastwestdivide]

Lived in the student houses at Welford Road, Leicester, which you can see from the N end of the tunnel (Knighton?), when there were four tracks there. Anything coming southbound from the speed restrictions at Leicester station could be heard well enough at night. The slow lines were jointed track too, you could listen for donk-donk-donk-donk donk-donk-donk-donk (i.e. a 1-Co-Co-1 peak) followed by donk-donk donk-donk donk-donk donk-donk donk-donk donk-donk etc of a train of 16T minerals.
Trouble is I had a room at the non-railway side, so I ended up dashing to the loo a lot at all hours of day and night to look out. What my housemates thought!

 

[David Dunning]

Having lived within sight of the east coast main line now for over 20 years a lot has changed re noise , It also depends a lot on weather conditions . I lived at beningbrough crossing for seven years but now live a field away from the track . On a cold frosty night it's still like I am 10 feet away but during cloudy damp weather there is very little noise now. But there are the distinctive sounds of voyagers (very noisey) The single whoosh of the 225s and the double roar of a 125 plus the goods trains . One in particular seems to need a bit of oil on the wheels and has done so for years . it's a distinctive clank creek clank creek which seems to have been making a weekly return run thru the Vale of York for as long as I can remember. Pass the WD40 someone !

 

[callum112233]

Now sometimes it's a quick blast on low tone for a warning board

Sometimes you don't even get a horn for a warning board.
I've been photographing at foot crossings and some drivers don't blow the horn at the W board.

 

[ajdunlop]

Does anyone know the procedure in N Ireland? I remember (although could be remembering wrongly) 1 tone horn for barriered level crossings and 2 tone for non barriered crossings (mostly farm crossings). Am I remembering correctly?

 

[OuterDistant]

You could only hear trains from my mum and dad's house when the roads were quiet and the wind was blowing the right way, but it was mainly sprinters during my childhood, so it's just a noise like "NEEEEEeeeeeeeerrrrrrrr" that seemed to stick out as they left the station.

I was pondering some onomatopoeic train noises the other day - a 1st gen DMU would be something like [starting slow, but getting faster] "ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra nnnnnnnnnnnn [long pause] ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra..." It was some years before I heard something Sulzer powered making the famous "teacup teacup teacup" sound, but it's definitely there.

 

[EM2]

From years of living in Southern Region 3rd-rail land, it'd have to be the compressors on the slammers, the VEPs especially.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Don't forget the distinctive grinding noise that slowly morphed into a mid tones whine made by the traction motors on the likes of 1938 stock ( Underground ) and SUB / EPB stock etc ( BR ) when pulling away, especially with a heavy load...

 

[Old Timer]

Ah but do any of you remember the banging of buffers at Basford Hall Yards in Crewe back in the 70s as they loose shunted vehicles overnight ?

The whistle of the 40s piercing the night sat about at crewe waiting to take the overnight trains forward.

And what of the unmistakable noise of an 08, wheels grinding the running edges of the rails as they fought to get hold of a long rake of wagons from a stand ?

 

[Hydro]

The growl of SR traction motors on a slammer. Fortunately not quite dead yet, but not as ubiquitous. I have a 73 right next to me at moment so all is not lost.

One thing that is dying out, and sadly getting missed are NSE flip mechanical clocks! Hearing one of those tick away at all hours, oddly reassuring.

 

[Harlesden]

There is one noise from the past I would love to hear, but it is unlikely there is any appropriate video.
It was 1962, I was 7 years old and recently taken by my mum from the town of my birth, Staines, 168 miles to Grimsby.
She was a resident nurse and I was "boarded out" with a family in Peaksfield Avenue. It was a terraced house with outside facilities, but it faced a railway line (now replaced by Peaks Parkway).
I used to hear goods trains up and down all night long, and there was a level crossing close by which, I believe, was on Welholme Road. Proper gates clanging shut as a train approached.
Does anyone happen to know which type of locomotive might have been hauling goods trains on the old East Lincolnshire line in the Grimsby area in the winter of 1962?

If anyone is fed up with high property prices down south, a 3-bedroom terraced house in Peaksfield Avenue is currently being advertised for £45,000. I assume the pleasant occasional train noise has been replaced by constant traffic noise.

 

[ACE1888]

General shunting of Mk1 and 2 stock around Penzance and Eastern Green areas down this way and of course the Newspaper and Parcel formations, when i first 'got into' observing the Railway scene, we had 08641 and 08644 as our pilots down here, then it went down to one (which we still have, and 08644 is back down this way) during the mid 80's. Fixed formations are just so monotonous

 

[eastwestdivide]

Wasn't it Paul Simon who sang "everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance"?
I'll second the compressors on SR EMUs.

Also becoming rarer, hearing the bell codes in a manual signalbox with the windows open on a summer's day, followed by a few mechanical noises as points were thrown, and a few chunks as the signals were pulled off. Anticipation...
And after the train had passed, the bounce of the semphore arm going back down.

 

[Welshman]

I saw an old training film for then-new DMU's, the narrator commented that "the two tone warning horn is to be used at tunnels, crossings, approaching track workers, and when working on lines usually steam operated, at viaducts, bridges, curves and stations". An emphasis was on "Use BOTH tones always, to avoid confusion with a car horn". Now sometimes it's a quick blast on low tone for a warning board, two for the track workers and that's it.

Some of those drivers quickly discovered that with the tones being set at an interval of a 4th, they could also play "On Ilkla Moor baht 'at" - and did so most enthusiastically, to the amusement of passengers but chagrin of managers in the Leeds-Bradford-Harrogate areas!

Concerning the most evocative of railway noises, it must for me be the sound of endless processions of fully-loaded, loose-coupled coal trucks from the South Yorkshire collieries to the Lancashire Power Stations being dragged by clanking, run-down WD 2-8-0s up the gradient past our house, and the corresponding sprints back down the hill with the empties - the driver struggling to control them before the junction signals ahead. All on 60ft jointed track. All now gone.

 

[fsmr]

"windcutters" on 9fs running past the bottom of my garden in the early 60s at Birstall on the old GCR and then later in the 70s, the individual sounds of the 20,s 25s, 31s and 37s growling up the climb from manton tunnel to Oakham. You could hear then a good 2 miles away on a clear night. You could hear them running along the Chater valley up to Manton from Ketton then it used to go quiet, and you realised that they had entered the tunnel at Manton and await the carcophony of sound as they emerged for the real climb up to Oakham Now its just the strange bell like clank of the 2 stroke 66s diesel

But only 15 minutes ago, i heard the very rare but glorious sound of a 37 as it eased off for Oakham. Too late to get to see it though

 

[Strat-tastic]

I was pondering some onomatopoeic train noises the other day - a 1st gen DMU would be something like [starting slow, but getting faster] "ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra nnnnnnnnnnnn [long pause] ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra..."

You forgot the, for want of a better word, rasp as the engine rpm excited the resonant frequency of the exhaust Marvellous. Great fun for immature schoolboys