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Your favourite railway "sound"?


sammyboy

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My Fav sound is the Conductor saying please remember to take your belongings when I arrive at my favourite destination in the summer, ( a week in Paignton with my children - Good times !).

SGJ

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I don't really remember proper steam but living near the ECML for the last 35 years I have fond memories of the Deltics. Especially on a still night, you could listen to them all the way from Retford to Doncaster.

 

For steam, it has to be the whistle on "Big Jim" on the KWVR. The first time I heard it, I was at Oakworth and the loco ws at Keigthley (can't remember how to spell that - hope it is right). The noise echoed all along the valley and you could almost see which bits of hillside the sound was bouncing off. Even the glorious A4 chime only manages a close second!

 

Not even from these shores but what a sound.

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Hi All,

 

The sound for me is the Great Western 'bark' - that superb noise that almost all GWR locomotives make at the chimney - be it a mighty Castle or King or even Railmotor No. 93 (which has a wonderful habit of sounding like it is doing 60mph when it is simply scuttling along quite reasonably at 15mph on the demonstration line at 81E - it must be the small wheels!).

 

It is a sound that ties all of these beautiful beasts together and the one that we all long to hear as we restore the engines in the works. Picture this: You hear a loco on the demonstration line, you then look at the thing you are working on and just think one day, one day...

 

That's my vote!

 

All the best,

 

Castle

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Favourite railway sound? The wonderful music of a busy manual signalbox. Expertly rung bells and the accompanying rattle of the tappers; levers being moved about; the rumble of the point rodding changing points and the gentle assorted clicks and clonks of relays and electric locks in the various cabinets. In some boxes I have worked you could "hear" when the trains were approaching or disappearing into the distance by the sound of specific relays picking and dropping in the cupboards!

 

The last days of loco haulage on the Rhymney branch produced a close second; a 37/4 being thrashed away from every station from Queen St to Rhymney and return in an attempt to keep to sprinter timings. A noise I never tired of.

 

Oh and during my short stint as a fireman on the SVR my favourite sound was the injector picking up first go!

 

JF

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Whenever 3801/3830 or both used to head up the 1 in 40 just outside my house, with whistles blowing all the way to the top of the bank and the sound rolling around the surrounding landscape-pure magic.

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I'm going to be very greedy and say the whole range of sounds of the steam railway, from PerWay measured shovel packing and the wheel tapper going about his task through the sound of loose shunting to the ultimately treat - the whole succession of block bells then levers being pulled & the noise of signal wires, signals clearing, train approaching and passing and then more bells and then levers going back, signal wires rustling as signals are returned to danger etc with the noise of the rain running away into the distance; and how that noise varied by place and type of train/loco.  With all of that you could tell what the train was long before it arrived (even if you didn't understand the bell codes) and identify the type of loco with your eyes shut - what a wonderful railway it once was.

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Brittania chime whistle, leaving Wigan NW northbound every night at 10.00 pm. Sending me to sleep.

 

Deltic at 100mph roaring through Thirsk.

 

As GordonS says, this.

 

 

Brit15

And those two women don't even react!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I'm with Mike on this one - how can you possibly have just one favourite...?!!!

 

The gutsy, musical growl of a Western climbing up the Fowey (Glynn) Valley in Cornwall with thirteen on.... the throbbing, rasping, rumbling growl Westerns and the two surviving Warships make when idling in a platform, with each Maybach slightly out of synch so it sounds as if they're talking to each other... the deep howl of a Hymek recovering from a speed restriction on it's way to the seaside.... the scraping of shovel on tender floor at Toddington on a warm Summer's morning as 'Foremark Hall' is readied for another round trip to Cheltenham... the unmistakable sound of a rake of Mk1 stock being hauled off into the cold night air on a charter... the slow reassuring rumble of a Sulzer idling away inside a 47 on Crewe Diesel in the middle of the night... and all of them happening on a mainline or at a preservation site near you!

 

Never thought I'd say this on a public forum, but standing on the verandah of Bardon Hill Signal Box on a freezing cold night, even the sound of a tired but reliable 66 in notch eight going up the steep bank to Bagworth Jnction can make the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention... ;-)

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I'm in the 'too many to pick a favourite' camp!

 

Yes, flange squeal with the 'ring' of wagon wheels...

A Deltic going to notch one under the roof of Newcastle Central..

The A4 whistle screaming...

The distant sound of a class 101 with raspy exhaust in the distance on a summer night - as heard from my bedroom window in South Shields 40 years ago

The gear sound of the Westoe electrics pulling up Erskine Road bank

A signal box in action

 

I just love railways, everything about them!  I love the sounds, I have a large collection of Peter Handford Argo records, which have many of these sounds captured to perfection.  No Deltic though....  I also have the O Winston Link N&W ones, the sound of a 2-8-8-2 and 2-6-6-4 on full regulator takes some beating too!

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Does anybody else miss the scream of the old hst valencia at full power? The re engined ones sound so wimpy in comparison.

If you thing they sound crummy, you should hear the strangulated Australian XPT with the same motor! Less of a roar than a dull buzzing sound.

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Another for the Britannia chime whistle, we knew that the 6.10 from Manchester was on the way.

The repetitive 'clank clank clank' of a Dub Dee on a long and very slooooow freight.

The 'death rattle' of a Rat's exhaust

Any American diesel horn - why on earth did we end up with that wimpy two-tone thing?

Too many others to mention!

 

David

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A few

 

Class 50 under full power with a heavy train. I can still remember the sound from the early 80s.

 

Deltics under power - sound like nothing else.

 

Twin Valentas - sounded rather good out of stations.

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A Deltic climbing to Stoke Summit with an up train.

Another vote for the mighty Deltic here!!!

When I were a nipper and we used to stay at my gran's house that actually overlooked the summit more or less (a little hamlet just north of Little Bytham), I used to lie in bed and marvel at the silence of the Lincolnshire night, until one heard that drone slowly rising & falling in such an eerie manner with the distance, than gradually rising, rising then a crescendo as the train passed and gradually, all those sounds unwound until several minutes later back to silence again.

Exquisite!!!

Cheers,

John E.

 

PS Thanks for that great clip of a '56 at Barnetby - what a spot!

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