Railroad Sounds, Steam and Diesel

Railroad Sounds, Steam and Diesel

Let's take a break from the music and enjoy some train sounds.

released in 1958

Excerpts from the liner notes:

Steam engines ... huge black monsters shuddering under loads of coal and compressed steam ... lumbering masses of iron and steel that blast the air as they spit black smoke to the heavens ... tons of metal shaking the earth as wheels churn over gleaming tracks, bearing witness to man's genius for harnessing power ... immense drive shafts that grind in rhythmic strokes as the "iron horse" plows along the rails ... wailing whistles that echo through silent countryside as people sleep in their beds....

Diesel engines ... oil-driven behemoths that pack the energy of a thousand whales ... leviathans of the rails whose purring belies their capacity to haul a hundred loaded freight cars ... iron bulls that can push railroad cars around the tracks like balloons in the wind ... giants whose deep-throated horns rend the air as the train rumbles past crossings ... goliaths that make the ground tremble as they churn around curves....

These are sounds of a vanishing era. And so is the piercing hiss of the steam engine as it pauses to reduce pressure ... the cacophony of the switching engine as it lurches back and forth in the switching yard ... the coupling of freight cars as they are shunted from track to track ... the shriek of steel against steel as thousands of tons of metal grind to a stop on rails ... the ear-splitting blasts of steam as the engine gathers momentum ... the mighty clang of the bell as it reverberates over the din ... all are sounds of a vanishing era.

Shall these sounds of a vanishing era be forgotten, the days when the din of the steam engine and diesel were so much a part of the rhythm of daily living? Shall we carry with us the memory of picks and sledges that marked the extension of the American railroad frontier? Will we think of the many heartbreaking failures that marked the early days of pioneering, when trains ran on wooden rails topped by strips of metal, when horses and mules had to take over in place of steam engines that developed kinks, when passengers had to take to the fields for wood and water to replenish fuel supplies?

sounds of a vanishing era.... They become dimmer and dimmer as the sounds of a new and greater power age grow to be more of a reality with every passing day. They are part of the romance of America that will always be with us, in spite of atomic power and new technical wonders. For here, through the process of full frequency range recording, every nuance of this sound world of railroading is captured with earth-shaking dynamism. Here is a galvanic auditory experience for high fidelity enthusiasts to enjoy as they contemplate the rich pageantry of railroading and its mighty impact on the growth of an industrial world.

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Steam Locomotives and Some Diesel Locomotives {11:22}

Side 2

1. Diesel Locomotives and Some Steam Locomotives {14:23}

(1)