What is it about a train whistle?

[raccoon]

Why is it so haunting?

[CatMor]

1. I love train whistles.....

hearing them late at night in the distance.they are haunting.

[saidsimplesimon]

2. Not haunting for me,

it's the comforting sound of youthful times spent on the river bank with the coal train passing on the banks across the river from a small farm.

[raccoon]

4. I don't mean haunting like scary. I mean it sort of grabs you.

Makes you think about whatever... it may be memories.

Well at least it does for me.

Definition says, “poignant and evocative; difficult to ignore or forget.“

[saidsimplesimon]

6. ah, raccoon, it is

a remnant of my past. My grandmother was a fan of the boogeyman. "Don't go out at night."

Thank you for the definition.

[SHRED]

3. I live near train tracks

It's a cool sound to me.

[Arkansas Granny]

5. My dad was born in 1911. Train whistles of his youth were from steam engines.

He had several tape recordings of old steam engine whistles that he shared with other enthusiasts. He said that each engineer had his own distinctive whistle and you could tell which one was arriving at the station by listening to the whistle.

[Brother Buzz]

7. It's the Doppler effect

But I live on the Ogden Mainline so the haunting sound is comforting to me. I miss the clickety-clack sound of the rails after they installed seamless welded rails a few years back; I used to enjoy counting the cars while I was in bed.

[cyclonefence]

8. I grew up in a railroad town

and when a train whistle blew, every adult checked his or her wristwatch. "Number three's on time today."

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. I worked in a rail yard during college ...

... and when we heard the horn on an incoming train, we knew it was time to put down the basketball or the deck of cards, and get to work. And if it was a unit coal train, great, we could ignore it because all its cars were heading for the same destination - back to basketball or cards.

[PJMcK]

9. The train tracks in the country are across the river from our house

Many years ago, there was a limited passenger service but now it's just a freight line. The trains go by only once or twice a day, often at night.

When the train is coming in from either direction, you can hear the engine echoing through the river valley for quite some time before the train crosses the roadway and sounds its whistle. When it's nighttime, it's a hauntingly beautiful experience.

[KT2000]

10. Saturday mornings, growing up

my father would put on a record of trains - really loud to wake up us kids. The whistle came first, and then it was like the train was coming right through the house. He thought it was funny.

To me, the sound of a train whistle at night, in otherwise silence, sounds forlorn. When it is in the middle of traffic, it sounds alarming as it is repeated to make the idiots stay off the tracks.

[Hoyt]

11. "Kansas City Southern, man that's a lonesome sound."

[Donkees]

12. It's like a wolf howl, a primal remembrance of separations and returns ...

It also brings to mind the funeral trains we've experienced in our political history, how we stood together as the trains passed.

[Thekaspervote]

14. Ughh! Have to disagree. Live in west central Illinois, a hub for bnsf 120-150 trains per/24hr

Before the quiet zones were implemented it drove most everyone here nuts!!

[TomSlick]

15. Everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance.

This Paul Simon song immediately came to mind.


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[nolabear]

16. The midnight train is whinin' low

and I’m so lonesome I could cry.

[raccoon]

20. Hank!! Nt

[KY_EnviroGuy]

17. Symbolic of many things to us.

Symbolic of travel, intrigue, raw power and American progress and prosperity. As kids in a tiny farm town in the 50s/60s, we marveled at them and wondered where they came from and where they were headed.

As much as I love hearing the whistles go by near my home now, it also can be a symbol of our excesses as I can watch hundreds of brand-new vehicles go by on the carrier cars each day, along with dozens of tanker cars with gawd knows what in them.

A mixture of bitter and sweet in my thoughts and memories of trains.....

[Laffy Kat]

18. I find it more lonely than haunting.

Peaceful too.

[lillypaddle]

19. It's a forlorn interruption

in the still of the night. It's the hoot of an owl. The cry of the coyote. Loneliness. Despair.