As we were boarding the last Polar Express train of the season on Saturday night, an eastbound CSX stack train rolled through the station. As is often the case, they gave us a toot or two, but the engineer on this train had a different idea as well.
As he rolled on east out of Utica, I heard a continuing series of toots - it took me a moment to recognize it as “Jingle Bells”…
Larry
some crews give us the “shave and a haircut” whistle as they go by.very nice.
stay safe
joe
Great detective work, Larry–the tune carried by a train horn sounds about like my singing would, if I ever cared to try it.
We are welcoming in winter this morning with a temperature of seven below on my Bug. Bundle up, Joe–I’m sure we’ll be sharing this!
“shave and a haircut”? Please explain.
Zardoz - what to say to explain. I grew up with :Shave and a haircut - 6 bits" but that was up from 2 bits in the early years.
It was used as an end to some orchestral songs or fun songs, etc. I have a feeling if you heard it, you would recognize it.
Mook
To put it in Morse code terms:
Dah di-dit dah dah (brief pause) dit dit.
A lot of people knock on the door that way.
LET ME TRY THIS, BY WAY OF EXPLANATION…
BEEP–DE—BEEP–BEEP–BEEP–BEEP (OR MAYBE)
LONG–SHORT–LONG–LONG—LONG–LONG
(SHAVE)—(AND A)–(HAIRCUT)–(SIX BITS)!!
or insert- for us old timers–(TWO BITS)
A real whistle master can make his “voice” really sing with his own sound. Used to be a real point of old timer engineers. done best on loicomotives with a pull chain…I;m told it is very difficult to do with the desk mounts of today…
At any rate that CSX engineer was greeting all with an expression of his approval.