They are 17 blocks straight west of our bedroom. Windows are closed, storm windows are on and yet every night this week, they have gone right through the bedroom. All night long. Such a comforting sound! Course, I get to listening and forget to sleep!
Moo
All the way from my house to where the train is blowing its horn for the grade crossing.[:)]
STORY!
After the Ice Storm in 1998 (we were on the southern end - thousands of power poles down, tree damage, etc), my fire department developed a close relationship with one of the dozen fire departments sent into the area to help us out. In the years since our members have gone to visit them for their field days and other events, and their members have been up for golf, dinners, barbeques, etc.
We frequently camp on their field day grounds when we visit - sometimes a small tent city. Evenings around the campfire usually involve some spirits of the liquid kind, in some cases to a certain level of excess.
You have to cross the old Erie line (Port Jervis to Binghampton - now NYSW/NS) to get onto the grounds. There is also a very sharp curve, a bridge (over the Delaware) and 4-5 crossings in a very short space. Makes for a rather noisy visit.
One Sunday morning, just after sunrise (and not all that long after we’d called it a night), one of our members (who’d spent a lot of time with Jack D that evening) was rudely awakened by what he swore was a train coming through his tent.
I was too busy scrambling out of my tent for a better view to even notice.
[;)] Use to separate the men from the boys, now we separate the train watchers from the rest of the world!
Boss came in this morning all ruffled cuz he had to wait for a coal train. Asked him what the head-end power was (sounds like BNSF and NS), which direction (west) and what kind (coal). Told him to get locomotive numbers next time. If you are going to sit there and watch, take notes. What else do you have to do!
At my old home near the east end of the airport, I was very surprised that at times I could hear trains on the Norfolk Division even though they were on the other side of a ridge of mountains. Every bit of 10 - 11 miles away.
Same here, except I live 5 miles from the nearest crossing and the only time I can hear the horn real well is after a rainstorm at night. You all are right, I live right on the main drag of the town so it’s the white noise. Rare is any chance at hearing the horns, since the train traffic isn’t all that much on Florida’s CSX line through Orlando.
HA! HA! HA! Separates the railfans from the non normal people . . .
Matt
Mookie, on more than one occasion I’ve made it a point to slow down so I would have to stop at the grade crossing and watch the train roll by…as Sterling1 said - separates the railfans from the non-normal people.[:)]
During the '40s I was raised in Follansbee WV in the northern panhandle along the Ohio river. I could look out my bedroom window and see the PRRs Pittsburgh-St. Lewis main line on the Ohio side. Seeing the passenger trains at night was a dream and hearing the moaning of the steam whistle would be the best lulliby I can think of. The track was about 3 miles from our house.
I use to hear them pretty good in Ft.calhoun,Ne when I use to live there.