RIP Majel Barrett-Roddenbery, widow of the creator of Star Trek and the voice of the Enterprise’s computer…and, according to Wikipedia and RailroadRadio.net, the Union Pacific. To wit:
“The Union Pacific Railroad used her voice talent for their track-side defect detector devices, used in various locations west of the Mississippi River. When a defect is identified, the system responds with her recorded voice announcing information to the train crew over the radio.”
My apologies for my earlier post that appeared way OT due to my use of a very obscure link to the UP information.
FWIW I heard Gene Roddenberry give a lecture in the mid-seventies. As part of the program they showed the original pilot of Star Trek which at that time had never been aired (although parts were used in a later episode). He noted that the brunette Majel Barrett was originally cast as the First Officer of the Enterprise, with Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy, the only actor/character from the original pilot to end up in the series) as IIRC Communications Officer. The storyline of Spock being “logical” came from the Majel Barrett character; to try to make it more believable that a woman could be a bridge officer, they cast her as a non-emotional math / logic geek.
It didn’t work, NBC said you can’t have an alien (Spock) on the bridge - you’re supposed to be fighting aliens not working with them…and you obviously can’t have a woman officer on the bridge!! Finally Gene argued with NBC that they allowed him to choose one of two, so as he said “I compromised by casting Leonard Nimoy as Spock, and married Majel Barrett!!” She dyed her hair blonde and became Nurse Chapel.
Of course he eventually cast his former girlfriend Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhuru who was a bridge officer. He got NBC to accept her by saying that as Communications officer she was “just kind of a telephone operator”. But in retrospect she was also the first black and first woman military officer ever portrayed on a TV series.
BTW most male alien voices on the Enterprise, or male computer voices etc. were done by James Doohan, who of course wasn’t Scottish (he was Canadian of Irish descent) and did many voice-overs for TV, Radio etc. in a variety of voices.