Train Sounds

There are days--a lot of days--when I could listen to recordings of train sounds for hours. Chris Watson's El Tren Fantasma is probably the peak for me, but there are almost endless sources for these. Anyone else share this fascination, or am I on the island alone?

Quickspace - Obvious is a post-rock song that uses a train as its climax. I know that the first GYBE album has some Train Action too

I always liked this outtake from This Is Spinal Tap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZvqXwVMVKQ

BAKUCHIKU!!!!! GO-GO B-T TRAIN!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvYvQAabilQ

The noise breakdown in the middle 8. Is it a theremin solo? Is it a field recording of Shinkansen? Only their sound engineer knows for sure!

"Anyone else share this fascination, or am I on the island alone?"

I grew up in a valley, and I have a vivid childhood memory of hearing the night train go by. It would have been the mainline from London Waterloo to Exeter. The sound reverberated throughout the valley, and I had a mental vision of people snug inside the train as it chuntered down the tracks. So, no, you are not alone.

There's something melancholic about being on a train at night. When you look out of the window you see a reflection of yourself looking back at you, every year with less hair more more lines. Once again you are on a train, looking at a reflection of yourself, as you did many years ago. Whatever you did in life up to that point, you ended up on the 20:45 to Pinhoe. Barrelling through the night at inhuman speeds.

How you haunt me, Pinhoe. And you, Tiverton Parkway.

What the fuck is a parkway? It's a train station that's out of the way, a kind of park and ride, although the name originally came from Bristol Parkway, which actually was built in a park. So that's the answer. You learn something every day.