Pickles by Brian Crane for December 17, 2018

Surely Earl, you said – “What WASN’T that?!”

Back when I lived in Lewis County, Washington, the house was a good distance away from the distance, but you could still hear a slight faint blow of the trains’ whistles.

We grew up three blocks from the Southern Pacific, and not much further than that from the San Andreas fault. In ten years, I don’t remember experiencing a single earthquake. (We probably had loads of them, but assumed they were just trains going past.)

And the vision that was planted in my brain still remains within the sound of silence.

I could hear the engines down at the rail yard. The old steamers would lose traction chug…chug…chug….chugchugchugchug.

Some married friends’ first apartment was next to the Pennsy line to Harrisburg. Back then there were passenger trains about every hour. How they slept I don’t know. Further down the line, I used to wait up to see the Broadway heading westbound every evening. One could hear it blow for the road crossings and watch the lights of the cars go slipping along in the dark. I’m guessing but I believe it was close to a mile from our house.

What Earl said is completely plausible.

Trains have their own magic….. Polar Express ;-)

I used to hear the clanking of the boats rigging in the wind.

Where I grew up there was a train track just 20 yards from the house. It was just a supply line to a meat processing plant, but we definitely could hear the trains. My family took us kids on a slow car trip through the mountains and I was terrified. The sound of the trains running through the the mountain pass would reassure me. To this day I still like the rumbling sound of trains.

For me, living near a major link between Lake Erie and Lake Huron, the sound of freighters blowing either fog horns or salutes is a delight, as is standing by the river, listening to the swish of the water and their varied engine “voices” as they pass only hundreds of feet away.

I live next to the tracks and have for many years, love the trains!

Earl’s still awake at Nelson’s bed time?

I lived in that situation and it does happen

I live in the Midwest. When I was a kid, I could hear the trains dropping their cars at the local crayon factory at night. Also semis downshifting as they approached the town from the east. Always liked those sounds.

While in the Navy, aboard ship, I could sleep like a baby in all the noise, but let something change, I’d wake up.

My husband and I once owned a house right next to train tracks. Same story as Earl; got used to them. I also have been known to talk in my sleep. My husband says that I woke him up one night, yelling, “There’s no trains!”

One of the things Things I miss from my childhood: thunderstorms, lightening bugs and train whistles in the distance.

The sound of Silence can be deafening.

Been there, didn’t hear that, woke up wondering.

I have heard people that live by an airport say the same thing.

Similar thing for me. I doze off in my recliner in front of the TV. If the “my pillow” ad comes on, I wake up and change the channel.

Yep same the train was a fair distance away but then it didn’t come through on time I would wake up and wait for it.

The El tracks were right our window. I experienced this exact thing…the cartoon could be right out of my diary. Except, when I sat up in bed, I said “What wasn’t that?”

I have what I call ‘my beloved train’ about a block from my house. It rumbles by once in a while, tooting its whistle. It doesn’t go by at night like Earl’s, though! Gives me a warm feeling!

I lived on an airbase in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s not far from a railroad yard. It’s amazing the sounds you become accustomed to and interesting how you miss them later in life.

I grew up a half-mile from a railroad switching yard. All night long they’d shuffle cars around with a rumble and then a thunderous CRASH! I’m pretty sure that’s something the real estate agent didn’t mention when they were selling the house…

My husband has a sound machine with a speaker under his pillow and what keeps him sleeping soundly is the train on the train tracks.

There are open fields between us and the train. When the train horn is blowing a lot, we know there must be animals on the tracks. There is a moose migration path through those fields.

I’m the pastor at our Catholic church. We recently had our church bells out of order(electronic) and I could not sleep well until they were back on.

The Sound of Silence

The City of New Orleans.

We were about 2 miles from the tracks, with nothing between us and them but part of Route 66. I loved to lay in bed at night and listen to the trains and trucks as they went by.I -84 was put in and moved the traffic to the North of us. Could no longer hear the trucks and new hoes in the area blocked the trains. If I think about it I can still hear those sounds, and miss them.

The mystery of the dog that barked in the night…….

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

The dog that didn’t bark..

Want the feeling of flying? Hop a freight train with an empty flat car. Stand at the edge where you can’t see any part of the train. It’s just like flying.

181 East Glenn in Auburn. 1977 Railroad right behind the building. When trains passed, the building shook mightily, all conversation stopped, resumed when past. A crowd gathered in my room (15×15). One remarked, “It was running late today.”

“What was?”

“The train that just passed.”

“There was a train?”

I had gotten to the point where I didn’t notice.

Back, way back, in the day the same thing happened to those living near Niagara falls when it stopped.

The year after the nearby tracks were decommissioned was a difficult time for me…

For me it was ferry boat horns.. 2.6mi./4.2km. over First Hill, then Capitol Hill, finally Renton Hill to where i’d hear the gentle moan of the ferry thru my parent’s kitchen window..

Me too Earl, and it would wake me up when I was in my “light sleep” but once I went out completely it never bothered me. Plus what was nice I always heard the 6 p.m. one those years my dad took the train back from NYC from work. Short period of time without a car. So my mom and I would go pick him up.

Same thing when Niagara Falls froze over.

I’ve always enjoyed the sound of trains. When I was little, I used to wonder who was on the train and what interesting places they might be going to.

Reminds me of this classic bit of word jazz by the great Ken Nordine, titled “What Time Is It?”: https://g.co/kgs/ZMaK3V