PennsyPride94 posted:

Hi everyone,

One month ago the Strasburg Rail Road hosted the first night of their annual Steampunk events. What made this night unique was the fact that the SRC would be pulling trips at 6 pm, 8 pm, and 10 pm. Knowing this my friend and I ventured out to the SRC to witness night time steam action. Below is a recording of the 8 pm trip back to East Strasburg that I made. Dave Domitrovich is running and Richie Maggs is firing. (Make sure to turn up the volume because it is quite faint in the beginning. The picture in the video was taken by me that night as SRC #90 pulled into the station after the last trip. Its a 13 second exposure and if you look close you can see the little dipper in the night sky.)

I have always been fascinated by the world of audio recording steam locomotives. Most likely due to my first time hearing O. Winston Link's recording at Rural Retreat on December 24th, 1957. There is something about the echo of the whistle, the bark of the exhaust, and the rumble of the train that really peaks the imagination and is completely different from normal railfan habits of taking pictures and video. 

As an added discussion point: What are your favorite recordings of steam locomotives? If you have some feel free to share!

Thanks for listening!

 

Very nicely done. I love audio recordings. Like radio, they allow the listener to create his own mental image of the scene, something no video can ever do.

Here are a couple of my efforts aboard some C&O 614 excursions.

Audio: C&O 614 Ridgewood Start and Fast Running 6-8-97

Audio: C&O 614 Highball after repairing the stoker 6/8/97

Audio: C&O 614 Climbing Shawangunk Mountain 10/26/97

One more. 

Audio: LIRR Eastbound in a thunderstorm, Bethpage, NY, Summer 1997