Steam Locomotive Sound Recordings

Good evening, How about the Pennsy recordings, "On Time" which is mostly Pennsy K4S steam engine in the New Jersey Area, and

John L Wise recordings "Sounds of Altoona".

The Sounds of Altoona recording has a bit of everything  L1, K4 M1, including a M1 running backwards out on the four track main below Tyrone PA ,I1 J1, and a couple short recording of early diesels as pushers.

Listen to both of these occasionally while working on my layout just picturing in my mind these great Pennsy engines roaring by.

Born 15 years to late to see them all in action !!!!!!

I have an old 8" record and the cover says "The K4 on Horseshoe Curve" but the record is of "The Big Red cars". Bummer  !!  Anyone interested in the "Big Red cars"  ??  Not for sale, just give it away.

Steam sound recording was a huge thing back when people didn't have video. You couldn't go to an old steam excursion without seeing people trying to mount tape recorders to the outsides of cars and places like that. Beats me what they ever did with the recordings because I never heard anyone ever playing the things anywhere afterward.

Over the years, I've bought a couple of railroad sound CDs but never listened to them more than once or twice. I'm rarely ever in a place that I have the time to listen to something like that where something else is taking up the silence...

Here is another steam locomotive recording by Brad Miller.  These can still be found for sale on line.

One of Fogg's recordings not mentioned yet, 'Power of the past' had some interesting tracks, B&O EM-1's, NYC Hudson's, various PRR power, NKP switchers, Hudson's, and Berk's.  IC steam, and a steam and diesel race. 

It's true that, with the exception of die hard railfans, most people don't play steam locomotive sound recordings in their cars or just for leisure around the house. But I must say again that IMO sound recordings are more imaginative and capture the essence of a steam locomotive than video ever will. I can watch a video I make and then I'll isolate the audio and listen to it again (same clip) and it sounds so much better and really puts the person trackside.

Video is great because of its ability to allow you to see where the train is going and what the valve gear is doing etc. but audio lets the person imagine what it must have been like sitting there listening to the engineer wail on the whistle and watching the locomotive roar by, almost slightly nostalgic if you understand my point of view. 

Just found this thread after posting about train recording this morning...good read!

Curious what kind of gear the original poster used to make the Strasburg recording?

Sounds nice!

Mike, I would agree with you. If you never heard the Steel Rails Under Thundering Skys CD, try to pick that up. With the rain falling and thunder, it adds an extra level...

Tom

Roving Sign posted:

Just found this thread after posting about train recording this morning...good read!

Curious what kind of gear the original poster used to make the Strasburg recording?

Sounds nice!

My cell phone! I used an audio recording application on my Samsung S6 edge plus. The mic on my cell phone records in stereo and does not clip very easily if positioned correctly to the oncoming train. 

Mark S, I agree with you. Being a Burlington guy, there are no better sounds than that of ANY CB&Q steam engine. My all time favorite is the RALBAR productions of 5632 in 1961 of the NRHA Convention Special. The small size 33rpm record was distributed by AHM.

And then there is the CB&Q record #15 of the Railroad Record Club of Hawkins Wisc from 1959 that has sounds from engines 5144, 4966, 4983 and 5632.

But I will admit, ANY STEAM WHISTLE to me is sheer music to my ears. Be it N&W 611, SP 4449, SP&S 700, UP 4-6-6-4, and even a Shay pushing up the 4%+ grades at Roaring Camp. Love 'em all.

Ray

Pennsypride, I agree sometimes it's just nice to put in a train CD ( sounds of Altoona in my case) and just crank it up !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ray:  I will have to keep an eye open for RRCHW #15.......sounds quite interesting.  They put out quite a few obscure recordings; I have one of Wabash Mogul 573 on the Bluffs-Keokuk line.

Burlington 4-8-4 #5632 had absolutely the most soul-satisfying whistle in the early '60's. It can be heard on a couple of the cuts on "Sunday Only".  Think it was the regularly assigned whistle on the '32, from regular service days, as the Vinton L. Wright recording of another CB&Q 4-8-4, #5629, leaving Hobson Yard in Lincoln, NE, sounded similar, from 1952.

Mark,

You might look for one of the Brad S.Miller CDs that includes an on-board digital recording of SP 4449 using an "on loan" CB&Q whistle from an M-4 2-10-4. The particular cut is westbound accelerating out of Davis, California hauling the Philip Anchuts (sp) Sacrament Jazz Train returning back to Oakland. I monitored Brad's big Colossus recording machine back in the crew car, while Brad made a track-side recording. Apparently the on-board recording was the best, so that is what was included on the CD.

Although the Burlington whistle was being blown using superheated, 300psi steam, it sure sounded fantastic as Fireman Bob Slover played the whistle beautifully. 

The three volumes of L&H Railsonics' "Steam Tracks" series of CDs are very good.

Bob

HW:  Might you recall the name of the Miller album - - - I did a quick Youtube search, and couldn't find it, by topic.  Youtube is loaded with all kinds of recordings.  

Guess  we're seeing a lot of whistle swapping these days;  Milw 261, I understand, is carryimg a Santa Fe 2900 whistle. I really liked the original Milw whistle, which sounded like  a crazy woman, but the SF whistle probably scares the "rubes" off the tracks.

In stumbling around Youtube, bumped into this piece, with marvelous photos and a sampling of sound recordings, from a fellow named Wm. Spicer, of B&O, NYC and Pennsy steam.  Neat autos, too!   Take a peak!     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYj-6fKUGFM

Mark, 

Finally found it!  The CD is titled "SONIC BOOMS 3", and the recording on-board 4449 is the last cut, #16 and is 10:20 minute long. The album label is Bainbridge, #BCD 6289. The on-board recording was made on July 25, 1992.

mark s posted:

HW:  Might you recall the name of the Miller album - - - I did a quick Youtube search, and couldn't find it, by topic.  Youtube is loaded with all kinds of recordings. 

Yes, you can find all kinds of recordings on YouTube, but they are not high quality, uncompressed digital recordings like the Brad Miller works. They are highly compressed audio files that sound pretty bad when compared to a truly GOOD digital recording.

OGR Webmaster posted:

mark s posted:

HW:  Might you recall the name of the Miller album - - - I did a quick Youtube search, and couldn't find it, by topic.  Youtube is loaded with all kinds of recordings. 

Yes, you can find all kinds of recordings on YouTube, but they are not high quality, uncompressed digital recordings like the Brad Miller works. They are highly compressed audio files that sound pretty bad when compared to a truly GOOD digital recording.

That's the problem with the internet. People are so happy with streaming and such ways to transmit video and sounds, they're (for the most part) easily pleased with so-so quality anymore.

You trade off availability for quality. Most are okay with it, but it's the primary reason I don't watch movies or TV shows on the internet...

I agree with you P51. If someone has never heard a truly CLEAN digital recording, they really don't know what they are missing.

I have recordings on vinyl LP discs, some old "AAD" (Analog recording to Analog mix to Digital release) CDs and some chrome cassettes from years ago that sound OK when you first listen to them. They all have some distortion in them that you don't consciously hear, but subconsciously your brain knows it's there.

Listening to a Brad Miller CD is a completely different experience. Totally clean audio with ZERO audible distortion. But...you have to hear the difference to fully understand and appreciate it.

To add to what Rich just posted, above, anyone interested in "high-end surround sound" should really find and listen to some of Brad Miller's DTS 5.1 audio CDs covering steam locomotives. It is just like being there, but be careful of the volume level, as if you have a very good system capable of sub-base frequencies, you could possibly do damage to your home.

I remember asking Brad, after he had recorded a NASA Space Shuttle launch the first time, if he would ask the U.S. Navy about recording the firing of the 16" guns on an Iowa Class Battleship. Some time later, Brad informed me that even with the Navy's support & permission, it would be impossible to record the firing of those 16" guns. Apparently the sound pressure levels are so great, and the frequency so low (virtually direct DC), there would be no way for hime to make an acceptable digital recording. Darn!