The Oil Train and other sounds of happiness

Every Friday night around 6 pm like clockwork a Union Pacific 3-engine train hauling oil cars cruises slowly through my little town on the SoCal coast, blaring its horn in a cacophony of awesomeness all along the way. It’s a wonderful kickoff to the weekend that I relish.

What sounds do you regularly encounter that brings a smile to your face?

 

We live along a relatively busy two-lane state highway that has cars whooshing by every couple of minutes. Sometimes, in the afternoon when there's a fairly steady rhythm to it, I like to sit in the recliner, close my eyes and just listen to them go by. The sound of them approaching and then getting more distant reminds me of waves crashing on the beach.

 

Love the sound of a train in the distance - I imagine people right along the tracks have a different thought though. Crackling fire, rain, my paddle hitting the river.

 

The tick-tick-tick of "60 Minutes." Means a hellish weekend is over and a workweek of bliss awaits.

 

The 12:15 a.m. freight train horn, 3 miles away, long and low and mournful every night. Whatever your mood, it's a nice, steady anchor as the rest of the world whirls around it.

Nothing, though, beats a bunch of toddlers laughing and squealing and playing together. The joys of youthful innocence. Throw some happy, yelping puppies in there, too.

 

Lapping waves.
The ringing noise the drag on your reel makes when you have a good fish.


As for trains, I don't have an opinion but a funny observation. I live more than a mile from the nearest train. During the regular day, 10 of them could go by at once, and you'd never know it it. If there is an off schedule train at 5 a.m. when I first go out in the morning, with no other noise pollution, the sound of train carries. I can hear every individual sound it makes.

 

Train horn when we would walk in my old neighborhood, no matter what time we walked.

Pressure cooker going psss psss as I walked in my Nana's trailer.

Soft little jingle of bingo chips during play and the sound of everyone stacking their card at the end of the night , with my other Nana.

The sound of a baseball game in my ear when I am out in the yard, that I am missing right now!

Sounds of a card game, the cards, the change being passed back and forth.

Voices of my 2 grandchildren.

 

Back in the day, I'm guessing it was the sound of jangling spurs and a blacksmith banging out a shoe.

 

We get that too. We are, I think, at least 3 miles from the tracks (they loop around the city a bit), and during the day you never hear them. But at night you can hear not only the horn but the rumble on the tracks as well.

 

The ribbits of frogs.

After we get some good rain and the washes and creeks get s as little water, they strike up the orchestra. Very soothing. I don’t get it so much where I’m currently living, but the house I grew up in about 10 miles up the road would get so many frogs.

And I’ll second the sound of cars on a highway or similar road. It can’t be a true residential street but somewhere you get a good Doppler effect with larger vehicles. It’s really hard to explain what it sounds like or why it’s relaxing but a year ago I was in Pennsylvania at a place apart from other houses on a moderately busy side road not far from a high school. Sitting in the house in the afternoon just taking it easy with no TV or other sounds it was very nice.

 

I’m a big train person, always have been.

Perhaps one of the more fun times in my life was when I lived for a couple months right behind a very active NS(?) line heading into one of their major shops. The gates would come down frequently, trains would go by late at night… it made living with a crazy roommate a bit easier. It turned into comforting white noise, like the bustle of city life.

Another sound that I dig is a boat making its way through the water. A couple times a year I’ll drive about 20 minutes to the marina so I can take the ferry into town. On a cold day I can observe safely from indoors. In the summer I get to stand on the deck and enjoy.