Lonesome Train Whistles.

When I was young we used to stay near a railway station so each day at certain hours a train will pass by near the house and before reaching the crisscross road it will blast its horn to signal its coming and to ensure that their is no car crossing it. At 4.00pm there is another train whistle and this signal that my dad will soon be home from work. I remember we have a parrot that can really mimic the sound of the train and she often put out the sound which was confusing as it was no difference from the real one.

I can tell you a story about living next to a railroad track. When our son was 3 and I was expecting our second child, we moved to an apartment in a new town. It was next to the tracks there. Our realtor said "oh, I don't think too many trains go by here at all". Well..... how does 50 trains a day sound to you!! I figured we had at least 2 trains per hour, so there you go.... 50 a day! We learned to sleep through the rumbling and fortunately the whistle points were on either side of our building where there were street crossings. When the baby was born, she slept through it all too. One night, there were high winds and possible tornadoes and we slept through that too! I guess you can get used to anything! LOL

To hear a the whistle of a train brought excitement into our lives as children. As it meant that relatives were visiting us for a while (we lived by the sea) in the summer holidays. It also meant that maybe we would be catching the train to go to my Grandmother;s cottage in the country. I so loved my grandmother and we loved to spend the holidays with her. I didn't have a happy childhood so I was glad to get away from home with my sisters. I was also a little nervous at hearing the whistle and the sound of those big old steam engines arriving at the station and the sound of the whistle before the train came to a shuddering halt. Excellent post Jo. Thanks for the memories

Hi Jo! I don't have a story about a train whistle. But I guess there are things that we can't forget especially those horrible ones. Like when my grandma fell on the floor. I heard a loud sound that afternoon and I was so nervous to see my grandma lying on the floor with eyes opened wide but she didn't move. So I try to carry her but she's so heavy that time. Bu thing there were neighbors who helped me to bring her to the hospital because they heard my shout. Thank God she is ok and nothing bad happened to her. It was almost 3 years now but whenver I hear a loud sound thats like something fell on the floor I always feel so afraid and my heart starts to beat that fast. I also noticed the scent of a perfume brings back some memories. i don't know if you have noticed that. Happy my lotting to you! Take care always.

I grew up some two hundred meters near the train station. When i was young me and my siblings used to play along the railway behind our house just a few feet away. We knew the trains' schedule and we listened to the tracks and felt the vibrations. We lined up some bottlecaps and nails and watched at a distance as the trains rolled by flattening the little things we have put on the rails. Our playmates made some trolleys and we had fun times riding on them rolling away to our hearts' content! The wide railway grounds with scattered wild flowering plants and herds of goats served as our playground! Nowadays, hearing a train whistle or even just seeing one on movies evokes many fun-filled childhood memories. It's just sad that there are no more trains rolling by in my old hometown, the whole place is now full of houses. The last time i went home i saw my old playground occupied by strangers. Development and urbanization has caught up. Gone were the times when i personally knew every neighbor around. Toooot... toooot...

Hello my friend. We so often associate a particular sound with a particular event...happy or sad. I am sorry train whistles bring back such an awful memory for you. My stories of train whistles are simple. My great-aunt from New York came to visit once a year, always by train, so that is one good association. The second is from summers as a child. Often at night while in bed, since the widow was open, from a distance I could always hear the midnight train whistle. The trains no longer run in my area now, and I do miss that sound. There was always something plaintiff but sweet about to me. I would wonder who and what was on that so late at night and where the people might be going. I thought how nice it would be to be going somewhere late at night on that same train. Karen

That is so sad. I am so sorry to hear that. I do not really have any trian stories to tell like that. I did grow up a few feet from a railroad track though. We got so used to hearing that whistle blow as it crossed over someone's driveay, to alert them.

Gotta ask you...Please stop the memories! In 1963, I was just 16, graduated, and enrolled at UBC...but I needed a job (many) for tuition....I slept in a little shed at the back of my Stepmom's trailer on Cherry Avenue in Chilliwack, B.C. which backed onto the RR tracks, a morose constant in my life! Your story is much more touching, but I was pretty scared at 16...no money, no home, and a whole new horizon....Train whistles still haunt me! Love ya!

Oh how sad! I guess a train whistle would remind you of such memories. I have fond memories of a train whistle. Another thing my granddaddy did when I was a little girl. He used to take me and my two brothers to see a train go by. He'd watch the schedule and estimate when it would go by this one area and he'd take us kids there to watch it go by. Back then they had cabooses and my brothers and I would take a guess on what color it would be. Another memory of mine is, being such a young one, I had no sense of danger at all and when a train came, I'd reach out the window as far as I could in hopes to touch the train as it went by!! My granddaddy had me by the seat of my pants screaming at me to stop and come back inside but I wouldn't hear of it. I'm sure my name was on a number of his grey hairs for I was a wild child back then. Oh those wonderful memories of my granddaddy. He was such a wonderful man!! I miss him so much....

I don't have any stories about train whistles but I like to hear them at night. They do have kind of a lonesome sad sound. It's understandable why it would make you sad to hear one and I'm sorry this happened to you and your husband. Kathy.