Eerie Freight Train

On my way to work on Tuesday, my commuter train was standing still for a bit. I heard a high-pitched sound. I looked out my window and saw a freight train start moving in the opposite direction.

What then transpired was an eerie, impromptu song containing a variety of notes, among them G#4, G5, G6, G#5, and C6.

Eerie Freight Train

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Warning! Bridge Raising!

Last week I was walking down Harrison Street, headed towards Printer's Row for a leisurely lunch. Wouldn't you know the bells of the Harrison Street Bridge were a-banging, as the bridge was about to go up.

It's two notes played together at an octave interval -- a B♭3 and a B♭4.

Metra Door Dong-Ding

Tim has contributed the lovely strains of the Chicago El doors closing here.

So, I figured I'd record the El's suburban equivalent, a train on the lovely Metra rail.

Unlike the El, the tone starts low and then goes high. The tones go from a C5 to a F5.

Strange Horn Of An Oncoming Metra Commuter Train

So, I finally got off my sick bed this weekend to purchase a handheld digital voice recorder. I recorded several neat sounds today, the first of which I'll share with you.

This morning I decided to try to capture the sound of the horn of an oncoming Metra train. My train station in the morning usually has a couple trains that go by before my train leaves for downtown, so I knew I would have a good chance. As a fast-moving train goes by its horn is usually honked a few times as it passes the station.

So, I turned my new recorder on and was surprised at the sound of the horn coming from the Metra train -- it wasn't the horn I was used to; it was quite different, much more musical than the customary Metra train horn (don't worry, I'll attempt to capture the more familiar Metra train horn in the near future).

It's hard to pin down the note due to the Doppler effect, but I'd say it starts out as an E4 and slowly slides down to something halfway between an E♭4 and an E4.

Starting The Car

This blog has me paying attention to the notes all kinds of things make. The "fasten your seat belt" dings when I start my car are E5, for instance.

Street Cleaners In C

On July 3rd, 2006 I attended Taste of Chicago. It was the evening of the big fireworks display, and the place was a mad house. Thousands of people had jammed Grant Park, creating a solid block of bodies. No one could move. As usual, Lake Shore Drive was closed off the length of the festival, and the crowd swarmed it for the fireworks. After the display (which was amazing) a fleet of street cleaners, one for each lane, inched it's way along LSD to disperse the crowd, horns blaring. I just happened to have my trusty digital voice recorder handy. Turns out those street cleaners were blasting Middle C!

Chicago 'L' Ding-Dong

This is a recording I made of the "DING-DONG" and "doors closing" of the Chicago 'L' near the Berwyn stop on the Red Line. The notes of the ding-dong make a 4 and 1 on the Western scale, just slightly sharp of F#4 and C#4. Recorded 6/20/2006 using my trusty digital voice recorder.