Why does the horn of a locomotive...

[lspencer534]

sound so sad? I was in the work shop when I heard one in the distance. I couldn't have heard it inside the house. Three long, lonely blasts from the horn as the sound slowly fades in the distance...followed by the barely audible clickety-clack of the wheels on the tracks...punctuated by the inevitable rhymthic interruption of a loose track. Does it sound sad because we think that the train has no home...that is lives the life of a nomad...that it is destined to a life of meaningless repetition on the road, completing its endless deliveries with no thanks or reward? It's just a machine...it can't have feelings. But we can....

Not trying to be poetic, but hearing this familiar sound just took my memories back. You've heard it before, probably numerous times.

[ZipZap]

You reminded me of one of my favorite folk songs, Way Out There, originally done by the Sons of the Pioneers in the 1930's. The yodeling is meant to echo the sad sound of a train horn out in the middle of nowhere, in this case in the desert where a hobo has been thrown off of the train and he waits for another...

Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie - Way out there - YouTube

[Grey Ghost]

Lots of train songs

The City of New Orleans - Willie Nelson - YouTube

[Blademaker]

The sound of a train horn, late at night, on the tracks that are miles away from my house, for some reason are comforting and put me right back to sleep.

[RED-85-Z51]

Train horns sound best when mounted to the top of a GMC pickup truck...hahaha

but really, there is something magical about the sound of real train horns...and the effect it has on people when they hear them when there should be no train for miles.

[Rotorhead]

Are you stuck in Folsom Prison?

Johnny Cash-Folson Prison Blues - YouTube


:D

[Aerovette]

I know what you mean. When I hear that whistle blowin'...I hang my head and cry.

[mrvette]

Track about 3 miles away, hear it all the time, must be a dozen cross roads in this town, and this is just Orange Park, not Jacksonville.....the main line parallels US Rt 1 on the other side of the river, this line parallels Rt 17 I think to Orlando and maybe points south....I know Amtrack runs on it anyway.....fly by doing an honest 80 mph.....:dance::dance:

[Mike Mercury]

hey; trains can be blue too.

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100126221553/thomasthetrain/images/2/2a/100px-EdwardSad.jpg

[Olustee bus]

You wanta hear lonely, listen to Freddie King's Lonesome Whistle Blues. One of my favorites. I cannot find his original on youtube or I would post it.