Posted on 02/25/2012 7:04:02 AM PST by Beowulf9
At night I hear a train whistle where I live, only occasionally and actually rarely. Have heard it about 3 or 4 times in about 7 years.
Thing is I live about 7 miles from a train track. Is it possible to hear a train whistle that far away?
and it does sound kind of ghostly, echoey, resonates.
I wondered if anyone else hear knows how far a train whistle can be heard.
I live in Phoenix Az, by Camelback Mountain.
If the wind is in the right direction, we hear a train that is about nine miles away.
Yes, it is possible to hear a train from that far away, especially if the wind is blowing favorably. We have a rail line about 7 miles north of our farm and I hear the whistles every now and then.
If you were really alert, you’d see a light, too.
Different layers of air can reflect sound a long ways.
For me it’s six miles as the crow flies to any train track. I hear the trains all the time. Much depends on atmospheric conditions and the shape of the land. Sounds are odd: there are reported cases of people who lived on the other side of a hill from a Civil War battle unable to hear anything of the artillery, yet people many miles away thinking the battle was in their back yard.
Is that 7 miles as the crow flys or via roads....Train whistles travel far, I live as the crow flies about 4 miles from the track and can hear the click-clack of the wheels if the winds are blowing just right..
Ducting of sound is caused by a temperature inversion, i.e. it gets warmer with altitude.
I'm sorry. It won't happen again.
See, it was a total train wreck.
I have heard trains that were 20 miles away. I can hear traffic 5 miles away sometimes. Too bad that cell phone does not work here.
Happens here in Mississippi all of the time. One track is a mile away and the other 9 miles away. Depending upon the wind, temperature, and humidity whether I hear it well or not.
i, too, am many miles from train tracks but i can hear trains plain as day at night . they can be best hear right after a snowfall
Really makes it apparent that most vehicle/train collisions are a result of people trying to "beat" the train at the crossing.
Heavy fog can do strange things...I went out one night to check the fence line to see if any goats were caught and the fog was heavy...I needed my husband to help untangle one and the neighbor across the street heard me, but the fog would’t let my yelling be heard in the house....she yelled over if I was in trouble...I had to have her call my house and tell my husband to come out and help....The comment that the fog was as thick as pea soup is real. I bumped into the goat and couldn’t see her....
or they could be ghost trains . maybe your house or apartment was built over deserted train tracks
I grew up 4 miles from a Zoo, and when the wind was right we could hear the lions roar. Talk about spooky. Today I live about 5 miles from Union Pacific tracks, and 7 from BNSF tracks. We can hear them wind or no wind.
My brother collected them and would touch one off every once in a while in the evening over a Maduro wrapper and single malt.
“Different layers of air can reflect sound a long ways.”
Correct. Sometimes I can hear the train very loudly. Not the whistle, but the train! There’s no crossing. It’s sometimes louder at my house, 3 miles a way, than it is a block in the other direction from the tracks. Combination of different layers and wind I guess.
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