Trains In The Night

I am lying down. I don’t know the time, but it is dark outside. I hear the distant drone of train wheels on steel rails. I hear the moan of the train’s air horn. It whistles a warning at every road crossing the train encounters as it travels through my small city. Sometimes the engineer gives the air horn a short blast or two; sometimes a longer blast; sometimes a combination of short and long. Sometimes it sounds as though the engineer is sending Morse code. Then no more air horn, but I can still hear the rumble of steel wheels on steel track. The sound fades slowly, slowly, slowly. Then it is gone. There is silence.

Train engineers use the whistle not only as a warning to humans and animals to get off the track, but also for communication with railroad employees such as yard workers and employees on the train itself when voice communication is not available. Various blasts of the air horn have meaning. For example, the engineer will announce the train’s approach to a road crossing by sounding two long, one short, and one long whistle. One short whistle means applying air brakes while standing. Two long whistles mean releasing brakes and proceeding. And so on. If you’re curious, you can find a list of train whistle codes on Wikipedia.

I once lived in a “railroad town” – Roanoke, Virginia, where Norfolk Southern has maintenance shops. I lived near the rail yard, where every morning at 7AM a steam whistle announced the start of a new workday. However, I don’t recall ever hearing train air horns while I lived in Roanoke. At least, not routinely, as I do now.

Time passes and I hear another train coming through my city. I hear the rumble of the wheels. I hear short and long blasts of the whistle.

I don’t know why I like hearing trains come through town. Maybe it has something to do with the trains I rode when I was a kid, starting when I was a baby. Whatever the reason, a distant train whistle in the night is reassuringly familiar.

Below: part of the Norfolk Southern rail yard in Roanoke, Virginia. The Roanoke Roundtable is top, right. Tracks run east-west. North is to the right.