Steam & Excursion > One More on 1522's Loudness

April 29, 2001, was a Sunday morning.

The evening before, I had driven west of St. Louis in preparation of making recordings of Frisco 1522 making a break-in run with a freight consist.  I was cut off from the railroad, working as the news director at a small town radio station, and generally speaking too broke to pay attention.  All the cheap motels were full, so as a last resort a found a secluded field near Moselle and slept on the ground next to the car.

Needless to say, I slept like $***.

Eventually after the sun came up, I headed up along the grade of Iron Hill between Moselle and St. Clair, and found a lightly used gravel road running along the north side of the tracks.  It was there that I set my gear up and settled in for the wait.  It was hours before I heard the distant whistle of the train near the field I had spent the night.  I started the tape.

This is the result.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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At around 2 minutes you really got the sharpness of the exhaust.   Thanks for posting, AND sleeping on the ground..

Now that was beautiful!

Thx Mary , Sounds Great !

Really, really nice.

Rick Z

Beautiful Mary.    Can you imagine a civilian buying a house next to this track in the steam days.   With 5 freights a night struggling uphill, you would never get to sleep.   The closest I ever came to that, was sleeping in motels (trackside room please), along the Kimberly - De Ar mainline of the South African Railways.   All night long, freights and passengers pulled by 4-8-4's.  Glorious!  What a way to spend your youth.....work hard and save up for one grand trip a year.

Wow!  Love that whistle
john

Thanks very much for all the effort it took to make this recording.  After a few seconds' listening, the listener is placed back in time, with all the attendant emotions and feelings.
Thank you!

Norm

MaryMcPherson Wrote:
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> April 29, 2001, was a Sunday morning.
>
>> making a break-in run with a freight consist.  I
> was cut off from the railroad, working as the news
> director at a small town radio station, and
> generally speaking too broke to pay attention. 

As the former news director at a few radio stations in western Canada, I fully understand what you are saying!
Many people are under the mistaken impression that broadcasters make big money ... that is a massive joke!
Only a few very select people get the big money.

 

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

thehighwayman Wrote:
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> Only a few very select people get the big money.

The rest are very familliar with peanut butter and jelly and ramen noodles.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

That was a wonderful recording--reminds me of Brad Miller's LP's.  Great sound, birds in the background, then a far distant whistle blowing....

I just listened to this on a pair of studio monitor speakers.  It's a very good recording.  Was it recorded on a DAT machine?

That consist was a real bitch for some reason.  Bunch of autoracks that really pulled hard.   What was Wellie Lazier running there and I had a fit on Rolla Hill coming back.

radar Wrote:
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> Was it recorded on a DAT machine?

Analog.  It was recorded on a Fostex X-18 4-track recorder using Radio Shack (by Shure) condenser microphones.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

That was great !  I miss seeing that 1522 run and riding behind it on excursions by the St. Louis NRHS. Those were the days....  
Thanks for sharing. --Kelly

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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> That consist was a real bitch for some reason. 
> Bunch of autoracks that really pulled hard.  
> What was Wellie Lazier running there and I had a
> fit on Rolla Hill coming back.

A fit Don? What type of Fit? Sounds like there's a story in there...

Cheers, Dave

Bad choice of words.   Wellie had told me when we changed over at Cuba westbound that it was surprisingly a heavy pull.   Coming up Rolla Hill I found out what he meant.  We checked brakes at Newburg and all were working as they should.  Coming up Rolla Hill was like the 1990 Convention trip,  slower steady pull.  It reminded me of a recording from years past of a Missabi Yellowstone in a steady pull with the deep whistle.
1522 was a stout engine and surprised more than one pilot engineer.  They all thought steam was just old teakettles with no power.  Only time I ever had a slip from her was when we hit a rail greaser unexpectedly.
The day she left the Museum for the first time,  she went downtown as part of the UP local.  Coupled up behind the diesel, the local engineer told us to start on the hill.   She wouldn't start the train and just stalled without slipping.  When the diesel got things moving a little it got very noisy all the way up through Kirkwood.  What a proud that day was for our group
She was noisy backing up too.  Coming back from a trip to Hannibal, we had to back into Union Station.  That meant I had to pull down the riverfront toward Leasperance street yard, which drops down a good grade from the wye.    The whole train was bunched against the engine on the grade.  Common sense said to drop sand for a couple car lengths before stopping.  Backing that train up that grade must have sounded like the Battle of the Bulge.  I think every pigeon in St Louis hauled ass.  Spectacular echoing against those old buildings.  Good days.

I shot video on Iron Hill one way, and Rolla Hill the other on the 1990 trip.  I never put that video "Frisco 1522" on dvd.  I remember I logged
over 8,000 miles during 1988, the first year it ran, with multiple trips to Chicago and Wisconson.  The good old days!
Greg