What Is the Humming Sound Steam Trains Make?

In today's short, I explain the humming sound of steam locomotives.

©2024 Northeastern Rail Films - This content is not to be used without explicit permission

#shorts #steamtrain #train #railroad #railway #steamengine

[oneMeVz]

The number of years seeing steam trains with lamps and never questioning what's lighting them until now. Thank you.

[stevecolour]

Also don't forget the air compressor to realease the brakes. I mean it sound different but really interesting.

[darkwatersband]

Sounds like my old hard drive before it decided to become an expensive paperweight

[drawboat]

Law does not say you need electric lights. There are plenty of locomotives with oil lamps in the US. However, there is a law saying locomotives with oil lamps cannot be operated at night.

[GldnClaw]

Woah! From this, I've just realized that the Dwemer from Morrowind were using steam engines to generate electricity for the lighting for their underground cities. Nice.

[adriaanboogaard]

The best part of going to that system and electricity is kerosene lamps, especially in passenger cars added to the fire hazard like the wood and cool stoves in the cars. You may survive the crash, but if you couldn't get out of the car it burned up around you. Especially the wooden rolling stock.

[LMR]

Ah the dynamo, the nicest noice for a couple of minutes, until it gets extremely annoying.

[trainfanboy]

British Steam locos don't have automatic headlights attached to the loco. There are 3 different lamps, headlamp, taillamp, and high intensity headlamp. The headlamp is to go on the leading end of the loco, the taillamp is for the rear of the loco, and the taillamps are used on modern freight trains, to indicate the rear, and high intensity is brighter than the headlamp, but it is used at night. When steam engines run railtours, the bottom left and right lamp holder have headlamps, and if it's leading, then a high intensity lamp goes in the bottom middle, and if it's trailing, a tail lamp goes there instead. The headlamps also indicate the letter in the headcode (train reporting code). Sometimes, modern trains also use taillamps, if they're being dragged to scrap, if there's a built in taillight fail, or on the rear of railtours

[hughjassstudios]

So is that why in RDR2 the passenger cars have ceiling fans and lights? I thought it was a historical inaccuracy

[marvwatkins]

Thank you for telling me all this because I've been recently wondering about this.

[Train]

The dynamo is a good generator to be on a steam loco cuz it powers headlight so they dont have to barn candels instead they can use Electric Lights.

[_BAD_MERC_]

I am 55 and I learned a new thing!!! Excellent.

[russellgxy]

One of the most modern uses of the dynamo was an early form of Head End Power! Most passenger cars in the 20th century, if they had on board facilities, were provided by axle-generators and large battery boxes. Excellent for long distance runs, but not good for commuter trains that frequently stop and had long layover periods on the off-peak. So some railroads, notably CNJ and CNW, fitted larger dynamos on their locomotives so they could provide lighting to the passenger cars. The steam of course was used for heat. If you think about it, it’s sorta the opposite of what passenger diesels did in the first couple generations. They could generate electricity to power themselves and light passenger cars, but needed extra steam boilers and generators (fed by diesel) to provide heat

[Choochookid]

Yes and it’s beautiful
Especially on 7470

[MSMFurcorn]

as a British person, I’ve never heard this.

[jonfromstearns]

It’s essentially an alternator that charges basic automotive batteries.

[The_Viscount]

I can't help but think about the "what if" scenario for turbine steam locomotives. The technology for turbines was well understood when diesels took off. The various navies of the world had been using turbines for about fifty years by that point, and turbine manufacturing was well developed in the US. Diesel just ended up being lighter, cheaper, and safer, but you gotta wonder what the engineers of the time could have pulled off with a turbine steam locomotive. I don't mean the experimental models, but if they'd managed to really perfect one. Could they have made a bullet train powered by steam turbines? How about turbo-electric? Honestly, I have no idea if they could have, but it's fun to imagine 1950-60s steam powered bullet trains.

[Kevin]

Fascinating! I learned something new today.

[CodyShell]

Sounds like my grandma's old refrigerator 😅

[crazylazybros]

I thought it was just big carbide lamps