Here's a thing.
Ask any child what noise a train makes and they'll probably say "chugga chugga choo choo."
Funny thing is that pretty much no one alive today was around in the days when trains - powered by steam - made that sound.
The stories we're told are powerful, often even more powerful than the evidence of our senses. We think trains sound like that cos we're told they sound like that.
Stories are powerful; be careful with the stories you tell.
@meena Tadam Tadam. Isn't that a Kylie Minogue song? 😊
@drahardja I'd never heard this before. Thank you.
@meena @davidnjoku and modern railroads don't even sound like that anymore.
At last the smell of rail brakes have not changed (or have they?)
@meena @davidnjoku sadly, even less for me. If we don't count underground trains of which there are a lot.
Singapore no longer has a regular train line, except a few hundred metres leading into Malaysia.
@agturcz @KolekNiewiary There used to be a steam train that went by my office window in the early 2000s. But that was a posh, overpriced one that people would dress up for.
But you're both right tho. Regular steam trains aren't as ancient as I thought.
@davidnjoku @agturcz @KolekNiewiary the wealthiest countries where labor was most expensive (such as the US) transitioned away from steam in the 50s or 60s. Some parts of the world kept steam running as late as the 2000s, and China most recently announced it withdrew its last steam locomotive in 2023 (and we'll probably see a similar news story in a few years when they find another remote short line that hasn't yet dieselized)
Also of note, there's a coal mine in Bosnia that still runs steam locomotives built by Nazi Germany: https://youtu.be/zXz2YSv-GbI
But that line in Bosnia is basically the only revenue steam service left in the world now. On the upside, steam excursions and railroad preservation seems to be on a strong upswing right now, despite *everything else*
@davidnjoku @agturcz @KolekNiewiary there's a very dated documentary (cw: racist undertones) called, I kid you not "Chinese Takeout" from 2005 which is a collection of footage from a time period when China was dieselizing their passenger services. The commentary at times shows similar callousness but the 80 minutes of footage of gorgeous steam locomotives makes it worth mentioning: https://youtu.be/PvrCNBpKE3A
After that DVD was released, China proceeded to replace the steam locomotives on their freight services and by the 2010s they had largely replaced all of their mainline steam locomotives
Hilariously their steam locomotives are based on a Soviet design which is based on an American export design from WWII, and some were even purchased brand new and imported into America for excursion services taking them full circle
@davidnjoku I agree with your point, but steam trains didn't actually disappear that long ago.
For instance, the last steam driven normal service (not "historic") service on British Railways was in 1968, 58 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainline_steam_trains_in_Great_Britain
Lots of us are older than that.
The first fight of Concorde took place only about six months after the last steam train service, and the Apollo 11 moon mission was just a couple of months later again.
So anyone who remembers the moon landing probably also remembers steam trains !
I travelled on regular service steam trains in my early teens.
I still hear them travelling up and down the Main Trunk Line a few times a year.
If they are anything like traction engines their whistles are rate in miles. Small ones were good for seven miles.
This is from 2015.
No that's only on TV. All those UK costume dramas with people getting on and off of steam trains
West coast US, we had steam freight in the 1970s when I was a kid
Shockingly, I am still alive. And in my 50s
Stories are powerful; be careful with the stories you tell.
indeed. i was pretty much alive in the nineteen eighties, and steam trains were still used on some lines in poland then.
@davidnjoku @Kierkegaanks not quite true. The Vale of Rheidol was in public ownership until 1989 running steam. By then, steam tours were a thing and Railtrack/NR did inherit some steam locos at one point too.
In Germany there are still lines operating steam on a daily basis.
@davidnjoku
Any child that only speaks English...
A Thai child, for instance, would probably tell you a train goes "poon poon".
@davidnjoku I saw regular steam freight service in China as late as 1991. I think it was mostly phased out by 1995.
I have vivid memories of the noise of steam freight trains thundering through the night while on sleeper trains in China in that time period.
But thanks for making me feel super-old this morning. 😂
@davidnjoku I recall that this company started steam when I was about 10 years old in 1965.

Steam on the Black River & Western Railroad (BR&W) refers to their vintage 1937 ALCo 2-8-0 "Consolidation" steam locomotive, #60. Operating out of Flemington and Ringoes, New Jersey, it is one of the only railroads in North America that operates both scenic passenger excursions and occasional freight using steam.
Attractions and events in Northwest New Jersey Skylands: Getting lost in the beautiful Hunterdon County countryside, as it stretches out from either side of the right of way of the Black River & Western Railroad is easy. All you have to do is look out the window of the railcar...
@Cedar Pacific treefrog, also called Pacific chorus frog. Here's some sound samples:
https://californiaherps.com/frogs/pages/p.regilla.sounds.html
We should take those kids, young and old, to see this, the UP Big Boy 4014 tour schedule:
@davidnjoku Excellent post! We also still click a little icon of a floppy disk to save our work, despite no-one other than retro tech enthusiasts using floppy disks anymore. Millions of younger computer users have never even seen one.
Can we think of any other examples of this phenomenon?
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