American Steam Trains

Introducing American Steam Trains, the latest library from Evocative Sound and Visuals. Transport your audience to a bygone era of steam, steel and smoke with this meticulously captured and crafted sound effects collection. The library features two operational American-made coal-fired steam locomotives captured from distant, onboard and pass-by perspectives. Plus, there are sounds from a preserved steam locomotive on static display.

Listen to the wail of a Nathan six-chime whistle perched atop a historic excursion train. It’s pulling 15 passenger cars while rolling through distant grade crossings. The 125-pound bronze whistle’s mournful and romantic sound echoes softly back toward you from the valley below like a forlorn call in the night.

Experience what it feels like to be next to these simmering mechanical giants as they come alive after being tied down in the railyard on a cold morning. 

Through numerous onboard recordings, share the privilege of riding along with the crew in a locomotive’s cab, standing inches away from where the fireman shovels coal into the firebox time and again. 

There are plenty of roaring pass-bys. Many featuring long, rumbling, chugga-chugga sounding approaches. There’s barking exhaust, unexpectedly beautiful blowdowns, blaring whistles and head-turning Doppler effects. Hear them at trackside and farther away, with distances mentioned in file descriptions.

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Locomotives Recorded for This Library

S-2 Class “Berkshire” Type Steam Locomotive

The S-2 Class “Berkshire” Type Locomotive is a commanding 404-ton, 100-foot-long, 15-feet-tall S-2 class “Berkshire” type locomotive originally built in September 1944 by the Lima (Ohio) Locomotive Works as a fast freight workhorse. For fuel, this locomotive burns high-grade bituminous soft coal. When it’s running at full capacity, its firebox can reach up to 2,500°F, producing a solid yellow sheet of fire and converting 22,000 gallons of water in its main tender into steam. “When you’re out on the railroad pulling a train, that fire (in the firebox) just becomes a solid sheet,” says longtime locomotive fireman Chuck Young. Below this red-hot box sits a 2-8-4 wheel arrangement. That means two leading (pony) wheels with one axle, followed by eight driving wheels with four axles and finally four trailing wheels with two axles, all rolling along the tracks. 

In the rail yard, you’ll hear crew members blowing out the locomotive’s ashpan with a high-powered water jet. Then, they use a heavy Alemite pneumatic grease gun to lubricate the locomotive’s drive rods. All the while, the locomotive’s air compressor, pumping at different rates, creates human-like gasping and wheezing sounds.  

You smell it, you see it, you hear it, you feel it under your feet. It’s like it’s alive.

Longtime Locomotive Fireman Chuck Young

“You smell it, you see it, you hear it, you feel it under your feet. It’s like it’s alive,” says Fireman Chuck Young when describing his longtime relationship with the Nickel Plate Road No. 765 steam-powered locomotive. Even though it was traveling at an excursion speed of 25 mph (40 km/h) for these recordings rather than its fast freight speed of up to 70 mph (113 km/h), being allowed to record on board the NKP No. 765 locomotive was truly an experience. Young adds that at 70 mph (113 km/h), the 765 “Sounds like a rocket. Like you’re standing behind a jet when the exhaust all blends together just into a solid roar.” Now, sign me up for that ride!

A-7 Class “Switcher” Type Steam Locomotive

This A-7 Class “Switcher” type steam locomotive, weighing 73 tons and measuring 54 feet in length, was built in 1905 by the American Locomotive Company’s Pittsburg Works for the Southern Railway. It rolls with a 0-6-0 wheel arrangement. I recorded it on board from the passenger car closest to the locomotive, as well as from a hilly, echoey valley in Ohio’s Amish country, 1,988 feet away.

MK-9 Class 2-8-2 Mikado Type Steam Locomotive

Union Pacific #2295, or “Big Mike” as it’s called, has a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement. It has been on static display along a siding outside the historic Union Pacific depot in Boise, Idaho, since December 2007. As such, my recordings of it include its warning bell rung by hand multiple times, rung at an appropriate cadence. In addition, I captured sounds of its coupler knuckle swinging in and out, along with its link and pin release to an adjacent car. “Making a joint,” as they say along the rails. In its day, this impressive-looking locomotive, built by the American Locomotive Company, ran along UP’s main line, mostly hauling freight, from North Platte, Nebraska, to Huntington, Oregon.

Nickel Plate Road Locomotive Warning Bell

Also included in the library is the sound of a vintage Nickel Plate Road (NKP) locomotive warning bell housed in the basement of a museum I frequent. I was permitted to ring the bell by hand into my Sony PCM D100 recorder until I got it right. Then, in post, I transformed the best single ring into a continuous clapping sound, with an appropriate cadence, that fades at the end. Thus creating a sound like that of a train passing by at a grade crossing.

Behind the Scenes of American Steam Trains

“That’ll do.” That’s train slang for “stop.” You’ll hear the conductor say it when a train comes to a complete stop, either in the yard or along the line. It’s also a fitting way to end this post. Thanks for reading.