I am now working on something that should produce a small revenue stream once completed. I am building a pay website using amazing digital recordings produced 20 years ago by an accomplished audio engineer. I just happened to run into David Reaves over e-mails. At one point he told me that in the early to mid 1990s he had produced seven CD recordings of different railroad sounds. After sales languished he put the remainder of his stock into his basement. Now, living in West Germany, he can’t afford to ship them stateside. But they can live again on the internet! With his cooperation I am moving toward setting up a music-like store to sell digital downloads of his works. We will split any profit that results from the site.
The site I create will only be a small money spinner but I look forward to it going on-line. His liner notes are amazing. I am posting just two below. The text describes what you hear on the tape. Listen to the two samples below. They are not the full quality recordings, as these have been cut down from 13 megs to 2 for this post. I hope to keep downloads at their highest, CD quality. The site will also have maps and pictures. Yes, I know, a small audience for this sort of thing. But rail buffs are fanatics. And Google will grab all the keywords in the liner notes and quickly put them into the search results. A person searching for a railroad or a locomotive will find not only text and pictures, but a link to a site with sounds. If you do take a listen, try headphones. And then imagine, the whole site: 99 tracks!
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CD TITLE: From Safety Valves . . . to Ribbon Rails
Picking Up Where the Critically Acclaimed Riding In An Open Vestibule Left Off
More Spectacular Sounds of Railroading Across the U.S.A.
Track 05. Challenger Runby (1:14)
My niece Emily, nephew Jonathan and I went chasing UP Challenger (4-6-6-4) (external link) across Wyoming. The star performer in Union Pacific’s passenger excursion program, it is the world’s largest operating steam locomotive – and sounds it! Paralleling the UP Overland Route on I-80, we followed the big engine east with its yellow cars and trail of smoke. We caught #3985 racing up to crest the Continental Divide at Latham, WY, exit 184. Examining a track profile, this looked like a good spot to catch the loco working upgrade. Working? The 3985 shows no sign of strain, whizzing by at breakneck speed. The Challenger is one muscular steed of an engine and those passenger cars are like mere flies on the horses back, as it strides toward the next stop at Rawlins. [Gets going at the 25 second mark, ed}
Track 06. The Little Engine with the Big Horn (1:09)
This is the Black River and Western’s (former Washington Terminal) Alco RS-1 #57, hauling a couple of passenger cars from Flemington to Ringoes, NJ. I just love the tone of the horn. Who says diesels have to sound ugly?
© 1993 – 2014 Audio and text by David Reaves. Web production by Tom Farley. All Rights Reserved.
Full liner notes for this album: http://railroadsounds.net/?page_id=29
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