How Far can you hear a train whistle or horn? - Trains Magazine

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie They are 17 blocks straight west of our bedroom. Windows are closed, storm windows are on and yet every night this week, they have gone right through the bedroom. All night long. Such a comforting sound! Course, I get to listening and forget to sleep! Moo

STORY!

After the Ice Storm in 1998 (we were on the southern end - thousands of power poles down, tree damage, etc), my fire department developed a close relationship with one of the dozen fire departments sent into the area to help us out. In the years since our members have gone to visit them for their field days and other events, and their members have been up for golf, dinners, barbeques, etc.

We frequently camp on their field day grounds when we visit - sometimes a small tent city. Evenings around the campfire usually involve some spirits of the liquid kind, in some cases to a certain level of excess.

You have to cross the old Erie line (Port Jervis to Binghampton - now NYSW/NS) to get onto the grounds. There is also a very sharp curve, a bridge (over the Delaware) and 4-5 crossings in a very short space. Makes for a rather noisy visit.

One Sunday morning, just after sunrise (and not all that long after we'd called it a night), one of our members (who'd spent a lot of time with Jack D that evening) was rudely awakened by what he swore was a train coming through his tent.

I was too busy scrambling out of my tent for a better view to even notice.