American Steam & Diesel Train Sounds

Audio CD

This is a must-have for train lovers. The collection includes steam passenger trains racing by at 75 mph with whistles blowing and diesel powered freights with horns sounding.

Steam Locomotives by Harold Spicer

The CD contains 72 minutes of uninterrupted train sounds. This is not a sound effects library, but original recordings made 60 years ago. The CD includes:

  • Steam locomotives starting off, steam hissing and pistons chugging
  • Engineers blowing their whistles in signature style
  • Steam trains passing grade crossings while gates close and warning bells sound
  • High speed steam passenger trains approaching and disappearing into the night
  • Steam freights chugging out of the yard and rolling off into the distance
  • Diesels with freight cars clacking over rail joints
  • High and low speed diesels with horns blasting 
  • B&O, Western Maryland and New York Central steam locomotives roaring pass

Harold Spicer and his son Bill stand trackside.

My father, Harold Spicer, was a newspaper photographer for the Baltimore News Post. When I was a boy, he took me to the Landsdowne grade crossing and Riverside Yards as he ran his then state-of-the-art wire recorder. After his death in 1972, I rescued his photographs and recordings. I recently converted the recordings to this one-of-kind CD. Regrettably my father left few notes, but his photos and recordings depict a time when behemoth steam locomotives barreled across the rails of Maryland and New York. You can almost smell the coal smoke!

Play Demo

Harold Spicer makes a wire recording at Landsdowne, MD


Spicer Pro, LLC