Earl of Merioneth arrives Porthmadog Harbour Station
Posted by Martin · 2 Comments
This is a recording I made in Wales at the Ffestiniog Railway over a year ago… but I’ve simply not had the chance to listen to it and get it ready to put on the site until now! Audio recording is a strange hobby in that for me at least I spend more time “recording” than I do playing back. That said for me filed recording is about being in location and listening, the recording is still very much a by product.
This short recording features the Double Fairlie steam engine the Earl of Merioneth arriving at Harbour Station Porthmadog. A Hunslet steam loco may be heard greeting it with a whistle at the start of the recording (and if you listen carefully you’ll hear a nearby car reply too!) the Earl may then be heard pulling into the station brakes squealing. I’ve left in a lot of the environmental noise from the nearby road on the Cob… because for me that is just as much a part of the sounds of the railway today as the trains themselves.
The microphone was placed low down quite close to the track so lots of “rail noise”.
Recorded with the ZOOMH4′s internal stereo mic (handheld) and a home made wind gag.
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Photo Credits
I’d like to Matt Buck for allowing me to use his fantastic image in this post(Also in movie)
- Matt Buck : mattbuck.irongalaxy.com
I usually get very disappointed when I record steam train sounds (usually all over in 10 seconds – whistle, puffing and the roar from the rails) but this one is good. A slower train is obviously a better subject.
Hehe – yes I know that feeling. I find the best thing to do is record them leaving or entering a station because you’ll either get them accelerating or braking. Failing that a hill is always good!