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Contents:
Privacy
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zone. I do not use cookies to collect information about my visitors.
Information stored in server logs by my web host is not used by me other
than to gather anonymous statistics.
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for which you supplied it. It will not be used by me for any other purpose
or passed on by me to any other person or organisation.
If you have any concerns about privacy please get in touch.
Copyright
Subject to the exclusions
shown below, all the material on the site is copyright and is covered
by a Creative
Commons License. To see the terms of this license, click
here.
This License does not apply to any material which is marked with a separate
copyright notice. If you are in any doubt, please get in touch especially
if your use is for commercial or personal gain.
Playing the audio
clips
The whole point of the site is the recordings,
there's not much point in you visiting otherwise!
These recordings are stored as mp3 files which most visitors should
be able to play directly from the site without any problems.
This is what you'll find on the recording pages:
Just click the Play button and with
a bit of luck and a following wind, the recording should play! The number
on the right is the playing time.
It will depend on what operating system and web browser you are using
as to exactly what will happen; you may find that a media player programme
will start and the recording will play in that or it may just play directly
in the browser.
It is just possible that this won't work and nothing will happen but
fear not, all is not lost.
You can always right click on the Play button (Control - click on a
Mac I believe) and you should get a pop-up menu which will include the
option to save the mp3 file on your PC. The option you want will vary
depending on the browser but it will be something like 'save as' or
'save target'. What you don't want is 'save image'.
Once you've downloaded the file you can double click it to play but
if that doesn't work, you are on your own as sorting out operating system
problems are beyond the scope of this page!
Even if you are able to play the recording directly you are still welcome
to save a copy especially if you want to play it later on an mp3 player
for example.
Back to top of page
Some Background
Back in about 1964, soon after I first started
to get interested in railways and steam locomotives - Ok, I'll admit
it, it was through train spotting but that only lasted a few years.
Anyway, soon after I started I recall wandering into, I think it was
W. H. Smiths record department and finding a small selection of records
of railway sounds and I bought one. 'Pacific Power' it was called, one
of the Argo Transacord records of Peter Handford's recordings. After
listening to that record I was hooked and I decided that I wanted to
make some recordings.
At that time we had a tape recorder at home. A reel to reel one, this
was in the days before cassettes were even a twinkle in Mr. Sony's eye,
and it was about the size of two breeze blocks but only a little heavier.
Worse still it was mains powered. As the nearest railway line was about
3/4 mile away this wasn't a practical proposition. Now there was a battery
powered version which was only the size of one breeze block but the
drawback was the cost. £49 19s 6d if I remember correctly, which
doesn't sound like much unless you only got 5/- (25p) pocket money so,
at the time, that goal was unattainable.
As often happens, eventually my finances caught up with my requirements
and a year or so later I scraped together enough money to buy a battery
operated reel to reel recorder. It only cost £19/9/6 (£19.50)
from Dixons and only weighed as much as a house brick. Watch out Handford
here I come! As I should have expected it was an unmitigated waste of
space, time and money. Firstly, the tape recorder was cra...., sorry,
not very high quality and, more importantly, I had very little idea
how to use it. My first attempt was one weekday morning in the school
holidays on the 11.34 Harrogate to Kings Cross which I knew to be steam
hauled as far as Leeds, on this occasion by B1 61406. From a compartment
in the front coach of this train, all 3 vehicles of it, I confidently
stuck the microphone out of the window, probably on the wrong side for
the wind, and hoped for the best. The 'best' does not describe the result.
In fact 'result' is hardly appropriate either.
My next attempt was only slightly more successful. This was at the lineside
near Newley & Horsforth station (on the Leeds to Shipley and Ilkley
line). At this time there was plenty of freight about, most of it still
steam hauled, and in the space of a couple of hours I had recorded the
passage of perhaps a dozen trains. Ok, most of them were not making
much noise when they passed me but there was one train, hauled by an
8F which made plenty of noise restarting from a signal check. Well,
due to the aforementioned cra..., poor quality recorder it was hardly
possible to tell what most of the recordings were supposed to be and
the 8F, well, you could hear it, just. Very disappointing.
After that experience, apart from one very successful recording session
some years later with a borrowed Uher reel to reel recorder that I couldn't
afford to buy, many years were to go by before I made the attempt again
which is why I have no 'real' BR steam recordings.
It was in the late 70's when steam hauled railtours were beginning to
become more frequent that I made my next foray into railway sound recordings.
By this time the technology had improved, although breeze blocks were
still lighter than the recorder I bought, and I knew only a little more
about the technique required. I would have done far more recording in
these early days had it not been for the breeze block. By the time I
had added my photographic equipment, food, beer, etc. to the pile required
for a day out, adding something the size of a breeze block frequently
was not an option. Rescue arrived in about 1982 when I spotted in a
Hi-Fi shop a reasonably priced Aiwa 'Walkman' sized cassette player
that actually recorded. It was wonderful! I no longer have it as I passed
it on to a friend (Hi Ken!), but as far as I know it is still going
strong. With a decent microphone the quality was good the only drawback
being the lack of any manual control of recording level. But it was
so convenient to carry and use and use it I did. It accompanied me everywhere
and, gradually, getting a recording became more important than the photography
and film making that had been important in the past. Since then I have
worked my way through various recorders culminating in my current digital
recorder and, since getting serious about recording in the early 80's
I have amassed something like 1000 hours of recordings on 400 cassettes,
a growing pile of mini disks and external hard drives.
Right from the start I edited the recordings that I made down to compilations
of the best bits and spent hours editing the recordings using two tape
decks. This editing process was not always easy. I remember spending
one entire Sunday afternoon editing a particular recording of 777 'Sir
Lamiel' on a Welsh Marches Express. The particular recording in question
was of the start from Abergavenny and the ensuing climb to Llanvihangel.
It was a really good recording, the only problem was that, soon after
the start, someone (you know who you are!) standing next to me in the
corridor of the front coach coughed! So, I attempted to remove the cough
by editing it out. The technique was this: Using two tape decks I would
record from the original tape the first part of the track to beyond
the cough. After rewinding both tapes I would play the newly recorded
tape up to a point just before the cough and pause it there. Then I
would start the original recording and, just after the cough, start
the second recorder thus missing out the cough. This, if done carefully
was extremely successful however, the problem was that it was impossible
to tell how successful it was until the entire track had been recorded
which took 15 minutes or so each time. Sometimes the editing was obvious
but, with a lot of trial and error I managed to get this track just
right, without the cough. Some time later I gave a copy of the edited
tape to the person responsible for the cough in the first place, he
had already had a copy of the unedited tape complete with his cough
and, after he had heard the edited copy he commented to me that he was
glad I had managed to get rid of the cough from the original. He told
me that it had been really annoying him every time he listened to it
and it was only after he had listened to the track quite a few times
that he realised that he was the perpetrator!
Nowadays, such an edit would be the work of a few moments and would
be completely undetectable first time thanks to the wonderful world
of digital audio editing.
Which brings us nearly up to date. Right from when CD audio recordings
first appeared I wanted to get my recordings on to CD. One problem with
having 700 hours of cassette tape is that every time you put the cassette
into a deck you can never be 100% certain that you will be able to get
it back out again in an undamaged state as cassette decks have been
known to chew up tape. Add to this the fact that recordings on tape
do deteriorate over time and the advantage of CD becomes obvious.
Once again, eventually, technology, finances and my requirements coincided
so I am now able to achieve yet another goal and I am gradually working
my way through all those recordings, digitising them and putting the
results on audio CDs. So far I have 100. I have also been converting
these tracks to mp3 files which give excellent results coupled with
a small file size. In mp3 format at near CD quality I can get the contents
of up to 10 audio CDs on a single data CD. Which brings us, finally,
to this web site.
In the past I have always passed round copies of recordings, originally
on cassette and now on CD, to friends and acquaintances so this web
site is a logical extension of that.
I hope that you enjoy it.
Why have I done
all this?
(Have you read 'Some background?)
What a really good question. Phrases like, 'because I don't get out
much', 'because I don't have a life' or even 'because I'm a sad b...........d'
spring to mind. But the real reason is 'because I enjoyed it all so
much!'. Back in the 80's and early 90's I thoroughly enjoyed the time
I spent travelling behind steam on the main line. It was a very enjoyable
part of my life during which I made some very good friends, met a lot
of interesting people, visited a lot of interesting places, travelled
through Bramhope Tunnel quite a lot and, not to put too fine a point
on it, thoroughly enjoyed myself. At the time I always used to pass
around cassettes of my recordings and now, thanks to the Internet, I
can share them with even more people. If that makes me a sad b.......d,
then Ok, that's me!
And, you never know, perhaps someone who I knew back in those days and
haven't seen for far too many years will see this and get
in touch. By the way, I've shaved off the beard!
If you should happen to spot me out on the lineside, please feel free
to say hello (as long as I'm not recording at the time, of course!).
Who am I?
David Bailey, the ex-photographer, Scarborough
Spa Express season ticket holder, amateur train driving computer simulation
programmer, amateur (very) web page designer, and once upon a time time
editor of HLPG News and the Steam Sun!
Any other questions - use the feedback facility.
Equipment etc.
There's some brief information in the Some Background
section above but, as I get a few requests asking what I'm currently
using, what microphone is best, what I'd recommend buying and what techniques
I use I thought I'd add this bit but, if you are keen to get more technical
information, I'd try searching the internet for those who make wildlife
recordings. I've found a few highly detailed, highly technical articles
(much of which is beyond me!) from wildlife enthusiasts who face a lot
of the same problems as railway sound recordists.
When asked about equipment I expect most enquirers anticipate getting
a list of recorders or microphones but the choice of that sort of hardware
usually depends largely on the depth of the enquirers pocket and, trust
me, it's perfectly possible to get quite satisfactory results from fairly
modest equipment but there is one thing that will make a big difference
that I always make a point of mentioning.
The biggest problem when recording both on-train and at the lineside
is wind. Buying or making an efficient windshield will make a big difference
to your recordings.
Having progressed over the years from using an old sock for wind protection
I now have a proper 'zeppelin' with a fluffy cover. It's similar to
the ones supplied by Rycote
(but cost far less!) but before I got that I had a home made one which
was almost as good. It was made from chicken wire and the fluffy outer
layer began life covering a cushion cover.
As you may have read above I've had quite a few different recorders
and generally moved with the various developments in portable recorders
starting with cassette, then mini-disk and now digital. I've tried plenty
of microphones too but have generally favoured so called single point
mics, stereo microphones in a single body.
I'm not going to recommend anything in particular; as I said above,
choice will usually be dependant on price but I would suggest putting
a good part of the budget aside for the microphone as there's no point
in spending a lot on the recorder if the microphone isn't much good!
Currently, for most of my recordings I'm using a Sony PCM-D50 digital
recorder with an Audio-Technica AT8022 microphone for lineside recording
or a Sony ECM-MS907 microphone when on-train and I'm quite happy with
the results. I've also used an Olympus LS10 digital recorder which beats
the Sony on compactness and price but not on performance. I'm not going
to go into great detail about these as there are plenty of reviews of
these and others on the internet.
So, having chosen your equipment, what else can I tell you? Well, I'm
going to be brief:
- At the lineside, don't get too close.
- On train, don't stick it out of the window.
As for the rest of your technique I shall advise you to do what I did;
keep trying until you get it right - it's only taken me 30 odd years and
I can still get it wrong!
Back to top of page
FAQ
Why can't I hear
anything?
The first question to ask is; can you hear sounds on your computer
anyway? If the answer is no, then it is really beyond the scope of
this FAQ to sort that one out for you. However, as a simple test have
a look in Control Panel (Start Button, Settings, Control Panel) and
click on the Sounds Icon. Select one of the events. Is the small 'Play'
button near 'Preview' greyed out? If it is, then you need to sort
out your sound card installation. If it isn't, select a sound from
the drop-down list and then click play. Did you hear anything? If
you didn't then go to the the Volume Control (Start, Programs, Accessories,
Volume Control or double click the small speaker icon in the system
tray at the right hand end of your task bar). Check that the setting
of the sliders is correct and that both Wave and Volume are not muted.
If that didn't fix it then I'm afraid you are on your own! Sorry.
So, assuming that your sound set up is Ok and you can hear some sounds
from your computer then another problem could be the lack of a suitable
player. There are plenty of free ones out there but I'd suggest avoiding
Quicktime or Real Player. That's just personal opinion you understand.
If you think that you have a player but the tracks are still not playing
then ensure that the file type mp3 is registered to this player. Download
an mp3 file then start Windows Explorer and locate the file you have
just downloaded. Double click it. Your player should start and begin
playing. If it doesn't you will get a dialogue headed 'Open With'.
Scroll down until you find your mp3 player, select it and select 'Always
use this program to open this file' before clicking Ok. Even if you
do not have a dedicated mp3 player you should have Windows Media Player
which will probably be listed as 'mplayer'.
The last possibility is that the file downloads are not completing
properly. When the Internet is very busy or you have a slow connection
you may find that, on occasion downloading 'times out' before finishing.
If this happens to you you should try again. On the second or subsequent
attempts if you save the file in the same location and with the same
name you may find that the download restarts from where it left off
- this is called 'resuming' and some servers support it. There are
also some software download accelerators that you can install to assist
this process. I don't use one so can't advise you what to use but
a search with your favourite search engine should find them.
If after all this you are still not getting any sound then, like you,
I'm rather stuck. You really need an expert.
Note that all the above applies to a Windows PC. While I've used a
Mac, it was a long time ago!
Back to top of page
Can I keep a
copy of an audio clip?
Yes, of course you can. There are instructions for downloading a copy
above in the 'Playing the audio clips' section. Just
remember that I retain copyright.
Can I get a better
quality copy?
Possibly.
To save bandwidth these mp3 files are encoded at a low sample rates.
However, many of my recordings are available on audio CDs or on mp3
disks. Have a look at the disks available here.
If the particular recording you want isn't available on a disk then
get in touch and you never know.
Have you got
a recording of ......?
Back in the 80's I was out travelling behind steam on the main line
most weekends. It cost me a small fortune! If I'd continued doing
this right through the 90's it would have cost me a large fortune
so I have more from the 80's than from the 90's. Most of the 80's
recordings are on-train main line steam. Later recordings tend to
feature either preserved railways or lineside recordings of main line
steam.
If you travelled on a particular train and want to know if I have
recordings please get in touch - you never know.
Likewise, if you require a particular recording for some reason or
are trying to put together a commercial product, please get in touch,
I'll be delighted to help, especially for money!
Back to top of page
Your text is
too small (or too large).
I did have a bit of javascript on my pages to allow a change of text
size but it wasn't entirely satisfactory so is no longer there. However,
browser developments have made this sort of thing redundant as you
can now zoom a text page directly in the browser. I'm most familiar
with Google's Chrome these days and with that browser, if you click
on the tools icon, you'll find the zoom option which will easily let
you enlarge everything on the page.
If, on the other hand, you find my text too large then you should
sit further away from the monitor!
How often do
you update these pages?
It is my intention to update these content of these pages at least
every couple of months. But we all know what happens to intentions.
If you would like to be informed when I change the content you can
subscribe to the steamsounds mailing list.
Email Problems?
Providing you use the feedback facility on the home page of the web
site to get in touch with me, I will reply. I always reply. Always!
However, I get a surprising number of feedback messages, requests
for details of the CDs, list subscriptions etc. that, when I try to
reply I find that the email address provided doesn't work!
Often this is due to the senders mail box being full or simply to
a mistake in the address. In addition some ISPs seem sometimes to
have a problem with some email addresses refusing email. So, if you
don't get a reply, it may be due to this. One easy solution is to
get an alternative email address from another provider. I use GMX
for this. Google will find it for you.
If you want to test your email address to ensure that everything is
working enter your address in the box below and press send. If everything
is OK you should get an automated response within a matter of minutes.
If you don't you may have a problem!
Contact Information.
If you want to get any further information
about anything on this site, request a recording or tell me about your
railway sounds site then you can contact me using the feedback facility
on the home page of the website. If you try to email me directly I cannot
guarantee that I'll get it as it may well get lost among all the spam.
If you use the feedback facility I am 99.999999% certain to get it.
And I always reply.
The steamsounds email list.
If you would like to be informed by
email when the steamsounds web site is updated then join the steamsounds
mailing list. You will generally only receive emails when the site is
updated. Your email address will not be used by me for any other purpose
or passed on by me to any third party and you can unsubscribe at any
time. You can subscribe from the home page.
If you wish to get a password reminder, change your email address, password
or unsubscribe from the list visit this
page.
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