What is it about steam engine chugging sound that makes it so soothing? I really like hearing it, but I can't explain why.
Most of us were exposed to pro-train propaganda as young children. These trains were often presented as friendly, helpful, harmless, energetic steam trains. Later in life as we discovered the responsibilities and struggles of adult life, we found out trains weren't like that. They were bigger, somehow less friendly, more clinical. If we are not careful, they will try to kill us. They don't always go where we want and when we rely upon them, we're often disappointed. And if we try to eke some joy out of them, when we succeed at all, it's a dull joy. Not like before. Seeing and hearing a real life train behaving as trains did when we were young and ignorant of the horrible world tricks us into thinking, or more correctly, feeling, that a non-horrible world is possible. We encounter them rarely enough that this is something that happens reliably. Everything else becomes irrelevant and there's just the steam train. Like being a child again.
>>2077357the sound you're hearing is just steam moving through an intake and exhaust valve
>>2077367I know how it's made anon, I'm curious as to what is it about that sound that makes it relaxing
It's a machine with fire in its belly, breathing as it works hard.
>>2077363Wow, this is a surprsingly possible explanation which I didn't know I could consider.
>>2077468Thanks, I would like to thank MFNY's "Cherry Lime x O2 OG Kush" live rosin gummies for that shitpost
>>2077357steam engines CHUFFit's diesel engines that chug
>>2077357it's fire and water turning to steam like at home on a woodstove
Because believe it or not, steam engines are living, breathing creatures. Now I want you to imagine the immense sound this guy was making back in the day as a helper over this 4% grade
>>2077367>>2077367The harmonics of the long, individual, intake and exhaust and thus low rpm.Steam expansion causing the pipes to ring. The noises of steam condensing after being dumped into normal atmosphere. The noise of the condensate collection. High horsepower AND torque at low rpm. The work done per liter is much better because it is all mechanical, no chemical combustion stoichiometry/spark impulse/bang timing/thermal waste retarding efficiency.
>>2077357Reminder of days gone by
>>2077363>>2078665I would like to add to what anons said by also mentioning that of all the vehicles out there locomotives are the easiest to personify, It's quite easy to see a train as something more than a simple machine or object. Probably because they are large, powerful and smell of oil. They evoke a reminder of the great beasts of prehistory that etched their memories into our collective subconscious. It's less obvious with electric trains as they are too clean and clinical to evoke a primal sense of awe, but a diesel and especially steam locomotives have that je ne sais quoi that makes people relate to them as a beast of burden more than a engine on wheels. Diesel locomotives grunt and sputter and cough as they haul their load to who knows where. With steam it's even more obvious, a steam train is a steel beast with a fire in it's core. it breathes, pants and roars hot steam as it races across the countryside like bull or a stallion in heat.
>>2077470True, but only steam locomotives choo-choo. Diesel locomotives hornk, although sometimes they have a dandy three-horn brass note. >>2080898I like what you wrote. I've only seen American trains in person, but from pictures of nicer-looking foreign commuter trains I can imagine that the inclination to zoomorphize trains and other /n/ things bigger than us is because we're so used to livestock and zoo animals being subservient to us, in a way, but they very clearly have their own needs and quirks that make them individuals. Unlike wheelbarrows, carts, or bicycles, they propel themselves, they make different noises, and come in different colors and shapes. Our brains can easily be tricked into categorizing them as living things. And it feels nice to understand and observe the living things around us.
>>2077357it's the sound of reliable engineering done by White men.
