Railroad Observations
When are the trains the loudest?
November 2016:
Not many people know this but trains are louder in winter than they are in summer. It’s a scientific fact — at least someone told me it is. I’m not sure. It makes sense to me, though. In summer all the trees near the railroad tracks are leafed out and all those leaves absorb a lot of sound. Then there is the air itself; thin in winter and thicker and more sound absorbent in summer. I’m not sure what the reasoning is — and don’t care — but this is something I’ve noticed in the almost five years that I’ve been living just four blocks from the railroad tracks. I’ve also noticed that the trains are a lot louder when I open the windows.
It has been pointed out to me that if trains are indeed louder when the windows are open then they should technically be louder in the summer instead of the winter because it is in summer when the windows are open the most. While that iron-clad logic is difficult to refute, my empirical observations have clearly shown me that trains are actually louder in winter. It would be easy for a battle to ensue between my auditory faculties and the left-half of my noggin but no one cares to buy a ticket for a seat to that show so such unnecessary warfare will be averted.
Back when I lived in Colorado my wolf-dog would take me for long walks along the old abandoned railroad tracks. We would…
