The record you have was recorded for a series of trips that the B&O ran between Baltimore and Washington, DC in 1964. They used Reading T-1 2100 for the trips.

I strongly suspect that this particular recording is a re-release of Ralbar's ABR-1003, their 1961 "Iron Horse Rambles," with a different label stuck on it. As noted, the B&O and Rail Tours did do a series of trips from Philadelphia to D.C with stops in Baltimore with 2100 on August 15-16, 1964, with plenty of promotion, and in this era records like this were standard souvenirs sold aboard the trains (for something like 50 cents or a dollar each!).

I'm working on finding time to scan, OCR, and transcribe a massive list of known rail recordings I compiled on old dot-matrix-printed stock in the early 1990s. Sit tight.

The other day I was looking through some 1960's issues of The Gramophone and as luck would have it, there was a full page ad for a record of English steam locomotives by the record label Argo. I'll post the ad eventually, once I make a scan of it.

Interesting that a record label like Argo would release such a record, and even more interesting that they would take out a full page ad in a magazine of music reviews.

Although not a commercial release, allow me to offer one of my own recordings for your listening pleasure.

It is a recording of C&O 614 departing Port Jervis, NY and climbing the grade to Guymard, NY on one of the "Erie Limited" trips.

It was recorded from the tool car "Sound and Fury" on October 26, 1997, on two tracks of a Tascam Porta 07 4-track cassette recorder being fed by a Crown SASS-P microphone.

I used no compression, leaving the dynamics of the sound as natural as possible, so the volume starts out low but gets pretty loud in a hurry.

It's on my YouTube "YankInGA" channel along with a few other audio-only tracks and lots of videos of most of the "steam stars" of the '80s and '90s

The best part is that it's free and just one click away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7am3jfKbyi4

PS: the occasional high pitched ticks that you may hear are the sounds of 614's cinders hitting the mic.

Argo acted as a distribution channel for Peter Handford's Transacord series of rail records. Any and every Argo steam record came from Handford's production, as I understand it. In fact, most of the references to them I've seen are "Argo Transacord".

Over the last few months I've been creating digital files from my LPs for uploading into iTunes. I'm wondering if anyone else has tried this - it's a good way to preserve what you've collected. I almost NEVER have time to play my vinyl, but I do listen to iTunes frequently when I'm working on the computer. I'm hearing albums now that I haven't played in years. This would be a great way to preserve a museum's collection.

Please note that I'm converting for my OWN PERSONAL USE. I'm not distributing or selling my files.

I'm using a Numark TTUSB for playing, and Audacity (it's free) to convert to MP3. I'm guessing any USB turntable would work, but the TTUSB had the right features at the right price. The only tricky part of this process, and this applies to railroad audio especially, is finding and labeling the individual tracks.

For those of you that want to try this, here's the entire blow-by-blow:


COPYING RECORD ALBUMS USING AUDACITY

NUMARK TTUSB plugged into USB3 port
Settings as follows in Audacity:
MME
SPEAKERS: set to “Speakers/Headphones (IDT High)
“MICROPHONE: set to “Microphone 2-USB Audio CODEC”
2 (Stereo) Input Channel

Project rate is 44100 Hz

Begin playing disk, put stylus on record – press “Record” button.
(No sounds will be heard through Audacity unless “Record” is pressed)

When first side ends, stop recording. Trim ends of recording of excess – Highlight selection, Edit, Remove Audio or Labels –or use “Ctrl K”

Specify where second recording (side b) is to start on timeline using “I” (should be default), then start playing record and press “Record” again.

When album is finished playing, stop recording. Trim ends of side b recording if needed using “Ctrl K.” Use arrow slider to move audio if necessary; you can move it up alongside the side A recording, or leave it where it is. Be sure to return to “I” mode after sliding audio or you won’t be able to select audio.

Next, reduce view of recording. “Ctrl 3” makes view smaller; “Ctrl 1” larger; “Ctrl 2 is ‘normal.” A somewhat reduced view of normal is preferable

If “click reduction” is necessary, do this first. (I normally use around 197/24 for settings). Then “Normalize” the recording from same menu.

If further noise reduction is needed, highlight just a small portion of audio and take a sound sample; then highlight entire recording and apply noise reduction. Note that noise reduction is not advisable if the record is a sound effects (i.e. railroad audio) recording, as the recording will be distorted. Noise reduction works well on music recordings.

To cut the recording into tracks, start at the beginning. Click “Tracks” then “Add Label at Selection” – or press “Ctrl B.” Write name/description of track (not artist)

When all tracks have been labeled, select “File,” “Export Multiple.” Export format is “MP3 Files” to the Music folder. Name files Using Label/Track Name should be selected.

Enter “Album Title” and “Artist Name” for every track being exported.

Once export is complete, make new folder with album name in “Music” folder and move individual MP3 files into this folder.

Open Itunes. Bring up Menu Bar in Itunes (under “File” if not already open). Then -> File -> Add Folder To Library. Select folder from “Music” files and click “Select Folder.” Files will now be added to Itunes.

Search itunes for album just added. Right click to select, then “add info.” Make any changes necessary, and copy and paste album artwork if available.

- end -

Man I am completely impressed with your ability to do that and you have everything to do it with.

On another note...some of you know I have been chasing a particularly elusive recording. Well...here is the whistle of the recording I am seeking....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYgiO21OXGg

The whistle is in the first 20 seconds of this song.

Now you guys have something to go on....

Thanks for posting that railroad recording blog. I hadn't known about that. In case anyone's interested, my dad made a lot of recordings in the 70s of the Southern Railway Steam Specials in Virginia. I converted them to digital a few months ago and now have a CD available at: http://spgass.bandcamp.com/album/southern-steam-specials
I also have a Southern/NS steam ringtone collection available.

Railroad Sound Recordings On 78 RPM Discs. These haven't been given coverage, perhaps because they are rare and generally unknown. An early one is this Gennett pressing from 1934. Gennett was a part of the Starr Piano Company of Richmond, Indiana, right along the PRR tracks. They produced recordings of popular music which sold at a budget price in dime stores and through catalogs such as Sears Roebuck. In the 1920s, many jazz greats travelled from Chicago to be recorded. After the Great Depression hit, record sales plummeted throughout the industry and most smaller companies went under or were swallowed up by American Record Corporation. Gennett's final products were sound effects records for radio or other theatrical uses.

Someone just passed this on to me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAQdPBr57fs

"Top Ten Soundtracks of Steam" (his own, of course, of the past two or three years).....

Came across this collection of train recordings on Ebay today. Lots of neat stuff here. Posted for information only, these are not mine.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/Other-/487/m.html?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEFSXS%3AMESOI&_ssn=pando64

I don't think it has been mentioned, but "Sunday Only" is an album of CB&Q steam back in the late fifties/early sixties (at work now, so I don't have it in front of me). Found it on CD years ago then was able to pick up the actual album on eBay.

Track 8 is one where the mic was mounted on 5632's tender as she climbed the hill from downtown to West Burlington Iowa. The echo of the whistle echoing off the buildings is incredible. I've often described the track as "if this doesn't give you religon, nothing else will"!!!

Regards,
Burlington John

For those of you whose railroad-related audio interests center around traction, the Central Electric Railfans Association has reissued Inteurban Memories an audio collection of traction sounds. It can be ordered from here:

http://www.cera-chicago.org/publications.php#now

Finally found a piece of the track I have been looking for:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IFe5tYMmqw

Anyone recognize it?