The Train Horn at 4:44
Archived from the community board of a small river town. Usernames are as posted. Some replies have been omitted.
Thread: Anybody else hearing a train horn around 4:45 am??
millrace_mom — Mar 3, 6:12 AM
This is going to sound dumb. Three mornings in a row I’ve been woken up by a train horn. Two long, one short, one long, like at a crossing. Really loud, like it’s right outside. I checked the clock every time and it’s 4:44. Husband sleeps through it. Anybody else on the east side?
DaveK_Wickford — Mar 3, 7:30 AM
There hasn’t been a train through Wickford since I was in grade school. They pulled up the line in ‘79, it’s the rail trail now. Probably a truck on 22 with an air horn.
millrace_mom — Mar 3, 7:41 AM
I know what a truck sounds like Dave. This was a train. You could hear the wheels.
hollyhock_lane — Mar 3, 9:02 AM
Oh thank god. I heard it too, this morning and yesterday. Hollyhock Lane, by the old feed mill. I thought I was losing it.
ttrask — Mar 4, 5:01 AM
Just heard it. 4:44 exactly. I’m on Depot St. It was SO close. I went out on the porch and there’s nothing. The trail is right behind my house. I could smell diesel.
DaveK_Wickford — Mar 4, 8:15 AM
ok that’s weird. Depot is all the way across town from Hollyhock. Can’t be the same truck.
millrace_mom — Mar 5, 6:40 AM
Okay so I made a map. Pinned everyone who’s said they heard it here and in the Facebook group. 23 people so far. [link]
hollyhock_lane — Mar 5, 7:02 AM
That’s the old rail line. Every pin is right along the trail. That’s literally the route.
WickfordHistSoc — Mar 5, 10:20 AM
Hello from the Wickford Historical Society! Fascinating thread. For anyone interested, the line was the Wickford & Upper Valley, freight only, closed 1979. We have photos at the museum. There’s a crossing signal from the Depot Street crossing on display in our front window!
ttrask — Mar 7, 4:58 AM
Hey historical society, did your crossing signal used to have its lights wired up? Because I just walked past the museum on my way back from hearing it and the lights are going. Red, back and forth. Nobody inside.
WickfordHistSoc — Mar 7, 9:11 AM
That’s not possible, it isn’t connected to anything. I’ll check today.
WickfordHistSoc — Mar 7, 1:45 PM
It isn’t connected to anything.
millrace_mom — Mar 10, 6:05 AM
Map update. 41 pins. But look at the new ones. They’re not on the trail anymore. Look at Lilac Ct and the end of Bayard. That’s like four blocks off the old line. They make a curve. It’s like the line’s going somewhere new.
DaveK_Wickford — Mar 10, 6:30 AM
Okay. I’m on Bayard. I heard it this morning. I’m not going to lie, I was wrong, and I’m sorry. It was right on top of the house. The windows were rattling. I have never been so scared in my life and I couldn’t even tell you of what. Just a horn.
hollyhock_lane — Mar 10, 8:00 AM
Has anyone noticed that it’s louder for the people who are closer to the new part? Like it’s coming towards them, not past them?
ttrask — Mar 12, 5:10 AM
I followed it this morning. I know. I went out at 4:40 and stood on the trail behind my house with a flashlight. At 4:44 the horn went right next to me, close enough I felt it in my teeth, and there was wind, like something big going past, and the gravel moved. Nothing there. And then I heard it go off the trail. Across the Gauthiers’ backyard. Through their fence. I could hear it crossing their lawn.
The fence is fine. I checked. But there are two lines pressed into the grass, about four foot eight apart. That’s standard gauge. I looked it up.
millrace_mom — Mar 12, 7:00 AM
ttrask please don’t do that again.
WickfordHistSoc — Mar 12, 11:30 AM
I’ve gone through our archive. I don’t know if this helps. The W&UV had a planned extension in 1958 that was surveyed and never built. I’ve scanned the survey map. [link] It comes off the main line at Depot St, curves through what’s now Lilac Ct, Bayard, the east side subdivision. Ends at a “terminal” on the river bluff that was never constructed. Where Riverview Estates is now.
millrace_mom — Mar 12, 11:52 AM
I live in Riverview Estates.
hollyhock_lane — Mar 14, 6:30 AM
Has anyone heard from DaveK? He hasn’t posted since the 10th. His truck’s in the driveway.
WickfordHistSoc — Mar 14, 9:00 AM
Dave’s sister called the museum. She said he’s fine. She said he’s “waiting at the station.” She asked if we knew what that meant, and I didn’t, and she hung up.
ttrask — Mar 15, 4:50 AM
It’s not just the horn now. Tonight you could hear it braking. It slowed down at Bayard. It stopped for a long time. When it started up again it sounded heavier.
hollyhock_lane — Mar 16, 8:15 AM
I went by Dave’s. Front door was open. Every light in the house on. There was a ticket on the kitchen table. Like an old paper train ticket, the kind they punch. It said WICKFORD & UPPER VALLEY on it. One way. To Riverview.
millrace_mom — Mar 17, 4:31 AM
I’m up. I haven’t slept. I’m sitting at the kitchen window. You can see the bluff from here. I can see lights out on the edge of it where there’s nothing, a row of little yellow lights at about the height of a platform. There are people standing under them. They’re not doing anything. Just waiting, the way people do on a platform. Like they’re looking up the line.
Kids are asleep. I’m going to stay right here and keep my eyes on it.
millrace_mom — Mar 17, 4:43 AM
I can hear it coming. It’s so loud. The cups on the shelf are moving.
millrace_mom — Mar 17, 4:44 AM
It’s not stopping at the bluff
hollyhock_lane — Mar 17, 7:30 AM
millrace?
ttrask — Mar 18, 5:15 AM
No horn this morning. First time in two weeks.
WickfordHistSoc — Mar 20, 2:00 PM
For anyone who’s been following. The crossing signal in our window has stopped. Someone left something on the museum steps yesterday morning. It’s a timetable, printed, very old style, for a line that doesn’t exist. Wickford & Upper Valley, Riverview Extension. There’s only one train on it. Departs Depot St 4:44 a.m., daily.
At the bottom someone has written “service expanding” in pencil.
I’ve updated millrace’s map with every address that’s been reported empty this week. It’s not a curve anymore. It’s the shape of a rail yard. We’re going to have a meeting at the museum on Thursday, and anyone who’s heard it is welcome. Please don’t come before dawn.
dkessler (new user) — Mar 21, 4:44 AM
its all right. its warm in the cars and everybody is here. theres plenty of room. hollyhock the conductor says to tell you hes coming up your street next. he says leave the porch light on so he can find the crossing