Here is some audio I recorded on board one of the C&O 614 "Erie Limited" excursions, 18 years ago last week. (6-8-97)
C&O 614 Ridgewood Departure and fast running
Here C&O 614, with engineer Paul Nichini at the throttle, starts her train after the Ridgewood, NJ Station stop and works up the grade to Waldwick, NJ, where she really starts to roll 'em.
I have more. If you guys want to hear it, let me know.
These were recorded using a Crown SASS-P stereo mic, which has a flat frequency response from 20-18000Hz. It fed 2 tracks of a Tascam 4 track cassette recorder with DBX Noise reduction. The recorder ran at twice the normal speed of a cassette recorder, affording a wider frequency response than a normal cassette recorder.
In plain English, they sound pretty darn good for analog tape recordings.
Aside from digitizing the recordings, doing some minor level adjustments and adding fade ins/outs, they remain unadulterated.
I believe the whistle is a Reading 6-chime. Feel free to correct me if that's wrong.
WARNING, these are very dynamic recordings, meaning the volume varies quite a bit. Don't crank it too loud until you
are familiar with the material.