Sensory system

Sound

Context

Various contexts of personal experiences and historic ones (where steam was still the usual form of rail travel)

Temporality

Both in the person’s childhood and adulthood, as well as thinking back to the 19th and early-mid 20th century.

Physical

When I think of hearing this whistle, I think of the other sounds of a train station that go along with it – people walking, talking, loading luggage on and off trains, and the chug of the steam engine. The whistle creates a sense of urgency – the train is about to leave and this makes me want to rush to get on board in time.

Emotional

Personally I associate this object with visits to heritage railways, which were often childhood days out. The whistle conjures up a sense of fun, as steam trains are heritage attractions for me rather than the normal travel they were when this whistle was used. However, at the time the railways were new (certainly to my town) so people likely had a similar level of excitement to how I feel using a heritage railway, or even more so. My ideas of everyday train travel are that it’s a hassle, but before the railways came to town it took much longer to get around the area, so you could even compare the experience to flying in more recent years – something that is revolutionary in terms of increasing speed of travel and access to new places.

Relationships

• Proprioception