Little train

From the moment that I first heard this sound, I thought the flute sounded very much like a little steam train. At first, I researched about Columbian trains and found there is a tourist train to the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá, an underground Roman Catholic church built within the tunnels of a salt mine, 200 metres (660 ft) underground in a halite mountain near the city of Zipaquirá, in Cundinamarca, Colombia.

I wanted the listener to hear the original recording in the track but did edit the order, tempo and pitch to give an idea of the effort of the train on its journey. I then added a rhythmic synth line to give a feeling of travel and sourced some steam train sounds from freesound. Towards the end of the track I layered other synth lines and a church organ as the train reaches its destination, the salt cathedral. 

However, the more I worked on the track, It brought back memories of a journey I made many years ago on the little train that takes people up Yr Wyddfa. So a little nod to this is the tune to Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau that comes in at the end of the track.

Many of the tracks and audio pieces I create are based on memories and this is no exception. From the moment that I first heard this sound, I thought it sounded very much like a little steam train chugging up a very steep mountainside, whether in South America or my homeland, Wales.

Chocó panpipe music reimagined by Museleon.

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Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Explore the full project at citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds