Listen to train announcements at Pennsylvania Station, New York, recorded on November 11, 1963, from the archives of Semaphore Records, 202-255-4043.
Penn Station train announcements
By Angela Cotey | August 11, 2016
| Last updated on September 20, 2022
This brought back great memories. As a kid on family Florida trips, we’d transfer from early Grand Central arrival on D&H from Montreal to Penn for SAL’s Silver Star, a layover of a couple of hours. Those announcements of trains bound for sometimes strange-sounding places I’d never been kept me amply amused until boarding time.
Enjoyed the pictures, but wish the audio could have offered subtitles for those of us who are hearing impaired.
just wonderful to hear his voice,wonderful audio it brings back so many wonderful times I spent on the railroad..i hope you have more audios to share with us train lovers
This is the best present I could get. I used to stand in the shower and try to do these announcements because of the acoustics. Not even close.
Growing up outside of Chicago, I would often visit the six terminals in the Loop.
These hauntingly enticing train announcements of name trains and locals to all parts of the country were all part of the magic of train travel in those days.
I am pleased someone actually has recorded them for posterity.
Thanks for having this on the site. Hope more could be coming in the future.
When i first started riding the LIRR in 1989 I think this guy was still making announcements….in the “new” Penn Station, of course.
This brought back some wonderful memories for me. I just started high school in the city and would sometimes take the LIRR home. I would come in the 7th ave entrance those tall columns looming over the front doors. There was a small walkway with a few shops on either side. As you walked you could hear the muted sounds coming from the concourse. The walkway ended at the top of the stairs down to the concourse, my first time I stopped at the top and just marveled at the 6 or 7 story ceiling of skylights with the sunlight filtering through down to the floor which was teaming with people on their way to some where, listening to that same voice I just heard calling those trains. I can’t describe the feeling I got standing there, it sent chills down my spine. Every time I entered through the front I’d just stand there at the top of stairs and watched and listened to the sounds of all those people rushing to their trains and that voice calling them to their gates. Magnificent !!!! I cried when they tore it down what a shame I’d heard it took longer to demolish it than to build it. I saw pictures in the newspaper of gondolas filled with debris heading to a dump somewhere in Jersey. I also remember walking through the LIRR concourse when they announced that JFK had died. Everyone in the terminal just stopped for a few seconds some broke down and cried. Very terrible day.
That audio sounded almost heavenly. Like it was coming from another dimension. Definitely from an era gone by.
Really neat.
Jim Kerner and R Gannon are correct. I have always considered the demolition of Penn Station to be one of the greatest acts of vandalism of the 20th century. At the same time, I can understand why the financially bleeding PRR would want to take advantage of the revenue generated by the air rights. Though I’m just a shade too young to recall much of that station, I rode the LIRR in and out of its replacement many times from the early 70’s when I started high school til I moved out of NY City in 1988. That station was, and is, a glorified subway station. Improvements in recent years have made it more palatable-especially the air conditioning, the place could be like an oven in the summer-but it has none of the grandeur that made you realize you had arrived somewhere important.
This was what it was like to be down at New York’s Penn Station back in 1963. You heard the station agent calling out the trains that were rolling out of the station back then. You saw the pictures of the GG 1s that were the pride and joy of the electric fleet of the Pennsylvania Railroad back in the day. I really enjoyed hearing all the trains being called and the tracks they were on. Nowadays, you will hear the train number and some train names get called out at New York’s Penn Station as you ride the trains of Amtrak to your destination north or south even west. You will also hear the trains of New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Railroad along with the subways and the trains of PATH as you are in Penn Station where I will be in both November and December.
Compare these announcements to what we cannot understand at present airport terminals!
Wow! Thanks for posting. Living in Wilmington, DE in the late 50-early 60s, got to go with my father a couple times to NYC on his business trips. Rode the PRR MP54 to 30th Street in Philly. Then transferred to what I considered a “real train” for breakfast into NY. While he attended meetings, I roamed around the area until time to return. Wish we could do it again!
I was too young to do that at Penn. However, I got to know and tape Amtrak Announcer Danny Simmons. This was back in the late seventies, early eighties. I wonder if I still have the cassette tapes. And, I don’t mean Alexander Cassette. HA, HA.
@R. Gannon : No. It’s not I used to be a tour guide and I would say that. I also used this line as well. We don’t know what we got until it’s gone.
Wonderful recreation of history. On a parallel note, just think in a little over two weeks JFK would be assassinated in Dallas…
Fascinating. Someone must know who the announcer was?
There’s actually a bold plan to rebuild the original station. See http://www.city-journal.org/html/penn-station-reborn-14616.html
Thanks you so much for writing “Penn Station Playground”. As I read the article, I found myself wishing that I could have shared those memorable and priceless experiences. I used to visit Penn Station quite often with my Dad in the early 50’s.
It’s still painful to think about what we lost.
I never thought I’d hear the Penn Station announcer of my youth again, I used to try and imitate him while I was in the shower.
It was lots of fun to listen to the recording and match it to the departure times listed on p. 59 of the Classic Trains article (Fall 2016).
Alas…. a tragic event (is “rape” too strong an adjective?) occurred when the destruction of this grand station was allowed. More’s the pity.
Wow! Some heady stuff. Does that bring back memories? I often wondered if stations were purposely designed to enhance that certain quality of announcement sound,