Thetownend.com

Graham Mack, early morning presenter on BBC Radio Wiltshire, has been trying to get the old railway works hooter to blow again!!  After various suggestions he has given up on it, instead he has a recording of it and is going to blast it out of a 20,000 mgw amplifier at 8-15 on Friday morning, at the Designer Outlet Village.  Apparently STFC are also going to run it through their pa system at the same time - don't know what good that will do, we cannot hear half of what is being said now!! :doh: :doh:

Real shame that the real hooter has proven to be (nearly) impossible to get going. Red tape aside the volume and pressure of steam (or air) was too much.

Still, this is the next best thing. Hope I can hear it from my house. No idea how loud 20,000 mgw is, or how it compares to the real deal.

If I lived near the outlet village and heard that at 8.15 in the morning, that would piss me off no end.

But you don't, so it won't ya grumpy young fogey.

I used to live in Rodbourne Road when i was younger and never ever found it annoying and would love to hear it again as it would bring back some memories.I can remember 5 mins after the hooter went everyone used to come flooding out of the entrance on their bikes.

I remember the day they announced the railway production would shut here and be moved to crewe and i used to love the railway open days it's something nearly everyone in rodbourne was interested in.

There was a thread that suggested we get a recording of the hooter and play it every time we scored at the CG - I liked the idea as it would raise awareness of the club but am sure the elf and safety grumps would have different ideas...  

This has also been covered elsewhere, but you've got to consider playing Red Brick Dream on match days as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdUoQOgfl5M

Red brick dream
Windows scream
As the rusting North Star shines above
And drops its iron beams
Crashing down upon the rooves of Swindon Town

I heard the engine's dying breath
Castles and kings all starved to death
I dropped the Coronation cup
Sshh, please don't wake them up from
Red brick dream

Red brick dream
Buttons gleam
By the light of the furnace pouring
Molten memories
Splashing down upon the rooves of Swindon Town

The men of muscle piston rods
Who forged the horses of the gods
The made the town a set of chains
And sleeping it remains in
Red brick dream

[OT]
Talking of match day music requests, can we play Carter USM's  Sheriff Fatman for the visit of Crawley. Thanks.
[/OT]

As it stands players would be coming out at a funeral pace if the pace was upped a bit it might work - any mix masters out there who can do a job -

I thought that this was one of Mr Whippy's ideas ?

You could just set the Town End fast clapping fraternity to work on it.  They would get through all 4 verses in about 12 seconds.

Just remembered I have Djay on my mac... might have a play later and mash it up with summer of 69 :)

Can't they buy a new one from the railway works hooter store in said outlet village?

One of XTC's finests.

Shame they can't make this happen, I remeber it well when I was a kid in Gorse Hill and we could hear it clear and loud.

I worked in the rail works for a while in the early 80's and I can tell you that if you were in the vacinity of it, around the old foundry, at clocking out time it was ear peircing to say the least!

Wierd to think that back in the 20s and 30s it was used as a wake up alarm for the 14,000+ workers there which was around 50% of the towns population then.

 :clap:

I live in Rodbourne and I also go to bed around that time.I'm not arsed though.
I used to live near Broadmoor Prison and they had the escape Hooter used to go off every monday morning,hooters are great.

You'd have thought they'd get more guards in if the prisoners always escaped at the same time every week.

[url width=287 height=196]http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad185/swindon123/the_hooter_timetable_swindon.jpg[/url]

[url width=169 height=257]http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad185/swindon123/final_blast_swindon.jpg[/url]

I can still remember that dour sounding hooter...always seem to remember it on cold winter mornings rather than hot sunny days.

Don't see the point of doing it really.

It was supposed to be the real thing, and marks 25 years of the railworks being closed.

I think that its a shame not to celebrate the towns heritage. This seems as good a way as any. Well the real hooter would have been, whether a recording is going to cut it remains to be seen.

Used to live at the Rodbourne end of Ferndale Road as a kid, and the old hooter would go off at 5 minute intervals in the morning and if I was not out of bed by the time it went off at 7.30, the old dear would be going mental about me being late for school. So up I would get, wait for her to go to work, and then fuck off down Telfords pool for a days fishing.

A one off for that reason i suppose aint a bad idea

I always thought it would have been good to have a hooter at the match perhaps 5 mins before kick off, like a call to the match.

I like hooters.

If I remember correctly it features at the start of "The Meeting Place" on XTC's Skylarking album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF-Yh9wO5ww