This concerns the article from Spencer, “Residents says train whistles blow all night” (Telegram & Gazette, June 29). This brings to mind train steam whistles and factory steam whistles during World War II, when factories were busy making war goods and factory steam whistles played a big part in Worcester.
Two factories, American Steel & Wire and Wyman-Gordon Co., had loud steam whistles that blew daily at 7 a.m., noon and 3 p.m. Pity the people of Worcester’s Green Island district, where both noisy factories were located. American Steel & Wire’s steam whistle blew with deep, low tones with extra loud steamship sounds. Wyman-Gordon’s noontime steam whistle had a very high-pitched noise with noisy, banging presses day and night.
Steam whistles were helpful to civil defense officials’ air-raid blackout tests during the war years. When factory steam whistles blew, civil defense sirens couldn’t be heard, especially when the Grafton-Knight factory on Grafton Hill blew its loud, neighborhood steam whistle. During blackout air-raid tests, factory steam whistles blew on and off for 30 minutes, even at midnight.
Wartime steam engine trains were busy, especially at night. When you were lying in bed, you could hear trains in the distance with steam whistles blowing, echoing in the valleys with black smoke and soot shooting in the air.
Worcester, during WWII, was used to noise with whistles, factories and trains operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. People lived with noise day and night until the war was over and never complained.
RAYMOND J. PERRONE