Regina’s Old Train Tunnels

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Puccini

It was a brutally long day of conducting RCM music exams in Regina, so after recording discreetly in some de-commissioned twinned cabooses just north of the mall, I made my way along the rail lines and came upon the old passenger platform for the historic Regina Train Station. In the fenced off shadow of today’s booming Casino Regina, I discovered that one of these decrepit entranceways was no longer boarded over. I entered the dank, dark space, and descended down three levels of stairs into the gloom, navigating standing water pooled at the sub-level. Feeling my way as I left daylight further and further behind me, in search of Fine Acoustics. Where spats, fobs and fine silks were perhaps once the order of the day, I found myself vividly imagining hibernating leviathans, oversized furry creatures residing in the inky black depths…or worse!

In a wonderful example of synchronicity, the arc and trajectory of Puccini’s ‘Have They Gone?’ sounding in the tunnel is matched by the earth-shaking sounds of a seemingly interminable train, unseen, shunting in the railyard just overhead.

Compare this recording with that of the same piece played in the caboose setting, and then, subsequently, the same caboose recording re-recorded with ambient sounds of conversation on the campus of the University of Toronto…each has it’s own distinctly evocative character.

Afraid that I might get boxed in for the night by parked trains, I rather reluctantly called it quits and headed off to meet a fellow examiner at the local brewpub in the slowly ebbing prairie light. Although the evening later provided the final denouement of the Ottawa Senators, I had found success: my de-compression from that long day of exams was complete!