Feb 23, 2009

Clickety Clack

Well .. i disagree .. its actually ta-tak-ta-tak ! :)

Before you think what the hell is it, let me start. It's actually the sound made by train (Majorly Indian) wheels as they go over rails. I don't know why it's called clickety-clack and pronounced as klik′ə tē klak′. I never heard a "cli" or a "kli" in the first place !

Perhaps they use fiercely weird(FW) words for abstract objects/sounds/etc ..

An awfully weird observation is that you can actually count the number of bogies in a train without even looking at it. I tried it and it works. Just pick one frequency out of ta(1)-tak(2)-ta(3)-tak(4) and count the number of times it comes. I chose number 4 when i tried for the first time, and the number of bogies came exact same ..
And if you ask me why is 1 different from 3 and 2 different from 4, i don't really have an answer, but it is different, go figure ..

Anyways, the sound occurs when train wheels pass over the joints on the rail tracks which are connected by "Fish plates" (another FW word) .. apparently !
These joints have considerable gaps left in between for expansion of rails during summers. But, this leads to the more or less irritating sound which i think is better termed as ta-tak-ta-tak. The eight wheels, in pairs of two, make these sounds because of the gap.

Although, I later realized that i could have actually considered the whole set, count the number of ta-tak-ta-tak and you are done ..
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Actually there is one correction, one set of ta-tak-ta-tak is actually corresponding to 4 back wheels of one bogie and 4 front wheels of following bogie (courtsey: robin)
So, every junction in between 2 bogies counts for a ta-tak-ta-tak.

so for a 12 bogie train it will be:

ta-tak (1 time) ... ta-tak-ta-tak (11 times) .. ta-tak (1 time)

11 times for 11 junctions and the two singles for the front and back bogie !!! :)

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PS: Don't judge me :D .. it's the title of the blog !!!

9 Comments:

scadza said...

one thing I would like to know
is why is it "ta tak ta tak" rather than
"tak tak tak tak" .

I think appke mech ke fundae kaam mein aajayenge. [ :) :)) :) :)) ]

Gaurav said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Vinay Sharma said...

i have an explanation ! .. actually every sound is "tak" .. but look at the arrangement of wheels .. 4 in front (pairs of two) and 4 at back .. so the first "tak" by front wheel is partly eaten up by the following adjacent wheel.

However, there is a long distance between the front 4 and rear 4 wheels .. so the second "tak" is complete :D

Similarly for next ta-tak

Red said...
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Sourabh said...

Interesting read...but i am still confused how can you count the number of boggies.

Vinay Sharma said...

read the modified blog .. u will get it now ..

Sourabh said...

lets meet and discuss...i am still not convinced.....
Next time jab milte hian to discuss karlenge..ya fir mian abhi train main jaane waala hoon test karke dekh loonga

Sourabh said...

got it...my frame of reference was inside the train earlier :P

Anonymous said...

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