SkyAugur
Active Member
In December 2025, people in Northside, Clifton and Camp Washington heard a "siren-like" whirring at night for weeks. Local 12's 22 Dec report has their recordings:
On 24 Dec, Local 12 played a clip that an anonymous source said was CSX yard engine 8431 at Queensgate (from 1:43):
The residents' clips and the 8431 clip have the same steady 215-270 Hz tone (1). The 8431 clip also has a whine at 16x that tone, which falls along with it as the engine throttles down (2). That's a locomotive turbocharger. The whine fades fast over distance, so the residents' clips don't have it.
On r/cincinnati, the person who named 8431 said on 25 Dec that HQ had ordered it fixed (link). A resident who hears the yard every night wrote on 23 Jan that it "stopped like a day after" (link). CSX told Local 12 it couldn't substantiate that a specific locomotive was the source.
Most likely a yard engine with a failing turbo, fixed around Christmas.
On 24 Dec, Local 12 played a clip that an anonymous source said was CSX yard engine 8431 at Queensgate (from 1:43):
The residents' clips and the 8431 clip have the same steady 215-270 Hz tone (1). The 8431 clip also has a whine at 16x that tone, which falls along with it as the engine throttles down (2). That's a locomotive turbocharger. The whine fades fast over distance, so the residents' clips don't have it.
On r/cincinnati, the person who named 8431 said on 25 Dec that HQ had ordered it fixed (link). A resident who hears the yard every night wrote on 23 Jan that it "stopped like a day after" (link). CSX told Local 12 it couldn't substantiate that a specific locomotive was the source.
Most likely a yard engine with a failing turbo, fixed around Christmas.
