Identify a London Underground Line just by listening to it

(tubesoundquiz.com)

70 points | by nelson687 3 hours ago

12 comments

  • walthamstow 2 hours ago
    Incredible fun. I got every one wrong except the line I live on and use all the time. I couldn't tell any of the others apart much, but I knew my line instantly, without any doubt. Fascinating.
  • IshKebab 3 minutes ago
    Quite fun. It doesn't make sense to have it as a list of multiple choice questions though since by the end you know the answers by a process of elimination. I'd change it so you see all the sounds and lines and have to match them up.
  • spuz 1 hour ago
    It seems a little unfair to include the circle and metropolitan lines as they use the same rolling stock and run on the same tracks in the centre of the city.
    • calpaterson 1 hour ago
      And yet I could tell them apart with pretty good confidence. Why?
      • IshKebab 4 minutes ago
        You got lucky and thought it was skill?
  • ssss11 1 hour ago
    I got 6 out of 9 and haven’t lived there in 10 years. Felt some nostalgia hearing some of them though!!!
    • calpaterson 1 hour ago
      I got 8/9. Been away 2 years. The ones I rarely used or which don't have obvious "tells" that are hardest. For me, Jubilee is the most obvious - very distinctive sound.
  • jeffwass 32 minutes ago
    Somehow I got a 7 out of 9, even though I felt like I was mostly guessing. Surface vs deep lines have more rumble but that’s about it that I consciously knew of.
  • dudefeliciano 1 hour ago
    love this kind of games, if we ever get consumer grade smell-o-vision i will make the same to identify berlin underground lines by smell
  • bb123 2 hours ago
    Nice! It would be fun to include some of the other sounds on the tube like the door closing chimes or the sounds the doors make when opening and closing.
  • mpascale00 1 hour ago
    It was fun to guess these without being familiar. I sort of guessed based on vague knowledge of age and name familiarity. Maybe I was lucky.
  • MrsPeaches 2 hours ago
    Loved this!

    A bit deep to put district and circle as options on the same question. Don’t they use the same rolling stock and cover very similar stations?

    I found Bakerloo was the easiest to identify.

    • Reason077 1 hour ago
      The Bakerloo sounds are indeed pretty distinctive (I lived near Kilburn Park for a while and knew it well!). But I think the easiest of all is the Jubilee line. Those melodic sounds from the traction motors that rapidly change pitch when accelerating/decelerating are so distinctive and unique.
    • ssss11 1 hour ago
      Jubilee I found pretty easy too
  • OPBoot 2 hours ago
    Enjoyed that. Not lived in London for 30 years, but some sounds never leave you...

    I got 5/9 on the Tube Sound Quiz!

    (better than random!)

    • jojobas 1 hour ago
      I got 6/9 and I've never been there.
  • manojlds 1 hour ago
    Elizabeth is the only one I use frequently so I got them mostly wrong.
    • maleldil 1 hour ago
      Technically, not an underground line.
  • fennecfoxy 25 minutes ago
    Eh they all sound like SCREEEEEHEEEEECHCCCCHEEEEEE now anyway because TFL are incapable of doing basic maintenance overnight (such as grinding the rails) without using expensive contractors that eat money up.

    After being in Paris over the weekend the state of the underground cleanliness/noise is just absolutely shameful.