So how well do you know your trains?

[Crossover]

It's the bogies isn't it?

Correct

LM 350's can be told apart by sight too - the giveaway is the connection door colour, and if not, the lack of third rail equipment (minus shoes) on the /2's

 

[ZAPHOD]

A difficult visual one used to be telling a 37 with cutaway skirts from a class 40 at a distance, head on.
Their sounds were quite different though.
Classes 20, 37, 40, 50, 55 were all easy to tell apart by their sound.
Peaks and 47s were very similar though, pretty much the same engine.

 

[CC 72100]

The only ones I can confidently identify by sound ( apart from a Deltic! ) before seeing them are the French MS61 units on RER Line A; their motors are extremely musical and they echo down the tunnels enough for me to know 15 - 20 seconds before it comes into sight if it's one or not.

Very true. They can be heard from a little way away. To be fair, all of the stock on the A has a very distinctive sound. Even the M2N and MI09s are easily distinguishable from each other after a while.

Had a Z5600 back from Versailles on the RER C on the weekend - makes Tarus-style noises, although oddly enough not as part of the acceleration, but more so at random intervals.

 

[PermitToTravel]

The only one I would be 100% confident of is at Finsbury Park LU: if I'm at the top of the steps I can identify if it's a Victoria or Piccadilly line train approaching purely by the noise. (Which is very useful!)

It's just as easy to tell the difference between Victoria and Bakerloo line trains at Oxford Circus

Of course, Jubilee line trains sound extremely distinctive

 

[Lampshade]

I think I could identify anything of Northern's.

 

[Welly]

I think I could identify anything of Northern's.

By the sound of rattling and falling apart?