The Baby Train, or simply Baby Train, is an urban legend told in the United States, United

The Baby Train, or simply Baby Train, is an urban legend told in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. The legend first appeared in Christopher Morley's 1939 novel Kitty Foyle. According to the legend, a certain small town had an unusually high birth rate. This was allegedly caused by a freight train passing through the town and blowing its whistle, waking up all the residents. Since it was too late to go back to sleep and too early to get up, couples would have sex. This resulted in a mini-baby boom.

LEGEND
One version of the myth, as written down by the Australian author and folklorist Bill Scott in The Long and The Short and The Tall: a collection of Australian yarns tells the story of a little town on the coast, not too far north of Sydney, where the birth rate was three times the average for all the rest of Australia. This was so unusual the Government sent someone out to the town to investigate the cause for the high birth rate.

When the official arrived, he found children everywhere he looked. "Even the local school had those temporary classrooms all over the place to fit them in and they had a special maternity wing at the local hospital." The man was mystified for a while. The people there did not seem different from people in other small towns, so he couldn't understand why they got three times as many children. After a few nights in the town, the man figured it out.

This particular town was right by the main railway line. The train was delivering mail right past the town, and thus blew its whistle when it stopped. Since it was too early to get up and it was too late to go back to sleep again, the adults had to find something to do in bed while waiting. This then led to the very high birth rates.

Other versions of the myth vary to different degrees. Sometimes the small town is in America or England, and one version tells of noisy foghorns rather a than train whistle.

SIMILAR MYTHS AND ACTUAL EVENTS
The story is related to the rumour that birth rates spiked nine months after the Northeast Blackout of 1965, the actual birthrate increase in Boston after February 1969 nor'easter
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and other natural disasters and similar events. It is based on the premise that when regular life is disrupted adults will resort to sex as occupation without regard for family planning or protection.

LINK TO ARTICLE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Train

TAGS: Baby Train, Fertility, Fictional trains, Urban legends

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