The Baby Train
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The Baby Train is a popular urban legend, told both in the United States and Australia. According to the rumor, a certain small town had an unusually high birth rate. It seems that a freight train would pass through the town at 5:00 am and blow 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 find other ways to amuse themselves in bed. This resulted in the mini-baby boom.
This story is also related to the rumor that birth rates spiked nine months after the 1965 New York City blackout, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and after certain natural disasters.
Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand wrote a 1993 book titled The Baby Train & Other Lusty Urban Legends.
[edit] References
Brunvand, Jan Harold. The Baby Train & Other Lusty Urban Legends. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1993.
