It’s more than a sound. It’s a rhythm.

Image: Graff Museum, 638 Benton Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee.

The joint between two rails creates that quintessential clickety-clack. The rails are offset so the joints are never directly across from each other, but staggered evenly apart — ideally. Those joints are the weak point in the rail, where steel gives just enough to create that alternating stereo pulse from opposite sides of the track. 

Add the gentle sway of the car, and you’re truly rocking while you roll.

That rhythm once defined travel — the soundtrack of motion across a continent. Every jointed rail sang a song of industry, distance, and discovery.

Johnny Cash captured it best. His boom-chicka-boom rhythm wasn’t just a musical beat; it was a train on a stage — rolling steady, unstoppable, echoing that same pulse that rail wheels made for a century. His sound felt like forward motion.

Today, continuous welded rail has quieted much of that song. The steady clatter has faded into nostalgia.

But at Rail Yard Studios, we’re still listening — and building to that rhythm.

The Sound of Craftsmanship

Walk into a game room, and you’ll hear a different kind of clickety-clack: the crisp report of billiard balls striking one another. It’s a familiar rhythm — mechanical, precise, deeply satisfying. The cue connects, the pack breaks, and a sharp click gives way to a rolling clack that bounces off the rails of the table.

That sound inspired a collaboration between Rail Yard Studios and Olhausen Billiards, two makers that share a love for craftsmanship and American industry. Together, we’ve created billiard tables (and other game tables) that merge railroad heritage with fine furniture design — tables that celebrate both motion and precision.

Every table tells a story: forged steel, reclaimed oak from rail yards, and industrial design details that speak to the rugged beauty of the rails. When you play, you’re not just breaking a rack — you’re continuing a rhythm that’s been rolling for over a century.

Because some sounds never fade. They just find new tracks to roll on.

Image: Rail Yard Pool Table