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The Baby Train is a popular urban legend, told in the United States, United Kingdom 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.

The story is related to the rumor that birth rates spiked nine months after the Northeast Blackout of 1965, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and certain natural disasters and similar events.

Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand published a book The Baby Train & Other Lusty Urban Legends in 1993.

References

• Brunvand, Jan Harold (1993). The Baby Train and Other Lusty Urban Legends. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393034387. OCLC 25508604.