Do you know of any videos where we can hear the sound of that many relays? I believe i've heard sounds similar to what you are describing in movies, but I'm not sure if those were the same thing, or if they were accurate.
Nice find - now imagine a machine room for a bank of 10 elevators :)
When I was a kid my father worked for Southern Bell. I used to go in with him on trouble calls to the local office and it was a building full of rows and rows of relays like those. Smelled awesome.
Search YouTube for "relay computer" for an example.