Train Engineers - Is blowing the horn a choice?

[Hisgirl]

I live near a train track and I'm truly curious about the horn blowing. We live in a populated suburb and in the middle of the night, some of the trains come through town, riding parallel to the main road, blowing their horn constantly. Long constant blows, over and over and over. Where they are blowing, the train is just entering the neighborhoods and down below the road. No crossings.

Other trains come through and only blow a short blast every now and then.

And in the middle of the night, this bedroom community....is in bed.

I'm curious if the engineers have a specific protoco of when to blow, or it's up to them? Do you think some engineers get a kick out of waking everybody up? It does seem to be all over the place.

I've never known an engineer. Would love to learn more about this.

 

[JaxDad]

It depends on whether a Quiet Zone has been established…
https://railroads.dot.gov/highway-r...orn-rulequiet-zones/train-horn-rule-and-quiet

 

[Hisgirl]

Fascinating!

 

[ronandannette]

My sister lived for many years in a neighbourhood with a train situation just like you describe. We visited a lot and it was impossible for us to get a decent night's sleep there, ever. Ironically, when she was unexpectedly widowed, she came to live with us and for the longest time, she missed that nighttime train horn. She said it was too quiet to sleep here.

 

[mousefan73]

my grandpa was a train guy... trains are required to blow at crossings depending on laws, approaching rail contruction sites and if they see animals, humans near tracks or other dangers. they just dont blow to annoy people. Some trains ( here in europe) also can make different sounding horns... a short, fast, multiple ones are used when bypassing stops to warn those on the platform. Longer-louder ones as a real warning.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

It can depend directly on the crossing not only with respects to the zone but also what safety measures are available. The horn is intended to alert those around. Are you sure there aren't any crossings nearby?

In my area there's more silent crossings but that also takes money because they need to beef up the crossing itself to increase the safety of it. A neighborhood a few years back banded together and paid the money (which it's not cheap) to get a crossing near them to be a silent one.

I can still hear a train mostly at night (which is when I'd be more likely to see it being needed with the darkness) so there's at least one non-silent crossing.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

humans near tracks

Yeah sad thing is people don't pay attention to trains and sometimes they intentionally go on the track. Last week on a track close enough to my house a person committed suicide by train not in a car but just being on the track/walking in front of the train (it impacted 3 different railroad crossings with the train being stopped during the investigation)

 

[shinysparklybubbles]

We always joke you can tell when they are having a bad day because it’s extra loud lived near the tracks my whole life.

 

[tvguy]

Train horns and trains rumbling on the tracks can be heard miles away depending on the wind. I live about 10 miles from the railyard and with a north wind you can hear the horns and the rumble. Always funny to see people complaining on NextDoor and Facebook about hearing the horns. Doesn't help that there are also a few people with pickups with train like horns on them.
Our light rail system was able to get an exemption to horns blowing and instead use bells. I stay frequently in Chatsworth in Los Angeles county and their light rail system uses train horns. They really are loud in such a heavily developed area.

 

[ronandannette]

Train horns and trains rumbling on the tracks can be heard miles away depending on the wind. I live about 10 miles from the railyard and with a north wind you can hear the horns and the rumble. Always funny to see people complaining on NextDoor and Facebook about hearing the horns. Doesn't help that there are also a few people with pickups with train like horns on them.
Our light rail system was able to get an exemption to horns blowing and instead use bells. I stay frequently in Chatsworth in Los Angeles county and their light rail system uses train horns. They really are loud in such a heavily developed area.

I was wondering about this. The regulations here must be different. Our light-rail transit uses no warning horns/bells at all. The tracks are fenced-in and every, single level-crossing in the city has arms that come down and flashing lights with "clangers". You could not possibly accidentally miss them. The regular railroad tracks run right along side and are within the same warning/safety system. Curious why they still blow their horns while transit doe not.

 

[Boopuff]

I grew up in a "train town" even if you were only going a short distance, the morning/evening commuter trains would clog up traffic. So many people killed trying to catch trains. We always knew someone was crossing illegally since the horns would blow, and blow. Express trains always blow their horns since they barrel through. Moved away and now live in peaceful, train free world.

 

[RedAngie]

I've never known an engineer. Would love to learn more about this.

Going to derail this thread a bit. Ha ha.

When I was a kid I thought that my uncle who was a (chemical) engineer drove a train. Choo Choo!!

I live about 5 miles from the Northeast Corridor train tracks and can occasionally hear the horn.

 

[QueenIsabella]

I grew up near train tracks, and find the sounds of the trains to be comforting. When we lived in upstate NY, you could hear the trains on Sunday mornings, when the air was still. We were ~15 miles from Schenectady/Amsterdam, which had stations for passenger trains, as well as freight trains passing through.

Our current location doesn't have passenger trains, but there's a port and freight trains go through. Hearing them at night makes me happy! Of course, they aren't close enough to disturb my sleep, but I like the sound of them.

 

[bcla]

When I was a kid my parents somehow befriended a Santa Fe engineer who operated the daily freight on Santa Fe’s spur line from Oakland to Richmond. Even after the rails were removed, the ballast remained there for years, along with the crossing arms. Eventually this became the Ohlone Greenway.

But horns are for safety. Nobody uses them just for jollies. Too many people trespass on them. With freight trains, they can be really long and travel slowly through populated areas. That means a lot more potential for an incident.

 

[focusondisney]

Yeah sad thing is people don't pay attention to trains and sometimes they intentionally go on the track. Last week on a track close enough to my house a person committed suicide by train not in a car but just being on the track/walking in front of the train (it impacted 3 different railroad crossings with the train being stopped during the investigation)

How tragic. I always feel such compassion for anyone depressed/ desperate enough to take such a horrific act.

 

[amcnj]

There is a wide variation in blowing the horn. Some are very brief, some really hang onto it a really long time. And while they are already in the intersection with the gates down.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

How tragic. I always feel such compassion for anyone depressed/ desperate enough to take such a horrific act.

Me too, it's devastating on many levels

 

[kanne323]

The train track is about 400 feet from my home. Close enough to hear everything and close enough that the whole building shakes. The tracks are fenced in on both sides except at the crossings, which have the arms that come down with lights flashing.

It seems like Amtrak starts blowing the horn on the way into town a few miles away, and stays on the horn through the entire town. The freight trains do not sound the horn every time they come through. I don't know what determines it for them- if they see something, or what. But Amtrak sounds their horns furiously, over and over and over again.

I've lived near trains for 20 years, but this is the closest. I know the train runs at night, but it rarely wakes me at night. It's more bothersome when trying to have a phone conversation during the day, or when trying to watch TV. It's odd, too, as I'm an incredibly light sleeper when it comes to lighter sounds. Birds are my nemesis when it comes to sleep. A rogue seagull cry at night will immediately wake me. Freight train? Keep snoozing.

 

[mousefan73]

I commute by train and train suicides reap havoc on a congested train network. Can stop things for half a day or so.. without going into details, some cases require heavy equipment to lift part fo the train off the tracks. Here in German the statistic is that a train engineer will hit 3 people in their career. 3 deaths a day in the german network. The number of times I stood at a station and heard the announcement all trains in this direction are delayed due to " person injury".

This is Germany where there are huge train networks, in a condense area.. Then crazy thing is a high school friend's daughter got hit by a Metra train outside Chicago at a stop.. we assume trying to catch a train. Once there was a video years ago that showed a trained stopped and person ran in front to cross the tracks and didnt see another train coming due to view being blocked by the stopped train.

horrible thoughts now for the day.. but that is one reason trains have horns and use them... or the best is people in cars with gates DOWN at a crossing who decide to go around if they can - here they go a bit off road where the tracks are raised - the wheels get stuck and panic.. by then its too late.. a train at full speed just doesnt stop...

 

[QueenIsabella]

I commute by train and train suicides reap havoc on a congested train network. Can stop things for half a day or so.. without going into details, some cases require heavy equipment to lift part fo the train off the tracks. Here in German the statistic is that a train engineer will hit 3 people in their career. 3 deaths a day in the german network. The number of times I stood at a station and heard the announcement all trains in this direction are delayed due to " person injury".

This is Germany where there are huge train networks, in a condense area.. Then crazy thing is a high school friend's daughter got hit by a Metra train outside Chicago at a stop.. we assume trying to catch a train. Once there was a video years ago that showed a trained stopped and person ran in front to cross the tracks and didnt see another train coming due to view being blocked by the stopped train.

horrible thoughts now for the day.. but that is one reason trains have horns and use them... or the best is people in cars with gates DOWN at a crossing who decide to go around if they can - here they go a bit off road where the tracks are raised - the wheels get stuck and panic.. by then its too late.. a train at full speed just doesnt stop...

It's those pesky laws of physics--the train has a huge mass! Even travelling at a slow speed, the momentum is a tough thing to fight.

As a kid, accidents in our area were rare. There were a couple suicides, though.