I am not new to HO modeling but I am new to DCC. I now have several new diesels with DCC and sound. Aside from grade crossing horn blasts does anyone know the current rules for other horn signals and bell use? I sent a message to MR workshop as I thought this might make for an interesting topic for discussion. Thanks Pete
You can probably just search for "horn signals" and come up with a list. By the way the list is era dependent.
Here is one list.
http://www.up.com/aboutup/funstuff/horn_signals/
Very few people I know use prototypical horn signals because the model trains are operating on such short distances and speeds such that it is tough to give the signals before you are supposed to stop giving the signal.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Hi, Horn signals typically used today are the 2 long 1 short 1 long for grade crossing ( -- -- - ---), 1 long for appraoching a station whether stopping or not, 2 short for starting forward from a standing start and 3 short for backing up from a standing start. The bell is used during movement in yards, passing through station areas (stopping or not) and also over grade crossings and through work areas. Another signal used is several short blasts warning trespassers to get off the tracks.
Normal yard switching doesn't require the use of horn or bell signals.The rule was change.Now only when you first move and the bell must be used around shops and other areas where workers are present.Also locals are not required to sound their horns in normal switching moves exception being road or street crossings.
Theres no longer a need to sound horns for a signal..I doubt if the DS will hear you since he's hundreds of miles away.No need to whistle in the flagman today either since there isn't any.Just like whistling to apply or release brakes.There's no longer brakemen riding the tops of cars to apply or release the train brakes by hand.
Also the use of radios ended a lot of signaling.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
The bell is often rung when backing up during a move like setting out or picking up a car. Some sound decoders have a setting where the bell rings automatically anytime the engine is in reverse. The bell normally would be sounded when pulling into or departing from a station.
wjstixThe bell is often rung when backing up during a move like setting out or picking up a car.
There is so many "good neighbor" policies from the PR department it seems like engineers only sound horns or bells when required to do so by the operating rules.
I was watching a crew switching out Transco and the only whistling was a short toot-toot and short bell ring as the engine near the crossing-the gates was down.
I've notice that a lot lately.
Don't know if there was lots of complaints or what.
BRAKIEDon't know if there was lots of complaints or what.
Of course there were. Its the same everywhere. Someone moves into a new house next to the airport and then complains about the noise. A friend of mine moved into a house that was 500 ft from the town dump. He is constantly complaining about the truck trafic and smell. I keep telling him not to complain (birch). The dump was there for sixty years before his house was.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
A friend of mine lived in a development with the name "Pacific" in it. I was talking to one of his neighbors who said that the real estate agent told them the railroad tracks behind his house were a "branch line". The Pacific in the name came from Pacific Jct on the UP were the a branch did break off of the UP, so they sorta told the truth, but the other two tracks were the transcontinental main most track of the UP. Details, details.
dehusmanThe Pacific in the name came from Pacific Jct on the UP were the a branch did break off of the UP, so they sorta told the truth, but the other two tracks were the transcontinental main most track of the UP. Details, details.
As Rodney Dangerfield would say..That's a two story house..They tell you one story before you move in and and another story after you move in..
Right up Dave's alley, you should have heard all the moaning and complaining when they reopened a portion of the W&N to the H&K quarry.
Prospective homeowner: Hmm, but there are railroad tracks right in my back yard
Real estate agent: Yes, but they don't run trains here any more
So fun, people complain, so they set quiet zones, no blowing for crossings. Then some idiot runs around the gates and gets killed, and it's "Train runs down motorist" Of course, if they were too stupid to see the gate barring their way, and the flashing red lights - then I doubt they would have heard the horn, either.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinker Right up Dave's alley, you should have heard all the moaning and complaining when they reopened a portion of the W&N to the H&K quarry. Prospective homeowner: Hmm, but there are railroad tracks right in my back yard Real estate agent: Yes, but they don't run trains here any more So fun, people complain, so they set quiet zones, no blowing for crossings. Then some idiot runs around the gates and gets killed, and it's "Train runs down motorist" Of course, if they were too stupid to see the gate barring their way, and the flashing red lights - then I doubt they would have heard the horn, either. --Randy
Because the media makes it sound like freight trains go driving down streets looking for something to hit.
You are right though! The horn blasts at grade crossings seem to be getting less and less. The KCS main line by me does very fast and quick horn blasts, and past 9 pm they don't use the horn because of some condo's built right next to the main line.
We had a yard engineer who always left the bell ringing when he went inside to get a cup of coffee. I called him Quasimodo. He was restricted to fireman because he couldn't see over 5 car lengths and after they set him back up after the merger, his fireman always ran the engine for him. Reason for the bell, so he could find the engine again in the dark. His wife drove him to work and picked him up.
Charlie
Personally if I was in charge of a railroad and someone moves in next to my railroad and starts complaining about the noise I would be blunt.
"You did see those tracks when you looked at the house."
"Didn't you research the area?"
"The horns are for safety, they save lives."
"The railroad was here long before your house or you."
"You still have a problem? I don't care, move somewhere else and have more common sense!"
Kyle,In this day and age railroads strive to be "good neighbors" and work with the NIMBYs that buys a house by the tracks.Its these NIMBYs that files a class action lawsuit trying to end the noise sighting "property devaluation" among other things. Some times the NIMBYs win some times they loose..
The news media will make the railroad a vile evil big corporate villain and the NIMBYs as innocent victims..
Kyle.
i work for an aggregate producer that has seven pits and quarries. Next to one pit an new developement went up with very expensive houses. Shortly after some residents petitioned the town to make the area a quiet zone. We spent hundred of thousands of dollars to put up fencing, sound deadening panels around the crushers, spray bars for dust control, and tire wash/ truck wash facilities. They still complained and tried to get a court injunction to make us remove the goverment mandated back up alarms and excavator movement alarms. Since the Mine Safety and Health department would seriously fine us for non functioning alarms the injunction stalled. The home owners went back to the town and at a town meeting I asked who my widow can sue if I get run over by a vehicle reversing without an alarm? Im sure the town counsel could be held personaly responsible for it. The names and addresses of the complainers too. Funny how that shut them up.
Funny how things calm down when you threaten to hit them in the wallets.
Their complaint and the people complainign should have been tossed out on their heads the first time they came in complaining. They were the idiots who chose to buy a house contrcuted near a quarry after said quarry was already in operation.
Similar happened near here, with a gun club. Gun club dates to the 40's. People built houses near it in the 90's, then tried to complain about the noise from the shooting. They were told to get out and quit complaining, the gun club had already been there for 50 years and it was their choice to build there.