Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
WHAT ONE COMMUNITY DID ABOUT LOUD TRAIN HORNS. In Parsons, Kansas the Union Pacific installed horn devices on their signal poles for the motorist to be warned of an on coming train. The engineer on the engine does not have to sound his horn. The horn on the street pole will sound when the crossing lights start flashing. A cross arm guard also comes down. The horn makes a different sound that is somewhat of a dull sounding train horn. The pole horn (for a lack of a better term and keeps is it simple) does not penetrate the surrounding neighborhoods like a regular horn on an engine. A strobe light on the pole will fla***o alert the engineer that the horn on the pole signal is functioning properly. If the strobe does not fla***he engineer can use his train horn. The streets in Parsons that use the pole horns are the Crawford Street and Appleton Street grade crossings. Appleton is about four tenths of a mile south of Crawford. The Crawford and Appleton crossings also have cross arms to block traffic. The Union Pacific line (formerly the Katy) dissects the middle of Parsons in a north-south line. The downtown area is just to the east of the tracks. http://www.parsonsks.com/ The change came about in the early 1990’s when a city commissioner was standing in his yard talking to a neighbor and was interrupted several times by a train horn. He lived about two blocks from the railroad tracks. The commissioner investigated and found there were other devices to warn motorist of on coming trains. In an agreement with the city and the railroad with both sharing the cost and the railroad installed the less offensive horns. One note to this though is the fact the Union Pacific has slow moving trains going through Parsons as it is a crew change point. The north side of Crawford Street is where the crew change point exists. The railroad also does a lot of switching in Parsons going back and forth across the Crawford Street crossing many times during the day and night. The railroad recently built another set of parallel tracks to its mainline for switching purposes so the mainline could be freed up more. Coal trains cross Crawford about 75 yards to the east of the mainline and then merges with the mainline. They have their own separate crossing signals.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag