Horns in the distance

[m sharp]

My Grandmother owned a farm in Michigan, 10 miles as the crow flies south and southeast of the Grand Trunk Western mainline thru Belview. Only twice were the weather conditions just perfect as a train blew through town and I could distinctly hear it.
Had I lived there, instead of train-abundant northwest Indiana, I'm sure I would have heard them more often. I bellieve that having no auto traffic to speak of within miles contributed to being able to hear at such a distance.

[CSXrules4eva]

I live approx: four miles from the nearest freight mainline. Norfolk Southeren's Harrisburg Division. This portion of the mainline goes through Fort Washington which is the same distance from my house. Sometimes I hear real late at night or eairly in the morning a nice long train horn in the distance. Which is interesting because, there isn't a grade crossing for miles but, there is a railroad tressle that crosses over 309. But, I still don't see why they would sound the horn. I also hear sounds comming from Septa's mainlines the R7 and the R8 late at night or eairly in the morring. I really don't understand why they would sound their horns either since there are no grade crossings what so ever. I think that maybe they sometimes do it to warn tresspassers or something. Other than this it is really plesent to hear a long train horn in the still wee hours of the morning or the late hours of the night.

[TimChgo9]

I hear horns and trains all day, everyday. I live about 500 yards north of CP LaGrange in LaGrange, IL, (BNSF) with the IHB right behind my building, the IHB is about 100 feet from the back of my building. In the past I have lived across the street from the BNSF, and up until I moved here, UP's Proviso Yard was a mile to my north, and the CN's Freeport Sub was about 3/4 mile south (ex-ICG Freeport sub)...... you could hear the yard activity, and squealing brakes, horns, and everything on any given night, esp if the wind was from the north.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jchnhtfd

For myself, I know the distances are accurate. However, I should add that the weather conditions had to be 'just right' for me to hear the horns and engines that far off, and 'just right' meant warm air over the high ground and mountains and cooler air in the valley (not that unusual in Vermont!). This quite literally bends the sound waves over the mountain or whatever. Also, the background noise had to be almost non-existent -- but in that part of Vermont in those days (we're talking 30 years ago here!) it was.

oh, mayber that's true, since sound wave can bend over buildings in special circumstance, so in your case the sound climber up first, then when enters the hotter upper air, it refracted and then bounced back to ground again, like this sorta of way? and it must be went thru a valley or so, such that the rocks will also bounce back all the refraction waves ?
maybe vermont is very quiet 30 years ago? can you still hear it now? I live in Toronto, where...hmmm,, the noise is pretty much high level comparing to vermont. It's also noticed that train horn has difficulties to climb over highways like 401 or so.....
maybe, the only reason for horn to be heard this far (in your case about 10km) will due to the constant reflection between any airlayer that acted likd a tunnel to allow horn wave to travel without refraction too much ....

since by direct computing, a 100db sound will lose much energy and at distance 4km, only 35db level remains...

[tree68]

On days when things are just right, I've heard trains blowing for crossings across the St Lawrence River.

Here at work, we get the occasional visit from the local delivering coal and other stuff, which provides sporadic music. The power plant people shuffle full and empty hoppers around, also providing some music, and the power plant's RC switcher usually provides two or three toots before advancing the next car through the unloader. Can't hear it from my desk, but I sure enjoy it when I'm outside.

[jchnhtfd]

For myself, I know the distances are accurate. However, I should add that the weather conditions had to be 'just right' for me to hear the horns and engines that far off, and 'just right' meant warm air over the high ground and mountains and cooler air in the valley (not that unusual in Vermont!). This quite literally bends the sound waves over the mountain or whatever. Also, the background noise had to be almost non-existent -- but in that part of Vermont in those days (we're talking 30 years ago here!) it was.

[Anonymous]

I don't think people measured distance very accuratly, since I did extensive measurment about distance and train horn. As where I live, Scarborough , Canada, the CP rail running across markham road will horn it's 5 flute horn regularly, thus I did a measure, and came to a conclusion:
withink distance 2.7km, the train horn is very clear but not that loud, and at distance 4.2km, the horn is so faint, that one can't hear it unless it's super quiet( which I spent a night to listen at and only caught a very faint horn, almost inhearable), thus I doubt that people here claim that they can hear horn within 5 miles(which is 8km) will be accurate.

actually those of you who claimed about distance is very inaccurate, since I've asked my friends to look at my map or just estimate the distance from their home to some shop, all of them did an inaccurate measurment, mostly likely claiming 3km only for a 1km long distance, one person even claim the rail is about 3km away, but actually it turns out that it's indeed only 900m. oops...

so people, I think you 'd better look at maps.google.com, take a scaler and measure it according to the map scalar where clearly stated the distance. Since I am very curious about how far you can hear the horns tooo.. but my experiment shows that even during a quiet night, you can only be able to detect at 4.2km distance.

another experiment I did is about to measure a direct in-sight sound source, besides the ontario lake, the toronto island airport once has a f-15 fighter taking off in sight, the typical fighter jet taking off is about 110db (much higher than any train horns), but within sight(yes, I can clearly watch it taking off, since it's all lake, and nothing else, sound could've gone thru very well ,without obstacles), I can't ,can't hear any thing about it,... then back home, drag out my map, I measured the distance which is only 6km,(around 3.75miles).

so measure it with maps, like maps.google.com, and tell me the real results, I am very curious about the distance of horns too.

cheers!

[Tharmeni]

Well, with a speed of 20 mph and (usually) 3-5 cars, I doubt the diesels are at a notch 8 on the Seminole Gulf. But they usually run (when they run) at 10 a.m. or so and I-75 is pretty noisy then. However, I can't hear I-75 then either and it's 3 miles off.
The Seminole Gulf is a long way from the days of ACL's crack Fort Myers-NYC trains.

[jchnhtfd]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Tharmeni

jchnhtfd - That's very impressive, being able to "hear" the GP-9s! I have a question about all this:

I have I-75 between me and the Seminole Gulf. Isn't that likely to keep me from hearing any train horns? Any sound engineers out there?

It sounds better than it was! First place, Vermont was pretty quiet in those days; second, I was pretty familiar with those engines; third, the GP-9s just don't sound the same as the RS-11s and it had to be either one or the other (well... we did have the odd run through power from CN) (sometimes very odd -- but that's another story!) -- and fourth and most important, a northbound on that stretch of track is working very hard indeed; it's notch 8 all the way from Randolph to Roxbury!

I'm no sound engineer, but I would think that I-75 might well mask most of the sound; whether it's enough to mask the horns, I couldn't say. But you probably won't hear the diesels (pity).

[Tharmeni]

jchnhtfd - That's very impressive, being able to "hear" the GP-9s! I have a question about all this:

I have I-75 between me and the Seminole Gulf. Isn't that likely to keep me from hearing any train horns? Any sound engineers out there?

[jchnhtfd]

Years ago we lived in Vermont, on the other side of a mountain range east of the CV line from Randolph to Montpelier. About 5 miles closest distance. On a really good night we could not only hear the horns, but I could tell whether the lashup was all GP-9s or whether one of our stalwart RS-11s was in the mix... but Vermont in those days was a real quiet place.

[Anonymous]

I live about two miles away from the NS yard in town. The variety of horns and apparent whistling styles is pretty neat to listen to... and I can tell when some idiot is playing beat the train across the crossing!

Erik

[Murphy Siding]

I've got the windows open now, and I can hear a horn now. [^] A typical train running through town goes through 11 grade crossings, all within perhaps 3 miles of my house![:)]

[railfan619]

I live with in a mile or so from 5 grade crossings and everytime a train comes though I hear the trains blowing their horns and sometimes they can be loud from time to time and other times they can be really quite

[JoeKoh]

I live north of town.if we get a breeze other than from a northly direction I can hear them come through town.
stay safe
joe

[Tharmeni]

Trainfreak409 - really? You can hear 'em that far away? Maybe there is hope after all. Still silence here, though and it's likely because the Seminoe Gulf is very inactive and the right of way is mostly weeds now.

[pat390]

I'm about 1 mile from the CN main and 2 from the NS ex nickle plate and I get to hear them both loud and clear especially at night

[TrainFreak409]

I live about twenty to twenty-five minutes from the closest railroad tracks. When the wind is blowing just right, usually after sunset, I can hear the locomotives in the distance.[8D]

[Anonymous]

Well I live by I-80 and on a very silent day you can here Metra.

[Anonymous]

it looks like I will be moving with in once block of the Central Oregon and Pacific Main in Creswell, Oregon. They have UP trains running through there all the time down at least to Cottage Grove, Oregon to pick up all the lumber that is milled down here. It is pretty cool to see a UP Gevo Engine Splitting the Semaphores on that line! I just need to have my camera with me!!
Brad

[Jordan6]

QUOTE: Originally posted by blhanel

On a good night (quiet evening with a south wind) I can hear the UP transcon from my house, which is six miles north with many hills in between, so there's hope!

My grandparents live in Van Horne and usually you can hear them blowing for Blairstown. Thats about seven miles away! What's weird is that when I'm in the cab of some dash 9's, you can barely hear it, but you also got 4400hp+ right behind your seat.

[robscaboose]

I chose the location of my new home on what my scanner could pick up & the fact that I was in pleasant ear shot of 3 crossing on the old NYC Big Four Line.

[Tharmeni]

I believe this is the first time in my life that I've lived in a location that has no train sounds of any kind. I grew up in South Indianapolis and could hear (and see) IC steamers from my house. Also could hear the Pennsylvania leaving Indy for Louisville. But this is a bit depressing. I'm still hoping that on some nice, crisp still night, I will hear the Seminole Gulf.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

As mentioned elsewhere, I'm about a mile south of Clearing's bi-directional hump and about two miles east of the IHB. I hear CSX horns routinely from the Clearing intermodal terminal and can often hear horns from the IHB and occasionally from Metra's Southwest line (about two miles south).

[fuzzybroken]

The Canadian Pacific (old Milwaukee Road) runs about 1/4 mile east of me, with a grade crossing 1/4 mile north. I can regularly hear the horns blowing, despite the desire for a quiet zone at the crossing!

-Mark
www.fuzzyworld3.com

[Trailryder]

I live 5 miles north (all uphill) of Nelson yard on the UP overland route. and I can hear every train if I am listening.

It's nice to listen to the scanner and hear the horns in the background.

if you find that you are out of range you could always order the "Diesel Airhorn Primer II" available on DVD or VHS only $25 from Deiselairhorns.com
LOL

Later Bill

[Murphy Siding]

My home and office are within 3 blocks of the tracks. I can hear trains 24 hours a day. Up until last year, an active line ran through the parking lot at work. [:D]

[blhanel]

On a good night (quiet evening with a south wind) I can hear the UP transcon from my house, which is six miles north with many hills in between, so there's hope!

[Tharmeni]

It appears that with my latest move, I now live beyond the range of any train horns, whistles or bells. The closest railroad is more than six miles away and it is the very infrequent Seminole Gulf (ex-ACL) - but I've never been able to hear it from my home.
I suspect a lot of the posters on this board have the same situation, huh? It's kinda sad.