There was an article in Mondays Minneapolis Star Tribune of people in the north metro "who live near the CP or CN tracks",,,,, complaining about more noise from increased rail traffic. Do the RRs pay one person a nice salary to answer the phones from these people? I could just imagine the replies to callers:
did you see RR tracks near your house before you bought it?
if you can't handle the noise then sell your house.
I don't think I would want to be the person answering the phone to take complaints.
Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
While I don't expect the RR to pick up and move elsewhere, it's entirely possible that when these folks moved there, there wasn't really a lot of traffic on the lines in question. Their realtor may have told them (truthfully) that there wasn't much traffic on the lines and that noise wasn't really an issue.
Similarly, someone who has lived in the area for quite a while may have experienced a reduction of traffic on the line (much to their satisfaction). They, too, might complain about newly increased traffic.
I would opine that a nicely produced brochure, and a parallel website, while not making things any "better," might help residents understand the why's of the increased traffic. Anyone who calls or writes could be sent the brochure or directed to the website.
If it's the horns they're upset about, tell 'em how to get them silenced (the price tag should put most of them off).
I wouldn't want to alienate these folks any more than they already are. Their support (or at least grudged acquiescence) could be important at some point in the future.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
And the beat goes on, and on and on, ad infinitum. People move close to the airport and complain about the noise. They move to farm country and complain about the smell of cow manure. The unwary are the ones who get trapped, but it of their own doing.
Norm
And those same people who are complaining probably drive around with their windows open so all of us can enjoy the "Music" booming from their stereos...
The phone operator should inform them that at least present-day trains don't shower the neighborhood with soot and cinders.
I have lived one fence away from a rail line used by coal burning steam. It also hosted DMU on an hourly schedule in both directions - sounded like a squadron of poorly-muffled buses. My complaint was that the fence was solid...
Chuck
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
Where I live, it's the tow planes. There's a very active cadet glider camp system for Air Cadets in Canada, with one of the camps sharing space on the Comox Air Base, directly across the road from me.. Also sharing the Base is the international airport, modest in size though it be. So, between a smallish operational airbase's traffic, a burgeoning commercial operation due to the wealth of the people who can afford to buy property here these years (oil patch retirees from Alberta and and retiring academics and professionals from all over, largely) and can afford to jet to sunnier climes, and the heat of summer with its incessant tow-plane prop cavitation blaring, each summer sees a spate of letters to the editor complaining about corrupting our peace-loving youth with military training, why don't they use catapults as they do (nowhere) else where they don't provide a solution, etc. Each year the Base Ops O, and later the B Comd, take turns telling them to get stuffed. Nicely.
The airfield was surveyed and developed just prior to the War, and heavily developed over the ensuing 20 years, even to the extent of harbouring nuclear warheads...to the horror of many. Now they find they can't enjoy their afternoon tea at their properties within 1 km of the runway. Well, gosh...who'da thunk!
When a home builder purchases a tract of land near an active set of tracks they do so in part due to the typical fact that the land is being offered at a relative "steal" due to its proximity to the tracks. No, that's not ideal for prospective home buyers...however...they most likely end up paying less for their lots and homes than if they would have been in a relatively silent and more desirable area...so they should have done their homework better and as such would not have purchased there OR they might have just the same and not likely be complaining as loudly today. It's all about cause and effect.
Here in Hilliard, Ohio, two crossings next to residential neighborhoods and a couple schools recently went to quiet zones, which explains why I haven't heard any trains for the past week. People were complaining about all of the noise, even though when going to sites that have old aerial views of the area show train tracks and open fields as recent as the 1970s. Having been through both crossings, I think it's a disaster waiting to happen. Rather than have four-quadrant gates, they have median barriers a short distance before the crossing. The way I've seen people drive, it wouldn't surprise me to see people try going around those. Also, kids from the schools use the tracks as a shortcut between the two crossings. A couple years ago, a kid wearing headphones was killed when a train came up behind him, but he never heard the horn. I just have a gut feeling that something like that is going to happen again.
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html
Yeah, I'm fixin' to raise a big ol' fuss about that myself! We live about 3/4 mile from the interstate highway, and I tell ya, that darned thing gets noisier every day. By gosh, I want them to move that darn thing. It's just too noisy.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Murphy Siding Yeah, I'm fixin' to raise a big ol' fuss about that myself! We live about 3/4 mile from the interstate highway, and I tell ya, that darned thing gets noisier every day. By gosh, I want them to move that darn thing. It's just too noisy.
Of course. if some corporation wants to finance my move....The Kepler telescope has recently found a potentially habitable planet "only" 12 light-years away; I wonder if they have something similar to trains there....
zardoz I want to complain that the entire planet is getting too noisy.
I want to complain that the entire planet is getting too noisy.
Yep! Everyone is complaining about everything all the time, even the internet hurts the ears!
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My next home will be as close to the tracks as possible. I don't mind the noise. I grew up not far from the tracks and have good memories of hearing trains rolling through the night. The good thing too is that homes closer to the tracks are a little cheaper ..most people don't want to be that close, and that drives prices down.
Ulrich My next home will be as close to the tracks as possible. I don't mind the noise. I grew up not far from the tracks and have good memories of hearing trains rolling through the night. The good thing too is that homes closer to the tracks are a little cheaper ..most people don't want to be that close, and that drives prices down.
I like trains, too, but I would rather not wake up with a hopper car in my kitchen. I also wouldn't want to live adjacent to a major highway for similar reasons (substitute tractor trailer for hopper car).
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
Oh, I grew up (well, there are many who will attest to that being a lie, I never really grew up) just west of the junction of DL&W's Boonton and Morristown lines in Denville, NJ on the hill on the westbound side minimum of two electric MU trains an hour plus diesel after steam mainline passenger and freights, local drills and Boonton LIne commuter trains. Slept like a log every night except for one early morning when the towerman dropped the signal in the face of a train and the horn blowing in my back window was loud...very loud. Also my grandparents lived in Jamaica, Queens, NY halfway between the Jamaica Aveune BMT elevated and the Long Island RR station. I also slept well there. Today, however, in Denville, the sounds lifting up from I 80 are louder and more constant than any time from the railroad trains Today's din is more dangerous to sleep and psyche in one day than any given month of railroad trains.
zugmannI also wouldn't want to live adjacent to a major highway for similar reasons (substitute tractor trailer for hopper car).
When I visit Deshler, I camp at the park. The trains blowing for the crossings don't bother me as much as the racket of the diamonds, although the cars squealing through the transfers (wyes) at 3 AM isn't all that conducive for sleep, either.
I grew up about a half mile from the C&O Saginaw line, with five crossings through town. Never bothered me.
For three years, I lived in Wesson, Mississippi, across the street from the IC's main line, and a little more than a block south of the station. Some people complained about the engineer on #25 blowing the horn about 3:30 in the morning after the mail had been worked, but I never noticed it. There was a crossover right in front of my house, but the passage of cars over the frogs did not wake me (I could count the cars on #1, as it went south about ten at night, though).
I do not know what my wife would have said about the trains at night (I was not married then), but she did complain about the noise on the through street which was one house west of where we lived for almost thirty-eight years, especially in the summer and we would have the bedroom window open..
Where I live now has little traffic, day or night, and the only thing I hear is my alarm clock as it tells me that I really should get up and get going.
Johnny
There's a nice hotel in Grand Falls, New Brunswick (Canada) called the Pres du Lac (French for near the lake). Over the years some people have called it the Pres du Tracks (near the tracks). No kidding. Really nice place, but if you stay the night and are unaware of the tracks then at around 2:00 am you'd be in for quite a surprise.
Maybe the railroads should give these people cab rides. Might alter the peoples' perspectives.
BoydI know, we need maglev freight trains with rubber knuckle couplers. No more click clack,, no more banging when switching cars.
Or deaf and mute neighbours.
In my experience, if a house in the US meets federally mandated standards for insulation it blocks most noise. (One well-known architect suggested interior walls should have burlap surfaces and fiberglass bats between studs, separate studs each side,offset from each other.)
The automotive industry has figured out how to make virtually soundproof vehicles. When will the housing industry catch up?
Of course, we could move all rail and road traffic into underground tunnels - and then be faced with complaints from worms, moles and prairie dogs...
Ulrich There's a nice hotel in Grand Falls, New Brunswick (Canada) called the Pres du Lac (French for near the lake). Over the years some people have called it the Pres du Tracks (near the tracks). No kidding. Really nice place, but if you stay the night and are unaware of the tracks then at around 2:00 am you'd be in for quite a surprise.
There's a nice empty lot next to a couple of old mill ponds in my old hometown. Shopping center within walking distance and downtown, now full of "boutique" shops and restaurants, is just a short walk away as well. The only catch is that it's hard by the CSX Saginaw sub, and not far from a crossing, so northbounds would be lettin' 'er rip as they passed the hotel that would otherwise be perfectly located there.
I'd be asking for a room with a view of the tracks...
As an aside, the lot was once home to one of Henry Ford's "Village Industries," which is why old-timers still refer to it as the "carburetor plant." Younger folks remember it as a Kelsey-Hayes facility.
"As an aside, the lot was once home to one of Henry Ford's "Village Industries," which is why old-timers still refer to it as the "carburetor plant."
You just made me feel old.
Ah Norm - the average age on this forum is "old"....
I have a house picked out - 100 years old and in very good condition. Very small - but we are used to small. It sits right at the bottom of the elevation for the lead in and out of the yard. 6 tracks on the lead. Carl and Houston Ed would know where it is since they have both been right across the street from it.
Only problem is - the lady living there doesn't look like she is interested in moving. Maybe she would rent, at least me, one room? Driver can visit!
I've camped at a state park next to the tracks a few times, and I always wake up when a train goes by. I can tell (within a category of prime mover and unit train or not) what the power and cargo are. I don't get out of my sleeping bag, so I stay warm, and listen to the mechanical music...
When I was a student I lived in an apartment that was directly under final approach at Montreal airport. You get used to jets flying 700 feet over your head every 10 minutes...But its a funny thing...if a neighbour played his music a bit too loud I'd get severely *** off. Go figure..
Ulrich When I was a student I lived in an apartment that was directly under final approach at Montreal airport. You get used to jets flying 700 feet over your head every 10 minutes...But its a funny thing...if a neighbour played his music a bit too loud I'd get severely *** off. Go figure..
Their are some of us that just enjoy trains remembering staying in Rawlins WY and asking the motel clerk for a room track side all he said another rail fan enjoy the trains and I got my room track side.
Can you imagine how hotels and motels must like guests who thank them for railroad sounds instead of complaining about them?
herdebu Their are some of us that just enjoy trains remembering staying in Rawlins WY and asking the motel clerk for a room track side all he said another rail fan enjoy the trains and I got my room track side.
NorthWest: I know well the mechanical music of which you speak, especially in the middle of the night. CSX's former B&O main line makes a huge S curve running alongside the Cuyahoga as it passes through my Ohio town, with trains blowing their horns for a crossing some blocks away. There are nights one can guess whether the approaching train is east or west bound, what the likely consist is (empty auto racks or a heavy coal train), the probable model number of the Nathan Chime Horn, and almost who is working the third trick out of New Castle or Willard. Some nights in the summer, with our windows open, it almost seems as if the engine and train are about to enter the house! Then comes the long fade into the distance of the sound as the train hurries on its way and I quickly fall back to sleep.
My family lived in the 1950's next door, and I mean next door, to the NKP double-track mainline in East Cleveland, where the Berkshires and diesels pulled long, heavy trains at speed past our house day and night. We were awaked only on our first night in that house. After that, we never heard 'em. Rather like my experience these days.
Music indeed.
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